Fonction(s) à l'institut

Professeur adjoint, Anthropologie et sociologie du développement

Director of Research, Programme for the Study of Global Migration

Profil

PhD in social anthropology, University of Neuchâtel (2002)
Trained as a social anthropologist, Alessandro Monsutti became a member of the faculty in 2010, after having taught at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies from 2003 to 2007. He has been research fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (1999-2000) and Yale University (2008-2010), as well as a grantee of the MacArthur Foundation (2004-2006). He has also been Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford) and the Laboratoire d’anthropologie des institutions et des organisations sociales (National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris). In addition, he has worked as a consultant for organisations such as the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation as well as the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.

Alessandro Monsutti has conducted multi-sited research since the mid-1990s in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran to study the modes of solidarity and cooperation mobilised in a situation of conflict and forced migration. He has subsequently broadened the geographical scope of his research to include members of the Afghan diaspora living in Western countries. This led him to analyse war and post-conflict reconstruction in the light of the social networks and economic strategies developed by refugees and migrants, and – more generally – to address theoretical and methodological issues related to globalisation. He is currently researching the political economy of Afghanistan through the circulation and use of transnational resources with the intention to highlight how the action of international agencies and non-governmental organisations contributes to the emergence of new forms of sovereignty and governance.

Domaines d'expertise

• Agriculture, land and rural development
• Armed conflicts, violence
• Development, cooperation and aid policies
• Humanitarian action, intervention
  
• Immigrants, refugees, diasporas
• Middle East (Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan)
• South Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan)

anthropologie économique ; anthropologie politique ; méthodes en sciences sociales ; transnationalisme.

Publications sélectionnées

Books

• War and Migration: Social Networks and Economic Strategies of the Hazaras of Afghanistan. New York & London: Routledge (Middle East Studies: History, Politics, and Law), 2005 [translation of Guerres et migrations].
• Guerres et migrations: réseaux sociaux et stratégies économiques des Hazaras d’Afghanistan. Neuchâtel: Institut d’ethnologie; Paris: Maison des sciences de l’homme (Recherches et travaux 17), 2004.

Edited Volumes and Journal Special Issues

• Les nouvelles arènes du politique: organisations internationales et non gouvernementales, fondations, think tanks. Tsantsa: Revue de la Société suisse d’ethnologie 14, guest editor with Boris-Mathieu Pétric, 2009.
• Migration et développement, un mariage arrangé / Migration und Entwicklung: eine Zweckallianz. Genève: Annuaire suisse de politique de développement (vol. 28/2), edited with Denise Efionayi-Mäder, Gérard Perroulaz, and Catherine Schümperli Younossian, 2008.
• Le monde turco-iranien en question, Paris: Karthala; Genève: IUED (DéveloppementS), edited with Mohammad-Reza Djalili and Anna Neubauer, 2008.
• Entre ordre et subversion: logiques plurielles, alternatives, écarts, paradoxes. Paris: Karthala; Genève: IUED (DéveloppementS), edited with Suzanne Chappaz-Wirthner and Olivier Schinz, 2007.
• The Other Shiites: From the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Berlin, New York, Oxford, etc.: Peter Lang (Worlds of Islam), edited with Silvia Naef and Farian Sabahi, 2007.

