Janine R Wedel
Biographic Data
| ID | 146897 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Janine R Wedel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Janine R |
| FAMILY NAME | Wedel |
| SIGNATURE | WEDEL J R |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Mason University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1831-8087 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 311 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Policy Worlds: Anthropology and the Analysis of Contemporary Power
There are few areas of society today that remain outside the ambit of policy processes, and likewise policy making has progressively reached into the structure and fabric of everyday life. An instrument of modern government, policy and its processes provide an analytical window into systems of governance themselves, opening up ways to study power and the construction of regimes of truth. This volume argues that policies are not simply coercive, c…
Elites, Anthropological Study of
This entry highlights salient perspectives and contributions from anthropology to the study of elites and situates the study within the wider spectrum of scholarship, which has been dominated by sociologists, historians, and political scientists. While elite studies fell out of fashion beginning in the 1970s, they have made a comeback, notably with regard to elites' role in widening social and economic inequalities. This entry pays particular att…
From Power Elites to Influence Elites: Resetting Elite Studies for the 21st Century
The dominant theory of elite power, grounded in Weberian bureaucracy, has analyzed elites in terms of stable positions at the top of enduring institutions. Today, many conditions that spawned these stable 'command posts' no longer prevail, and elite power thus warrants rethinking. This article advances an argument about contemporary 'influence elites'. The way they are organized and the modus operandi they employ to wield influence enable them to…
High Priests and the Gospel of Anti-Corruption
The anti-corruption industry, with economists at the helm, has focused its efforts mostly on “need” corruption in poor countries. This anthropologist, with lots of field experience, says that this focus has deflected attention away from the “greed” and other kinds of damaging corruption now prevalent in the West.
Rethinking Corruption in an Age of Ambiguity
The central premise of the article is that the assumptions and approaches of the “anticorruption industry” that debuted in the 1990s framed the issue of corruption and substantially shaped scholarly inquiry on the subject. These assumptions and approaches also limited the ability to see other forms and patterns of corruption on the horizon. This article (a) critically reviews prevailing assumptions and approaches to the study of corruption during…
Federalist No. 70: Where Does the Public Service Begin and End
Federalist No. 70 argues that presidents will rise above factions through their power to assemble a government composed of highly motivated, accountable officers. The author confronts this assumption through a detailed examination of the heavy use of contractors in today’s administrative state. She documents the challenges and dangers associated with the role of contractors to execute the laws through broad mandates. An appendix to Federalist No.…
Confronting Corruption, Building Accountability: Lessons from the World of International Development Advising
The crisis that nearly brought the world's financial house down in 2008 demonstrated clearly that the global economy cannot work where there is widespread deception, corruption and lack of accountabil
Research on Policy: Shadow Elite: How the Study of Post-Communist Societies Illuminates US Power Structures
Janine R Wedel is contributing editor of "Research on Policy," the AAA Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy column in Anthropology News
Ethical Research across Power Divides
Le développement pris en otage, comment l'aide américaine à la Russie a été détournée par les « transacteurs
This article examines the nature of ?transactorship? as manifested in US economic aid to Russia via advisers from Harvard University during the 1990s. The case illustrates the implications for nations when vital state functions are delegated to players who not only operate on both sides of the state-private divide but also advance, in collusion with players from the opposite side, group agendas that supersede the goals and/or interests of their n…
Anthropology of Public Policy
Anthropology and Migration Policy Elzbieta M Gozdziak
U.S. Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy: Building Strong Relationships by Doing It Right
Foreign aid policies cannot be more successful than their implementation, which inherently involves people and institutions. But people have their own interests and cultural frameworks, and institutions are inevitably grounded in culture and politics. Inattention to the agendas of individuals involved on both sides of foreign aid to Central and Eastern Europe played a major role in its shortcomings. A recent court decision holding two Harvard uni…
Toward an Anthropology of Public Policy
As the rational choice model of "policy" proliferates in "policy studies, " the social sciences, modern governments, organizations, and everyday life, a number of anthropologists are beginning to develop a body of work in the anthropology of public policy that critiques the assumptions of "policy" as a legal-rational way of getting things done. While de-masking the framing of public policy questions, an anthropological approach attempts to uncove…
