Paper short abstract:

This intervention explores the consequences of understanding s a set of exchange relations rather than as articulations of sovereignty

Paper long abstract:

'What happens to our understanding of the state if we begin to approach is through the lens of exchange relations, that is, from analytical lenses normally associated with economic anthropology? In this presentation I suggest that while political anthropology and a focus on sovereignty and everyday state formation has brought important new insights, we would do well in considering the state from the point of view of exchange relations. To make this point, I draw on material from fieldwork in slum areas in the Philippines and in South Africa'.