It has landed for all your holiday needs.  I have a chapter in the new book “Anthropologists in the SecurityScape” now available from Amazon.

Description

As the military and intelligence communities re-tool for the 21st century, the long and contentious debate about the role of social scientists in national security environments is dividing the disciplines with renewed passion. Yet, research shows that most scholars have a weak understanding of what today’s security institutions actually are and what working in them entails. This book provides an essential new foundation for the debate, with fine-grained accounts of the complex and varied work of cultural, physical, and linguistic anthropologists and archaeologists doing security-related work in governmental and military organizations, the private sector, and NGOs. In candid and provocative dialogues, leading anthropologists interrogate the dilemmas of ethics in practice and professional identity. Anthropologists in the SecurityScape is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand or influence the relationship between anthropology and security in the twenty-first century.

Editorial Reviews

“A gripping read through a charged yet respectful high-stakes conversation about the position of anthropological work in the security sector. Anthropologists in the SecurityScape is packed with personal stories from anthropologists working in a wide range of roles both in and around the military and other defense and security institutions. The contributors’ distinct voices shine through: teachers and trainers, humanitarian workers and intelligence analysts, religious scholars and cultural resource managers along with many others. They reveal the tensions faced in their encounters with those in the “securityscape” as well as with colleagues in the anthropological community. This book excels in achieving the dialogical potential of anthropological work. It promises to challenge and extend understanding of the motivations and realities of engagement – as well as non-engagement – with the security sector. More broadly, it raises questions relevant to anthropological work with consequential institutions of all kinds. Anyone invested in informing a public anthropology is sure to learn from this book.”
—Melissa Cefkin, Author of “Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter

“This engaging and important casebook explores the dynamics of how, when, why and under what conditions and with what risks, anthropologists have engaged with the large and expanding security apparatus of the United States. The collection is broad, interesting and could not be more timely.”
—Paul Rabinow, University of California, Berkeley

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AT VERA INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE

Center on Youth Justice
The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit organization that combines expertise in research, technical assistance, and demonstration projects to assist leaders in government and civil society, examine justice policy and practice, and improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety. Vera has offices in New York City, Washington, DC, and New Orleans, and its projects and reform initiatives, typically conducted in partnership with local, state, or national officials, are located across the United States and around the world. Vera is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace.

Vera’s Center on Youth Justice (CYJ) promotes the well-being and safety of youth, families, and communities by working with government to make juvenile justice systems equitable and humane in policy and practice. CYJ combines research, planning, and technical assistance with substantive expertise in juvenile justice to inform and facilitate the work of policymakers and practitioners nationwide.

Vera’s Center on Youth Justice seeks a Senior Research Associate to assume a leadership role in the management of upcoming projects.

Responsibilities

Reporting directly to the Center’s Research Leadership, the Senior Research Associate will work initially on commencing a research project focused on the impact of policing policy on young people in New York City. The responsibilities in this project will include the following.

• Conducting qualitative interviews with and collecting survey data from diverse populations in disadvantaged neighborhoods;
• Frequent communication with project stakeholders;
• Ethnographic research;
• Supervision of staff conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis; and
• Report writing and editing, with frequent presentation of research results to a range of project stakeholders.

The position also requires the Senior Research Associate to work closely with other Center staff to plan and build additional research projects around the Center’s core areas of work.

Qualifications

Candidates must possess the following.

• Experience conducting applied research on juvenile and criminal justice issues;
• Strong research design and methodological skills;
• Prior field work/ethnography experience, especially with young people and diverse populations;
• Knowledge in the field of policing;
• Excellent presentation and communication skills, and the ability to work with a range of stakeholders, including staff at nonprofit community organizations, other researchers, and high-level government employees;
• Project management and supervisory experience, preferably with multiple projects that have involved research with human subjects;
• PhD in a social science with at least two years relevant work experience or a masters degree with at least five years relevant experience working in applied research settings; and
• Interest in social justice, commitment to fairness, and a demonstrated knowledge of juvenile/criminal justice issues.

Compensation

Commensurate with experience, excellent benefits.

To Apply

Please submit cover letter and resume.

Online submission is preferred.

http://vera.theresumator.com/apply/uViVBo/Senior-Research-Associate.html?source=ETHN

However, if necessary, materials may be mailed or faxed to:

ATTN: Human Resources / CYJ Senior Research Associate Recruitment

Vera Institute of Justice
233 Broadway, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10279
Fax: (212) 941-9407

Please use only one method of submission (online, mail, or fax). No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

The Vera Institute of Justice values diversity and is an equal opportunity employer.