The Role of Sovereign Cliques in the Derailing of Democracy
Why an anthropology of public policy
We have co‐founded the Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy (IGAPP), which is affiliated with the American Anthropological Association, to provide an institutional framework to identify and foster the work of anthropologists studying policy. IGAPP's initial projects include compiling existing anthropological studies of policy discourses, processes and impacts, and developing curricula and syllabuses. We welcome the input of reader…
Accountability in International Development Advising: When Individual Conscience Is Not Enough
Expert Knowledge: First World Peoples, Consultancy, and Anthropology
Courtage international et institutions floues: Des rôles multiples, ambigus et contradictoires dans les relations russo-américaines
L’étude de la politique étrangère, de l’aide au développement et des relations internationales tend à se concentrer sur l’analyse des alternatives politiques. Pourtant, les modalités selon lesquelles s’organisent les relations entre les parties prenantes ainsi que les courtiers qui leur servent d’intermédiaires culturels peuvent très largement influencer les résultats des politiques, voire en contrarier les objectifs. Les liens américano-russes q…
Expert Knowledge: First World Peoples, Consultancy, and Anthropology
The essays in this forum collection are concerned primarily with the application of expert knowledge in fields where there is the expectation of considerable cultural, social, and political consequence for human populations, as a result of state, corporate, or non-governmental organizational action. The essays here are, with a couple of exceptions, written by anthropologists whose knowledge—insofar as it may be distinct from others in the social …
Homo Sovieticus, the Naïve American and 11.9
Society for the Anthropology of Europe: Governance in a Globalizing World
Kapitalizm: Russia's Struggle to Free Its Economy
Rose Brady, former Moscow bureau chief for Business Week magazine, here provides a compelling firsthand account of Russia's transition from a socialist state to a market economy. Taking us into the factories, stores, banks, markets, homes, schools, and corridors of power in Russia, she explains how the country's own brand of capitalism has evolved
Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power
Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power. Cris Shore and Susan Wright. eds. New York: Routledge, 1997. 294 pp
The Skeleton at the Feast: Contributions to East European Anthropology
Second Thoughts from the Second World: Interpreting Aid in Post-Communist Eastern Europe
While some aspects of the socialist past made aid essential to political and economic transition in eastern Europe after 1989, other socialist legacies seemed to undermine aid programs. As a result, aid ended up actually reproducing characteristics of socialist practice that it was intended to redress. This article accounts for such an outcome by outlining the special problems of aid in the post-communist context. It then draws on case studies of…
Toward an Anthropology of Public Policy
As the rational choice model of "policy" proliferates in "policy studies, " the social sciences, modern governments, organizations, and everyday life, a number of anthropologists are beginning to develop a body of work in the anthropology of public policy that critiques the assumptions of "policy" as a legal-rational way of getting things done. While de-masking the framing of public policy questions, an anthropological approach attempts to uncove…
From Power Elites to Influence Elites: Resetting Elite Studies for the 21st Century
The dominant theory of elite power, grounded in Weberian bureaucracy, has analyzed elites in terms of stable positions at the top of enduring institutions. Today, many conditions that spawned these stable 'command posts' no longer prevail, and elite power thus warrants rethinking. This article advances an argument about contemporary 'influence elites'. The way they are organized and the modus operandi they employ to wield influence enable them to…
The Unplanned Society: Poland During and After Communism
Success always leaves behind a residue of yearning for what used to be and an aversion to the forces that did away with it. -Kazimierz Wyka, 1945 In 1945, after the devastation of World War Two and German occupation of Poland, prominent literary critic Kazimierz Wyka foretold and warned of the results of society repressed by impersonal government and excluded from economic decisions. His essay, Excluded Economy, Clarifies the story of endless int…
Rethinking Corruption in an Age of Ambiguity
The central premise of the article is that the assumptions and approaches of the “anticorruption industry” that debuted in the 1990s framed the issue of corruption and substantially shaped scholarly inquiry on the subject. These assumptions and approaches also limited the ability to see other forms and patterns of corruption on the horizon. This article (a) critically reviews prevailing assumptions and approaches to the study of corruption during…
Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power
Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power. Cris Shore and Susan Wright. eds. New York: Routledge, 1997. 294 pp
Why an anthropology of public policy
