Making the family. Actors, networks and the state

Abstract

This article tries to identify the connection between the family and the state. It does so by engaging with Foucault's notion of governmentality thus pointing out the practice-oriented constituency of state power. The family is approached from an actor-network-theory epistemology and methodology. The epistemological principle presupposes that power of action is symmetrically distributed among actors, both human and non-human. Methodologically, it suggests that one should follow the actors in action. Hence, the article is based on fieldwork that consisted in the tracking of the marriage certificate, identified as the epistemic object that unfolds the associations created in the mechanism of power related to the family.

Authors and Affiliations

Ştefan-Valentin Voicu

Keywords

Related Articles

A love letter

This letter tells the story of a young woman and a man I met during fieldwork with some university students in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2007/08. Here, Hiranthi - the narrator - writes a letter to her boyfriend of nine mon...

Mr. Zuckerberg and the Internet. An essay on power relations and privacy negotiation

This essay aims to analyze the power relations existing within one of the most interesting events of the last few months, namely, Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing before the American Congress, on the Cambridge Analytica scand...

Cryonics suspension - debating life finitude, extending time capital and cancelling death

The study discusses the anti-death movement inside the life extension paradigm and its social implications in terms of enhanced permeability of life-death boundaries, by reconciling mysticism, theology, technology and...

From sick elderly to super-grandparents. A typology of elderly representations in Romanian video advertising

The aim of this paper was to study the elderly representations in Romanian video advertising in order to identify a typology corresponding to these representations. The research method that I used was the content analy...

Processing of personal and medical data by judicial institutions in the context of the enforcement of Regulation EU 2016/679 - General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The protection of patients' personal and medical data has always been an important subject for medical practice, with explicit regulations being implemented. Whether we are talking about civil and criminal codes or law...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP40960
  • DOI -
  • Views 218
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Ştefan-Valentin Voicu (2012). Making the family. Actors, networks and the state. Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, 3(1), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-40960