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In the introduction to this theme section we attempt to disentangle the webs of in/visibility and in/security by tracing out their diverse iterations. We construct a series of conversations between two of the four key terms relevant to this discussion--security and insecurity, visibility and invisibility--as a means of analyzing the different ways in which their various articulations engage meaningfully in the production and reproduction of contemporary security cultures. Ethnographic examples accompany each iteration, drawn from the work of contributors to this theme section, as well as from other contemporary research. These examples not only illustrate the multiple and shifting intersections of in/visibility and in/security in today's security-minded world but also remind us of the unique contributions that anthropology can make to the critical study of security. In the introduction to this theme section we attempt to disentangle the webs of in/visibility and in/security by tracing out their diverse iterations. We construct a series of conversations between two of the four key terms relevant to this discussion--security and insecurity, visibility and invisibility--as a means of analyzing the different ways in which their various articulations engage meaningfully in the production and reproduction of contemporary security cultures. Ethnographic examples accompany each iteration, drawn from the work of contributors to this theme section, as well as from other contemporary research. These examples not only illustrate the multiple and shifting intersections of in/visibility and in/security in today's security-minded world but also remind us of the unique contributions that anthropology can make to the critical study of security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on activist anthropology. The author explains that she has engaged in activist anthropology through her work at an immigrant rights organization in New Jersey, explores the relationship between ethnography and activist work, and discusses a human chain demonstration she took part in on December 10, 2013, International Human Rights Day, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, at an undocumented immigrant deportation center.

While matters of security have appeared as paramount themes in a post-9/11 world, anthropology has not developed a critical comparative ethnography of security and its contemporary problematics. In this article I call for the emergence of a critical "security anthropology," one that recognizes the significance of security discourses and practices to the global and local contexts in which cultural anthropology operates. Many issues that have historically preoccupied anthropology are today inextricably linked to security themes, and anthropology expresses a characteristic approach to topics that today must be considered within a security rubric. A focus on security is particularly important to an understanding of human rights in contemporary neoliberal society. Drawing on examples from Latin America and my own work in Bolivia, I track the decline of neoliberalism and the rise of the security paradigm as a framework for organizing contemporary social life. I suggest that security, rather than a reaction to a terrorist attack that "changed everything," is characteristic of a neoliberalism that predates the events of 9/11, affecting the subjects of anthropological work and shaping the contexts within which that work is conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it mean for anthropology to be relevant in the context of an ongoing global war on terror? This article examines the meanings of “security,” concentrating on the discipline's engagement with the military and the ways in which the anthropological concept of culture has been deployed in post-9/11 security campaigns. It argues that while there are many potential pitfalls awaiting the so-called culture expert in military collaborations, security nevertheless remains an important field to which anthropologists can bring critical scholarly attention and ethical engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vigilante violence has become a common practice of creating 'security' in the marginal barrios that surround the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Surprisingly, this violence and the human rights violations it entails are appearing simultaneously with the expansion of civil society in Bolivia. This apparent contradiction, it is argued here, suggests that analysts must expand their definition of 'civil society' to include violent social groups and actors as well as peaceful ones. This article suggests that a fuller understanding of the nature of civil society in Bolivia and other Latin American countries requires us to broaden our understanding of what civil society includes, and so recognize that some acts originating in civil society may restrict rather than deepen and expand individual rights in neo-liberal democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Bolivia has restructured its economic and political sectors according to a neoliberal model, citizens have been required to become more 'flexible' in securing their livelihoods, creating 'self-help' economic activities and informal employment schemes to make ends meet. At the same time, as state mechanisms for administering justice and producing 'security' fail due to the inadequacies of the neoliberal regime, Bolivian citizens are adopting 'flexible' attitudes toward crime and punishment, frequently turning to 'self-help' justice mechanisms (including private security patrols and vigilante lynchings) to combat crime in their communities. This article explores the processes by which neoliberal logic and language condition the experiences and responses to crime and insecurity of residents in different neighborhoods of Cochabamba, Bolivia. It suggests that lynchings in Bolivia today be understood as a kind of neoliberal violence, produced both by the scarcities and deficiencies of the privatizing state, and by the logic of transnational capitalism itself, which has saturated civil society and public culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an urban barrio on the outskirts of a Bolivian city, the municipal government engages in a variety of techniques to regulate and manage the illegal settlers and the lands they occupy on the urban periphery. These forms of governmentality are underscored by a paternalist discourse that enjoins barrio residents to embrace urban inclusion as part of a generalized urban Bolivian family. Barrio residents desire such inclusion as a path to citizenship and the socioeconomic rights that such belonging entails, but are skeptical of paternalist rhetoric and the claims of Bolivian politicians to be ‘good fathers’ to their barrio children. This article examines the engagement between municipal leaders and barrio residents in the struggle to subject one urban neighborhood to state authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a direction for narrative ethics based on ethical ideas found in the works of Michel Foucault. Narrative ethics is understood here at the meta-level of cultural discourse to see how the moral subject is constituted by the discursive practices that structure the contemporary debate on reproductive technologies. At this level it becomes meta-narrative-ethics. After a theoretical discussion, this paper uses two literary narratives representing the polarized views in the debate to show how the moral subject may be compelled to relate to its self. Ethics is redefined as Foucauldian rapport à soi, and ethical analysis, at this meta-level, shows how the moral self is intimately connected to cultural discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the evangelical perspectives and the politics of Catholic fiesta in Bolivia. Factors central to Bolivian national culture and identity; Tensions surrounding the performance of Catholic festivity in Bolivia; Views of evangelicals in the barrio on the sinfulness of fiesta practice.

Explores the ways in which vigilantism act as a moral complaint against state inadequacy. Examination of an incident of vigilante violence in one such Bolivian barrio; analysis of the range of discourses that surrounds lynching in contemporary Bolivian society; Exploration of the interpretive conflict that results as barrio residents attempt to counter official representations of the meaning of vigilantism in their community.

Discusses the folklorization of traditional Andean culture by a universalizing nation-state in Bolivia. Production of a collective identity by local people based on their control of national folklore; Enhancement of the legitimacy of the local community; Fostering of integration with the Bolivian nation.

Through analysis of preparedness for pandemic influenza in Israel, I explore how future uncertainty is conceptualized and the various practices put into action to deal with it. In particular, I discuss the emergence of a new type of uncertainty—potential uncertainty—and three technologies employed to cope with it: risk technology, preparedness technology, and event technology. Event technology emerges in the preparations for a potential uncertainty event—such as pandemic influenza. In contrast with the other two technologies, it acknowledges the problem of potential uncertainty and retains uncertainty through its action. Thus, uncertainty is not solely linked to the appearance of new risks in the world, which is the basis of the risk society approach (e.g., Beck 1992; Giddens 2000), nor is it related to the impossibility of calculating these risks, as the preparedness paradigm (e.g., Lakoff 2008) and science and technology studies argue. Rather, uncertainty underpins a technology through which the future, although not reducible to calculable forms, can still be governed. Employing the concept of potential uncertainty and considering the various technologies applied to management of the future allow for a more thorough discussion of problems of future uncertainty with which current societies are preoccupied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]