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

简易爆炸装置（IED）的社会、政治和经济网络是什么？它从生产到来世的历程如何揭示当代冲突的隐藏动力？目的：了解一件爆炸性武器从诞生到销毁的生命，以及它所参与的有形的全球网络。在伊拉克担任人道主义简易爆炸装置专家期间，我摧毁了由常规武器转变成的简易爆炸装置，并遵循阿帕杜莱的影响深远的作品“事物的社会生活”（1986），我将用一个单一的物体来探索看似遥远的冲突的相互联系的本质。利用Latour（2005）的行动者网络理论框架以及Gell（1998）和Miller（2005）的物质性理论，我将IED视为一个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），我将把技术，爆炸性军械专业知识带到这项研究中。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材料和生活现实。这项研究将采用一种新颖的多学科方法来研究简易爆炸装置的历史，并在此过程中揭示政策制定、生产、贸易和武装之间的联系，以及这些物品经常最终伤害的个人之间的联系。方法论：使用考古学和人类学方法构建对象传记，包括IED及其周围的材料分析，定性访谈以及档案和文献研究。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IED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、部署和放弃继续扩散。这项研究的独特之处在于将爆炸物的技术专长（学术界罕见）与考古学和人类学方法结合起来，以发展对当代人与武器关系的理解。这种多学科的方法将对武器的生命产生新的见解，特别是被遗弃和重新利用的武器，有可能为国际发展、物质性、人类学和冲突政策等领域的辩论提供重要信息。

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.