Maple Razsa | Colby College (original) (raw)
Books by Maple Razsa
Bastards of Utopia, the companion to a feature documentary film of the same name, explores the ex... more Bastards of Utopia, the companion to a feature documentary film of the same name, explores the experiences and political imagination of young radical activists in the former Yugoslavia, participants in what they call alterglobalization or "globalization from below." Ethnographer Maple Razsa follows individual activists from the transnational protests against globalization of the early 2000s through the Occupy encampments. His portrayal of activism is both empathetic and unflinching—an engaged, elegant meditation on the struggle to re-imagine leftist politics and the power of a country's youth. More information on the film can be found at www.der.org/films/bastards-of-utopia.html.
Films by Maple Razsa
American Anthropologist, Jan 1, 2012
Papers by Maple Razsa
American Ethnologist, 2019
History and Anthropology, 2018
In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era o... more In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era of securitized borders, did this unprecedented movement of people from the global south reach the global north? Ethnographic research from two post-Yugoslav nodes along the Route-Preshevë, Serbia and Ljubljana, Slovenia-offers answers that diverge from state-centric accounts, revealing that the relationships between movements, in the sense of both migration and activism, were integral to the dynamics of the Route.
Two Homelands
In this article the authors question how the EU’s enlistment of the post-Yugoslav states into the... more In this article the authors question how the EU’s enlistment of the post-Yugoslav states into the EU’s border regime has exacerbated local nationalisms. They also question how, on the other hand, migrant struggles to cross this territory have intersected with local movements against nationalism and silenced political alternatives. They use the notion of joint-agency, that is, the co-articulation of mobility struggles and antinationalist struggles, in ex-Yugoslavia to read the recent history of the route across the region generally and the current predicament in Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular. This alternative reading facilitates an understanding of the potential of struggles for freedom of movement to reanimate a critique of the coloniality of power in the EUropean borderlands such as the Balkans.
History and Anthropology, 2019
In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era o... more In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era of securitized borders, did this unprecedented movement of people from the global south reach the global north? Ethnographic research from two post-Yugoslav nodes along the Route—Preshevë, Serbia and Ljubljana, Slovenia—offers answers that diverge from state-centric accounts, revealing that the relationships between movements, in the sense of both migration and activism, were integral to the dynamics of the Route.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015
Ethnos, Apr 2013
From the globalization protests of the previous decade to the more recent Occupy Movement, activi... more From the globalization protests of the previous decade to the more recent Occupy Movement, activists have embraced the use of digital video. Many appropriations of the technology, including those by human rights advocates, rest on the theory that ‘seeing is believing’ and understand video to be uniquely suited to forms of truth telling such as witnessing, documenting and reporting. While I encountered such realist uses of video during fieldwork with direct action movements in the former Yugoslavia, activists are also preoccupied with videos depicting the most physical confrontations with the police, videos they sometimes referred to as ‘riot porn’. They engage these videos for the sensory, affective and bodily experiences they facilitate. Indeed, activist practices around and claims for video indicate that they understand video as a technology of the self, using it to forge emotional relationships with activists elsewhere, steel themselves for physical confrontation and cultivate new political desires.
American Ethnologist, Jan 1, 2012
Cultural Anthropology, Jul 2012
Cultural Anthrooplogy, Jul 2012
Audiovisual Thinking: The Journal of Academic Videos
In this video essay Maple Razsa reflects on the place of images of violence within activist milie... more In this video essay Maple Razsa reflects on the place of images of violence within activist milieus and considers his disavowal of dominant representations of anarchist violence before addressing activists own preoccupation with videos of physical confrontation. In conclusion Razsa evokes how the circulation of images of activists subjected to state violence might create strong affective bonds among geographically distant activists. The essay is connected to Rasza’s ethnographic fieldwork within an anarchist collective.
East European Politics & Societies, Jan 1, 2004
This article examines the role of Balkanist discourse in Tu¦man's Croatia. Todorova's concept of ... more This article examines the role of Balkanist discourse in Tu¦man's Croatia. Todorova's concept of Balkanism provides a useful theoretical framework through which to explore the deployment of Balkanist stereotypes against Croatia by Western leaders. Balkanism also illuminates the ways in which Croatians used many of these same Balkan stereotypes to differentiate themselves from their neighbors to the south and east. Through an examination of Croatian newspaper columns, government documents and speeches, and political cartoons from the 1990s, this article analyzes how Balkanist interpretations and representations played an integral role in the construction of Croatian national identity and the mobilization of Croatians around a variety of political agendas. The objective of this article is not, however, simply to document the deployment of Balkanist stereotypes against or within Croatia. The second component of the article suggests ways in which Croatia's liminal position between "Europe" and the "Balkans" might serve as an ideal standpoint from which one might challenge the binary oppositions of Balkanism and begin to reimagine the Balkans, redirecting these categories as a site of political engagement and critique.
... Abstract: Članak je prikaz dokumentarnog filma "Bastards of utopia" dvojice američk... more ... Abstract: Članak je prikaz dokumentarnog filma "Bastards of utopia" dvojice američkih antropologa (Maple Razsa i Pacho Velez) koji je posvećen djelovanju troje zagrebačkih anarhista. Project / theme: 189-1890667-0659. Original language: HRV. ...
