This study-day is about exploring the conceptual expanse of intermediation at local, national and international scales. The neo-liberal transformation of regimes of accumulation greatly affected the arrangement of political and state power (Jessop, 2007), functional logics of political actors, governance mechanisms and international diplomacy. Simultaneously, the type of competencies demanded in these fields also adapted to this new configuration. In the process, forms, meanings, and roles of intermediaries morphed into a mass of actors ranging from individuals (brokers, patrons, fixers) to NGOs (national and transnational) and Think-Tanks to nation-states. In this study-day, researchers will present their work about envisioning intermediation not as a peripheral activity but something that connects different fields and scales of socio-political activity together. The sinews of intermediation connects the citizens with state, policies with governments, ideas with political imaginaries and fields of domestic policy and politics with international diplomacy and migration management. 

Program

9:00 – 9:15 Introduction - Asad ur Rehman (CEIAS-EHESS) / Jose Egas (CEIAS-EHESS)

Morning Panel “Connecting Public (s), Policy and Governance; the sinews of Intermediation”

1st session : 9:15 – 10:45

“Intermediation and Assemblages of Governance; Brokerage, patronage and Politics in Mauritius and India ”

Who can identify a legitimate beneficiary? The challenges of intermediation in social security programs in Jharkhand, India

• Arthur Cessou (CEIAS-EHESS)

Shortcuts through the red tape Employers, intermediaries and the politics of waiting in the access to migrant labor in Mauritius

• Lucas Puygrenier (CERI-Sciences Po)

‘Huzur’ and the Modern State: Political patronage, bargaining and co-option of Muslims in contemporary West Bengal, India

• Abdul Matin (Jadavpur University, Kolkata & JNU, Delhi)

Discussant: Virginie Dutoya, Chargée de recherche CNRS-CEIAS

Coffee break

2nd session : 11:00 – 12:30

“New Grass Root Level Political Intermediaries in India, China and France”

The local intermediaries of Hindu nationalism in Meghalaya and Tripura (Northeast India)

•  Roma Casamitjana (CEIAS-EHESS)

Mediating the Party-state, Serving the People: Ethnographies of Mass and Grassroots Organizations in Contemporary China

• Judith Audin (CEFC, CECMC – EHESS)

“Apolitical” and expert facade: building one’s legitimacy as an intermediary of the «smart city»

• Elise Ho-Pun-Cheung (CHERPA / IEP d’Aix-en-Provence)

Discussant: Stephanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, Directrice de recherche, CNRS-CEIAS

Lunch 12:30 – 14:00

Afternoon Panel “Levels, structures and meanings of intermediation”

Round table 1: 14:00- 15:00

“The power of Structures and actors in the field (s) of Intermediation”

Women’s powers of Intermediation from the prospects of Economics & Genealogy: systemic inquiry into samples of Ladies with formal and/or informal intermediation roles (1610-1970)

• Bernhard Kitous (CEMI-EHESS)

Structural homologies: a ‘social magic’ without ‘magicians’? The place of intermediation in the making of value 

• Olivier Roueff (CRESSPA-CSU (CNRS))

Coffee break

Round table 2: 15:15 – 16:15

“Meanings and Practices of Intermediation at the International Scale”

UNDP as mediator between ‘local’ and ‘global’ actors in International Migration Management

• Giulia Breda (URMIS- Université Cote d’Azur)

The polysemy of the Egyptian mediation on the Palestinian question and the variation of intervention strategies

• Dima Alsajdeya (University Paris II Panthéon-Assas / Collège de France)

16:15 - 16:30 Concluding remarks - Asad ur Rehman (CEIAS-EHESS) / José Egas (CEIAS-EHESS)

Organizing Committee

• José Egas (CEIAS, EHESS)
• Asad ur Rehman (CEIAS, EHESS)

Obligatory Registration: intermediation2019@gmail.com

More information: http://divergencelab.org/