War and Material Reality: the social life of things designed to kill

战争与物质现实：旨在杀戮的事物的社会生活

• 批准号: 2886870
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2886870
• 关键词: War; Material; Reality; social; life

What are the social, political and economic networks of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)? How can its path from production to afterlife reveal the hidden dynamics of contemporary conflict? Aim: To understand the life of an item of explosive ordnance from inception to destruction and the tangible, global networks it participates in. Inspired by the conventional weapons turned IEDs I destroyed while working as a humanitarian IED expert in Iraq and following Appadurai's seminal work 'The Social Life of Things' (1986), I will use a single object to explore the interconnected nature of seemingly distant conflicts. Using a framework of actor network theory from Latour (2005) and materiality from Gell (1998) and Miller (2005), I will consider the IED as an actor entangled in global human-object networks. Unlike existing anthropological literature on abandoned weapons (Kim, 2016; Henig, 2019) I will bring technical, explosive ordnance expertise to this research. Through this research I will consider the material and lived reality of conflict across continents through the story of a single thing. This research will use a novel and multidisciplinary approach to research the biography of an IED and in doing so will expose the connections between policy making, production, trading, and arming, with the individuals with whom the objects so often end up harming. Methodology: The construction of an object biography using archaeological and anthropological methods including material analysis of the IED and its surrounds, qualitative interviews, and archival and literature research. This will include a three-month fieldwork period in Iraq as well as UK based fieldwork including interviews with members of the armed forces, and weapons manufacturers. The finished research will trace an IED's journey, critically analysing its role in shaping the networks in which it participates. Relevance: The production, trade, deployment and abandonment of weapons continues to proliferate. This research is unique in coupling technical expertise in explosives (rare in academia) with archaeological and anthropological methods to develop understandings of contemporary human-weapon relations. This multidisciplinary approach will produce new insights into the life of weapons, specifically abandoned and repurposed weapons with the potential to significantly inform debates across international development, materiality, anthropology and conflict policy.

简易爆炸装置的社会、政治和经济网络是什么？它从生产到来世的路径如何揭示当代冲突的隐藏动力？目标：了解爆炸性弹药从产生到销毁的寿命及其所参与的有形全球网络。受我在伊拉克担任人道主义IED专家时销毁的常规武器变成的IED的启发，并遵循Appadurai的开创性工作“事物的社会生活”（1986），我将使用一个单一的对象来探索看似遥远的冲突的相互关联的性质。使用Latour（2005）的行动者网络理论和Gell（1998）和米勒（2005）的物质性框架，我将把IED视为纠缠在全球人-物网络中的行动者。与现有的关于废弃武器的人类学文献不同（Kim，2016; Henig，2019），我将为这项研究带来技术，爆炸性弹药的专业知识。通过这项研究，我将通过一件事的故事来考虑跨大陆冲突的物质和生活现实。这项研究将使用一种新颖的多学科方法来研究简易爆炸装置的传记，并在这样做的过程中，将揭示政策制定，生产，贸易和武装之间的联系，与对象往往最终伤害的个人。方法学：使用考古学和人类学的方法，包括IED及其周围的材料分析，定性访谈，档案和文献研究的对象传记的建设。这将包括在伊拉克进行为期三个月的实地考察，以及在英国进行实地考察，包括与武装部队成员和武器制造商进行面谈。完成的研究将追溯简易爆炸装置的历程，批判性地分析其在塑造其参与的网络中的作用。相关性：武器的生产、贸易、部署和遗弃继续扩散。这项研究是独一无二的，它将爆炸物的技术专长（学术界罕见）与考古学和人类学方法相结合，以了解当代人与武器的关系。这种多学科方法将对武器的寿命产生新的见解，特别是废弃和重新利用的武器，有可能为国际发展，物质性，人类学和冲突政策的辩论提供重要信息。