Author Archives: Michel Agier

About Michel Agier

Michel Agier, an anthropologist, is professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and senior researcher at Institut de Recherches pour le Développement (IRD). His main interests are human globalization, exile, and urban marginalities. He is coordinating the research program Babels—The City as a Borderland (2016–18) supported by French Agency for Research (ANR). He published in English At the Margins of the World (Polity, 2008), Managing the Undesirables: Refugees Camps and Humanitarian Government (Polity, 2011), and Borderlands: Towards an Anthropology of Cosmopolitan Condition (Polity, 2016).

Afterword: What Contemporary Camps Tell Us about the World to Come

Our knowledge and understanding of contemporary camps developed significantly at the end of the 1990s, and the relative importance of this field of study today reflects not only the significance of encampment in the world but also the political concerns it raises. The history of encampment can be captured through some landmark studies (in French and in English) referenced here. In order to attempt a genealogical reading of the current literature on camps, I will outline three arguments that are central to the issues tackled Continue reading → Continue reading →