Selected articles

• “The Contribution of Migration Studies and Transnationalism to the Anthropological Debate: A Critical Perspective”, in: Cédric Aubert, Mohamed Kamel Doraï (eds), Migration in a Globlised World: New Research Issues and Prospects, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press (IMISCOE Research), 2010, p. 107-125.
• “Food and Identity among Young Afghan Refugees and Migrants in Iran”, in: Dawn Chatty (ed), Deterritorialized Youth: Sahrawi and Afghan Refugees at the Margins of the Middle East, New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2010, p. 213-247.
• “Itinérances transnationales: un éclairage sur les réseaux migratoires afghans”, Critique internationale 44, 2009, p. 83-104.
• “Migration et développement: une histoire de brouilles et de retrouvailles” / “Migration und Entwicklung: eine Debatte zwischen Zwist und Annäherung”, in: Denise Efionayi-Mäder, Alessandro Monsutti, Gérard Perroulaz, Catherine Schümperli Younossian (dir), Migration et développement, un mariage arrangé / Migration und Entwicklung: eine Zweckallianz, Genève: Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement, Annuaire suisse de politique de développement (vol. 28/2), 2008, p. 23-42 / p. 25-46.
• “The Impact of War on Social, Political and Economic Organisation in Southern Hazarajat”, in: Mohammad-Reza Djalili, Alessandro Monsutti, Anna Neubauer (dir), Le monde turco-iranien en question, Paris: Karthala; Genève: IUED (DéveloppementS), 2008, p. 195-209.
• “Afghan Migratory Strategies and the Three Solutions to the Refugee Problem”, Refugee Survey Quarterly 27(1), 2008, p. 58-73.
• “Le baiser de l’ethnographe: entre don de soi et usage de l’autre sur le terrain”, in: Suzanne Chappaz-Wirthner, Alessandro Monsutti, Olivier Schinz (éds), Entre ordre et subversion: logiques plurielles, alternatives, écarts, paradoxes, Paris: Karthala; Genève: IUED (DéveloppementS), 2007, p. 23-35.
• “Image of the Self, Image of the Other: Social Organization and the Role of ‘Ashura’ among the Hazaras of Quetta (Pakistan)”, in: Alessandro Monsutti, Silvia Naef, Farian Sabahi (eds), The Other Shiites: From the Mediterranean to Central Asia, Bern, Berlin, etc.: Peter Lang, 2007, p. 173-191.
• “Heurs et malheurs de l’islamisme chez les chiites d’Afghanistan: de la révolution sociale à la construction identitaire”, in: Sabrina Mervin (dir), Les mondes chiites et l’Iran, Paris: Karthala/IFPO, 2007, p. 43-60.
• “Migration as a Rite of Passage: Young Afghans Building Masculinity and Adulthood in Iran”, Iranian Studies 40(2), 2007, p. 167-185.
• “Au-delà de la figure du réfugié: la reproduction des liens sociaux en situation migratoire (le cas afghan)”, in: Aminah Mohammad-Arif et Jean Schmitz (dir), Figures d’Islam après le 11 septembre: Disciples et martyrs, réfugiés et migrants, Paris: Karthala, 2006, p. 227-256.
• “Beyond the Boundaries: A Methodological Perspective on Afghan Migratory Networks in the Western Countries”, Tsantsa: Revue de la Société suisse d’ethnologie 10, 2005, p. 167-171.
• Transnational Networks: Recognising a Regional Reality / Shabakahâ-ye farâmillati: shinâsâ’ye wâqi’yathâ-ye mantiqawi, Kabul: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, April 2005, with Elca Stigter.
• “Des collines du Kurdistan aux hautes terres de Nouvelle-Guinée: Entretien avec Fredrik Barth”, ethnographiques.org 8, November 2005, http://www.ethnographiques.org/ [with Boris-Mathieu Pétric].
• “En suivant les réseaux de Kaboul à New York: quelques réflexions méthodologiques sur la recherche ethnographiques parmi les migrants”, Ethnologies 27(1), 2005, p. 33-53.
• “Cooperation, Remittances, and Kinship among the Hazaras”, Iranian Studies 37(2), 2004, p. 219-240.
• “Hazâras: History” & “Hazâras: Ethnography and Social Organization”, in: Ehsan Yarshater (ed), Encyclopædia Iranica XII(1), 2003, p. 81-85 & 85-90.
• “Territoires, flux et représentations de l'exil afghan: le cas des Hazaras et des Kaboulis”, A Contrario 1(1), 2003, p. 61-78, with Tina Gehrig.
• “Afghanistan”, in: Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember (eds), Countries and Their Cultures, New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. 1, 2001, p. 1-11.
• “Guerre et ethnicité en Afghanistan”, Tsantsa: Revue de la Société suisse d’ethnologie 4, 1999, p. 63-73.

LINKS

• Afghanistan – The Once and Future War, University of Michigan, 12/03/2009
• Political Legitimacy and Economic Resources: An Anthropological Perspective on the Reconstruction of Afghanistan, Boston University, 03/11/2008
• Nouvelles configurations migratoires et transnationalisme, Université de Poitiers, 07/07/2006

Autres activités

• Swiss National Science Foundation, research grant for a project entitled Diasporas et conflits: pratiques transnationales et stratégies socio-économiques de la jeunesse sri-lankaise en Europe, with Philippe Gazagne (2008-2010).
• South Asian Studies Council, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University, New Haven, research associate and lecturer (2009-2010).
• Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, New Haven, research fellow (2008-2009).
• Agence nationale de la recherche, Paris, research grant for a project entitled Experts, médiateurs et courtiers de la bonne gouvernance: étude comparative des pratiques transnationales de démocratisation, with Laëtitia Atlani-Duault, Romain Bertrand, Giorgio Blundo, Dejan Dimitrijevic, Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, Boris Pétric, David Recondo (2007-2009).
• MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, research and writing grant for a project entitled Beyond the boundaries: Hazara migratory networks from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran towards the Western countries (2004-2006).
• Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), Kabul, research adviser for a project entitled (Trans)national networks and sustainable reintegration: an anthropological study of returnee communities in Afghanistan (2004-2006).
• Member of the Editorial Board of Tsantsa, Swiss Ethnological Society (2003-2008).
• Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, research associate for a project entitled Children and adolescents in Sahrawi and Afghani refugee households in Algeria and Iran: living with the effects of prolonged conflict and forced migration (2003-2004).
• Member of the Editorial Board of ethnographiques.org (2000-2008).
• School of Oriental and African Studies, London, visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology (1999-2000).
• Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, grant for a field research in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan (1996).
• Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs (Division of Human Rights), grant for a research on Afghan refugees (1995.)