For more information about Vera and the Center on Youth Justice visit our website at www.vera.org

I lived in Thailand as a young Peace Corps Volunteer in the early 1980s.  To learn Thai, I would go into small local restaurants where I would sit at a table.   As a lone single foreigner, my presence raised curiosity of the people working at the restaurants, or other patrons.  Oftentimes is was a 30 or 40 year old woman who owned the stall, and made their living selling bowls of noodle soup.  Quite there were teenage girls in their late teens, or early twenties also working there, i.e. my age at the time.  I learned much of my Thai in such situations, often in the context of a conversation that went something like this:

Me:  Could I please have a bowl of noodle soup?

Them: You mean you even speak Thai!!!

Me: (modestly) Yes, yes, a little bit.

Them: You speak Thai really really well!  Where are you from?

Me: I’m from America.

Them: Ooh that’s interesting.  We see American movies.  Did you know you look just like a movie star????  (accompanied with teenage tittering).

Me (modestly):  Well, yes, I’ve heard that before (i.e. the previous time I sat down at a restaurant like this).

Them:  You have golden colored hair, just like Robert Redford!!! (more teenage tittering).

Me (with more humility):  Well yes, I guess so….

Some form of this conversation took place probably a couple hundred times during my three years in Thailand in the early 1980s.  In fact, it took place with most of the Peace Corps guys who had long noses, and hair that wasn’t’ black, including the bald ones.  It was the starter for a great deal of conversation, fun, and flirtatiousness.  Not to mention, it was the context for much of the Thai language we eventually learned.

Anyway, I returned to Thailand in June 2011 with hopes of reliving the glory of thirty years ago. I even brought along my wife of 24 years to show it how it was done—and how lucky she is to have married a guy who looks just like Robert Redford.

First restaurant:

Me: Could I have a bowl of noodle soup?

Them:  Sure.  Do you want something to drink with that?

Me:  Yes….water maybe?

Them:  It seems you speak a little Thai!

Me (hopefully):  Yes, yes….

Them:  Where did you learn Thai?

Me:  In the Peace Corps, over thirty years ago.

Them:  Why were you so stupid to leave Thailand?  Couldn’t you see that this is the nicest country in the world???

Me:  Um yeah.  Do you remember Robert Redford?

Them:  No, who’s that?

The real sad part is that it was no longer the tittering teenagers and twenty-somethings asking me these questions.  They still sit conspiculously in front of the noodle, but seem focused on others, and no longer strike up conversations with me.  Rather it is 50 year old ladies who smile as much the teenagers used to (wait a minute—I guess they were those teenagers), but the tittering is gone.  For that matter, so is the flirtatiousness.  I guess that the good news is that the noodle soup still tastes great

I am teaching a sociology class in northern Thailand to a group of nine Chico State students who are here for a special summer session.  As with most of my sociology classes, I have assigned Max Weber’s classic essay “Classes, Staende, Parties” at an early point in the class. Particularly what Weber writes about what in German is called “Staende” is relevant to Thailand. Staende are the groups we form in which we have loyalty to others in the same group, to whom we are loyal, and share a way of life.  Thailand is full of Staende, including the orange-robed Buddhist monks,variousethnic groups, uniformed students, civil servants, police officers, and other groups. Staende are the stuff of social life!

Staende memberships are an honor; notably, you can’t use raw cash to join a Staende, like you would the local fitness club. Rather you need to either be born into it, or establish a qualification that is typically marked by an education and/or and initiation ritual. An obvious example are the Buddhist monks here in Thailand. Monks are  frequently seen in their orange robes in Thai towns.  You certainly cannot buy your way into a Buddhist monk order!  Rather you go through an elaborate initiation ritual involving study, learning, and ritual. Citizenship is also are Staende. Unlikethe monkhood though, we are typically born with a particular passport, though we may also earn it through the rituals of “naturalization.”  Other Staende include professions, ethnic groups, aristocrats, alumni groups, slaves, and some clubs.  The point is that membership is not bought in the open market (like membership in a local fitness club), but is the result of “honor.”

