Political Orders in the Making: a comparative study of emerging forms of political organisation from Libya to Northern Mali

利比亚和马里北部目前的政治事态发展无异于对殖民后政治秩序的重新谈判。利比亚独裁政权被推翻，国家随后在革命后的营地和地区解体，马里北部的图阿雷格人继续叛乱，同时跨国伊斯兰主义和圣战力量崛起，导致国家结构支离破碎，政治更加多样化，并出现了在复杂政治舞台上具有相关性的非国家权力集团。虽然经常宣传西方国家模式的社会和政治替代方案，但其中一些群体似乎至少有时与各自的国家结构交织在一起。我们建议从本地和跨本地的角度来研究正在形成的政治秩序的过程。因此，我们认为，西北部非洲目前的局势为观察和研究后殖民政治秩序的重新谈判提供了一个独特的机会，包括对西方国家模式的强烈质疑。我们进一步假定，正在进行的重建政治秩序的进程，特别是在利比亚和马里，是紧密相连的，没有暗示它们之间存在任何因果关系。该项目汇集了三个理论概念和研究领域：异质政体、非洲西北部(历史和现实)的连通性以及地方行为者/地方的重要性。异族政体的第一个概念是最近提出的，它是对非洲和其他地方政治秩序在过去20年中的快速发展作出的回应。“异质”指的是当前政治(国家和非国家)秩序的中心特征，即国家秩序和非国家秩序的可变和不稳定的相互交织，以及相互竞争的权力集团的多元化。连通性的概念(跨越国家和边界)是一个新发现的话题，它将国家边界(和撒哈拉沙漠)视为过渡空间，而不是障碍。它使人们能够更好地了解最近的政治事态发展及其历史根源。地方行为者/地方的概念在政治人类学和政治社会学中根深蒂固。它强调了当地人在谈判进程中的重要性，并为建立什么样的政治秩序而苦苦挣扎。

The current political developments in Libya and northern Mali represent nothing less than the renegotiation of the post-colonial political order. The toppling of authoritarian regimes in Libya and the subsequent disintegration of the country in post-revolutionary camps and regions, the continuing rebellion of the Tuareg in northern Mali, accompanied by the rise of transnational Islamist and Jihadist forces have led to the fragmentation of state structures, to more heterogeneity in politics, and to the emergence of non-state power groups which gain relevance on the complex political stage. While often propagating social and political alternatives to the Western state model, some of these groups seem to be, at least at times, intertwined with respective state structures. We propose to study processes of political orders in the making from local and trans-local perspectives. We assume thereby that the current situation in Northwest Africa offers a unique opportunity for the observation and study of the renegotiation of the post-colonial political order, including strong contestations to the Western state model. We further assume that ongoing processes of remaking political orders, particularly in Libya and Mali, are strongly linked, without suggesting any kind of causality between them. The local continues to constitute the decisive arena for the making of political orders.The project brings together three theoretical concepts and fields of research: heterarchy, (historical and present) connectivities in northwest Africa, and the importance of local actors/locality. The first concept of heterarchy is a recent one, responding to the rapid development of political orders in Africa and elsewhere within the last twenty years. 'Heterarchy' points at central traits of current political (state and non-state) orders, namely the mutable and unstable intertwining of state and non-state orders and the plurality of competing power groups. The concept of connectivity (across states and borders) is a newly re-discovered topic, perceiving state borders (and the Sahara desert) not as barriers, but as transitional spaces. It allows a better understanding of recent political developments and their historical roots. The concept local actors/locality is well rooted in political anthropology and political sociology. It underlines the importance of the local in negotiation processes and struggles over what political order to establish.