Current Anthropology, Jan 1, 2006
Bastards of Utopia, the companion to a feature documentary film of the same name, explores the ex... more Bastards of Utopia, the companion to a feature documentary film of the same name, explores the experiences and political imagination of young radical activists in the former Yugoslavia, participants in what they call alterglobalization or "globalization from below." Ethnographer Maple Razsa follows individual activists from the transnational protests against globalization of the early 2000s through the Occupy encampments. His portrayal of activism is both empathetic and unflinching—an engaged, elegant meditation on the struggle to re-imagine leftist politics and the power of a country's youth. More information on the film can be found at www.der.org/films/bastards-of-utopia.html.
American Ethnologist, 2019
History and Anthropology, 2018
In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era o... more In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era of securitized borders, did this unprecedented movement of people from the global south reach the global north? Ethnographic research from two post-Yugoslav nodes along the Route-Preshevë, Serbia and Ljubljana, Slovenia-offers answers that diverge from state-centric accounts, revealing that the relationships between movements, in the sense of both migration and activism, were integral to the dynamics of the Route.
Two Homelands
In this article the authors question how the EU’s enlistment of the post-Yugoslav states into the... more In this article the authors question how the EU’s enlistment of the post-Yugoslav states into the EU’s border regime has exacerbated local nationalisms. They also question how, on the other hand, migrant struggles to cross this territory have intersected with local movements against nationalism and silenced political alternatives. They use the notion of joint-agency, that is, the co-articulation of mobility struggles and antinationalist struggles, in ex-Yugoslavia to read the recent history of the route across the region generally and the current predicament in Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular. This alternative reading facilitates an understanding of the potential of struggles for freedom of movement to reanimate a critique of the coloniality of power in the EUropean borderlands such as the Balkans.
History and Anthropology, 2019
In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era o... more In 2015-2016, 1.2 million refugees sought safety in Europe via the Balkan Route. How, in an era of securitized borders, did this unprecedented movement of people from the global south reach the global north? Ethnographic research from two post-Yugoslav nodes along the Route—Preshevë, Serbia and Ljubljana, Slovenia—offers answers that diverge from state-centric accounts, revealing that the relationships between movements, in the sense of both migration and activism, were integral to the dynamics of the Route.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015
Ethnos, Apr 2013
From the globalization protests of the previous decade to the more recent Occupy Movement, activi... more From the globalization protests of the previous decade to the more recent Occupy Movement, activists have embraced the use of digital video. Many appropriations of the technology, including those by human rights advocates, rest on the theory that ‘seeing is believing’ and understand video to be uniquely suited to forms of truth telling such as witnessing, documenting and reporting. While I encountered such realist uses of video during fieldwork with direct action movements in the former Yugoslavia, activists are also preoccupied with videos depicting the most physical confrontations with the police, videos they sometimes referred to as ‘riot porn’. They engage these videos for the sensory, affective and bodily experiences they facilitate. Indeed, activist practices around and claims for video indicate that they understand video as a technology of the self, using it to forge emotional relationships with activists elsewhere, steel themselves for physical confrontation and cultivate new political desires.
American Ethnologist, Jan 1, 2012
Cultural Anthropology, Jul 2012
Cultural Anthrooplogy, Jul 2012
Audiovisual Thinking: The Journal of Academic Videos
In this video essay Maple Razsa reflects on the place of images of violence within activist milie... more In this video essay Maple Razsa reflects on the place of images of violence within activist milieus and considers his disavowal of dominant representations of anarchist violence before addressing activists own preoccupation with videos of physical confrontation. In conclusion Razsa evokes how the circulation of images of activists subjected to state violence might create strong affective bonds among geographically distant activists. The essay is connected to Rasza’s ethnographic fieldwork within an anarchist collective.
East European Politics & Societies, Jan 1, 2004
This article examines the role of Balkanist discourse in Tu¦man's Croatia. Todorova's concept of ... more This article examines the role of Balkanist discourse in Tu¦man's Croatia. Todorova's concept of Balkanism provides a useful theoretical framework through which to explore the deployment of Balkanist stereotypes against Croatia by Western leaders. Balkanism also illuminates the ways in which Croatians used many of these same Balkan stereotypes to differentiate themselves from their neighbors to the south and east. Through an examination of Croatian newspaper columns, government documents and speeches, and political cartoons from the 1990s, this article analyzes how Balkanist interpretations and representations played an integral role in the construction of Croatian national identity and the mobilization of Croatians around a variety of political agendas. The objective of this article is not, however, simply to document the deployment of Balkanist stereotypes against or within Croatia. The second component of the article suggests ways in which Croatia's liminal position between "Europe" and the "Balkans" might serve as an ideal standpoint from which one might challenge the binary oppositions of Balkanism and begin to reimagine the Balkans, redirecting these categories as a site of political engagement and critique.
... Abstract: Članak je prikaz dokumentarnog filma "Bastards of utopia" dvojice američk... more ... Abstract: Članak je prikaz dokumentarnog filma "Bastards of utopia" dvojice američkih antropologa (Maple Razsa i Pacho Velez) koji je posvećen djelovanju troje zagrebačkih anarhista. Project / theme: 189-1890667-0659. Original language: HRV. ...
Current Anthropology, Jan 1, 2006
Anthropological Quarterly, 2004