Weber notes that all Staende think that their own group is just about the coolest thing around, meaning that they all think that their own honor is better than potential competitors, even if no one else agrees.  Thus, when teaching with Chico State students, I typically point out that they are clearly cooler than UC Berkeley students, an assertion with whom few Chico State students have ever disagreed. (I have not been offered the chance to test this assertion at UC Berkeley yet).

More relevant in places like Thailand, professional bakers think that they are more important than the fruit-sellers.  Students from one secondary school think they are cooler than those from another school, and vice versa.  And the impoverished peasants are pretty sure that the success of society rests on their shoulders, even though at the same time, the aristocrats assume that the success of society rests on their own obviously brilliant skill.

Staende are readily apparent here in Thailand because of markers like uniforms (e.g. for students, employees of particular companies, civil servants, etc.), and a profusion of local accents. Then of course there are the many foreign Staende, including my own, which is called in Thai “farang,” and is composed mainly of tourists from the US and Europe.  Whether I like it or not, in Thailand, that is one of the Staende I was born into by virtue of my white skin and long nose.

For this blog, there are two important characteristics of Staende, which I want to highlight. First is the fact that by definition, Staende are about who you can hang out with, or in other words those with whom you consider eligible for “social intercourse,” all the way up to marriage.  They are the “us” and everyone else is the “them. “ We recognize the “us-ness” in each other when we share a Staende.  What is more, we recognize the “them-ness” of those who stand outside.

An important marker of Staende in Thailand, students wear school uniforms, all the way up to the university.  Each school has specific color combinations, and at the university the student even wear badges identifying their majors.  These are clear Staende markers of the honors the students have accumulated, and makes it easy for each to recognize the “us-ness,” i.e. who we have responsibilities to—or not.

Weber notes that it is the uniforms and badges that make it easy for different groups to know whether someone else is qualified for what type of social interaction.  Thus you see Thai school children all dressed alike travelling together—the wearers of specific school uniforms easily recognize each other, establishing a basis for who will help who (or not) in the future.  What is more,Stand ranking even gives such groups a chance to see who is violating the norms for interactions. Do university students mix with high school students (not too cool!).  Do English and Pharmacy majors mix (better, but still not so great).  In theUnitedStates universities the “Greek system” at many universities provides an obvious marker for stratified Stand relationships.  And not surprisingly, my students tell me, “who goes out with who” is a subject of intra-group regulations among status-conscious sororities and fraternities.

Ultimately, Weber points out, Staende reach their ultimate expression when they become concerned with endogamy and exogamy, which is basically “who goes with who” in a sexual sense. Art that point, the Staende become “ethnic.”  This is when it becomes tough to sustain Staendebecause the hormones of youth are raging.  Thus, American students seek to send their children to the highest status university possible as a way to preserve the honor and status of the highestStaende possible.  In high school, it is clear thatcheerleaderscan’t go with nerds, and in college, it means that a college boy dating a high school girl is discouraged.

I don’t know of any studies of Thai marriage patterns, but I would bet that the elaborate system of education and uniforms here patterns marriage patterns very strongly, guaranteeing that high Thai youth mix only with lower status Thai youth.  I would guess that marriage is most likely between those who wear the same university uniforms during their formative years are less likely to be caught in a compromised situation with someone from an unapproved Stand.

 

I was young once in Thailand.  I lived here as a 22-25 year old, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and after that working in refugee camps.  In these roles, I tried to blend into Thai society as well as possible, despite my long nose, height, blondish hair and the fact that my Thai language tones were far from accentless (or, as my Thai teacher told me last year “three out of five tones—not bad…”).

Part of blending in was getting used to the Thai focus on age and hierarchy. As a 22-25 year old, I developed the skill and reflexes to initiate a “wai” greeting at the appropriate time—which means when seeing someone for the first time who is older than me.  At age 22-25, this was most of the people I worked with.  The whole social process was reflexive by the end of my time in Thailand which was in (dare I admit it?) 1980-1983.  I would enter a social situation, calculate age, and wai, and get a wai in return.

In the summers of 2010 and 2011, I began spending time in Thailand again.   I found my Thai to be a bit rusty, and took Thai lessons to compensate (the result: the three tones mentioned above rather than the 1.5 tones I started with).  The wai reflex though turned with a vengeance.  The problem though was that it was the wai of a 24 or maybe 28 year old, and not someone who was 53 with a distinguished head full of now white hair.  This led to confusion among random Thais who received my wai, even thought hey were 15 or 20 years younger than me.  Note to self on the current trip to Thailand:  Sit on hands!