We have co‐founded the Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy (IGAPP), which is affiliated with the American Anthropological Association, to provide an institutional framework to identify and foster the work of anthropologists studying policy. IGAPP's initial projects include compiling existing anthropological studies of policy discourses, processes and impacts, and developing curricula and syllabuses. We welcome the input of reader…
Expert Knowledge: First World Peoples, Consultancy, and Anthropology
The essays in this forum collection are concerned primarily with the application of expert knowledge in fields where there is the expectation of considerable cultural, social, and political consequence for human populations, as a result of state, corporate, or non-governmental organizational action. The essays here are, with a couple of exceptions, written by anthropologists whose knowledge—insofar as it may be distinct from others in the social …
Second Thoughts from the Second World: Interpreting Aid in Post-Communist Eastern Europe
While some aspects of the socialist past made aid essential to political and economic transition in eastern Europe after 1989, other socialist legacies seemed to undermine aid programs. As a result, aid ended up actually reproducing characteristics of socialist practice that it was intended to redress. This article accounts for such an outcome by outlining the special problems of aid in the post-communist context. It then draws on case studies of…
The Unplanned Society
Kapitalizm: Russia's Struggle to Free Its Economy
Rose Brady, former Moscow bureau chief for Business Week magazine, here provides a compelling firsthand account of Russia's transition from a socialist state to a market economy. Taking us into the factories, stores, banks, markets, homes, schools, and corridors of power in Russia, she explains how the country's own brand of capitalism has evolved
The Skeleton at the Feast: Contributions to East European Anthropology
Ethical Research across Power Divides
U.S. Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy: Building Strong Relationships by Doing It Right
Foreign aid policies cannot be more successful than their implementation, which inherently involves people and institutions. But people have their own interests and cultural frameworks, and institutions are inevitably grounded in culture and politics. Inattention to the agendas of individuals involved on both sides of foreign aid to Central and Eastern Europe played a major role in its shortcomings. A recent court decision holding two Harvard uni…
U.S. Aid to Central and Eastern Europe: Results and Recommendations
Most assessments of foreign aid to Central and Eastern Europe have been from the donors’ perspective. How do things look from the other side
The Power of Symbois against the Symbols of Power: The Rise of Solidarity and the Fail of State Socialism in Poland. JAN Kubik
Studying Up: Amending the First Principles of Anthropological Ethics
The Unintended Consequences of Western Aid to Post-Communist Europe
Foreign aid is a powerful vehicle for influencing the policy — and the psychology — of the recipients. It can threaten delicate balances within the recipient countries, and this may deflect attention from the real issues confronting them. The impact of any aid depends on how the donor structures and implements it, as well as on how the recipient's cultural and institutional capacities shape the ways aid is put to use. The donor's agenda, strategi…
Social Scientific Analysis of God's Playground: Two Recent Books on Poland
The Unintended Consequences of Western Aid to Post-Communist Europe
Foreign aid is a powerful vehicle for influencing the policy — and the psychology — of the recipients. It can threaten delicate balances within the recipient countries, and this may deflect attention from the real issues confronting them. The impact of any aid depends on how the donor structures and implements it, as well as on how the recipient's cultural and institutional capacities shape the ways aid is put to use. The donor's agenda, strategi…
The Unplanned Society
Professionals, Power and Solidarity in Poland: A Critical Sociology of Soviet-type Society
The Unplanned Society: Poland During and After Communism
Success always leaves behind a residue of yearning for what used to be and an aversion to the forces that did away with it. -Kazimierz Wyka, 1945 In 1945, after the devastation of World War Two and German occupation of Poland, prominent literary critic Kazimierz Wyka foretold and warned of the results of society repressed by impersonal government and excluded from economic decisions. His essay, Excluded Economy, Clarifies the story of endless int…
Studying Up: Amending the First Principles of Anthropological Ethics
U.S. Aid to Central and Eastern Europe: Results and Recommendations
Most assessments of foreign aid to Central and Eastern Europe have been from the donors’ perspective. How do things look from the other side
Western Aid to Central and Emtern Europe
The Power of Symbois against the Symbols of Power: The Rise of Solidarity and the Fail of State Socialism in Poland. JAN Kubik
Second Thoughts from the Second World: Interpreting Aid in Post-Communist Eastern Europe
While some aspects of the socialist past made aid essential to political and economic transition in eastern Europe after 1989, other socialist legacies seemed to undermine aid programs. As a result, aid ended up actually reproducing characteristics of socialist practice that it was intended to redress. This article accounts for such an outcome by outlining the special problems of aid in the post-communist context. It then draws on case studies of…
The Skeleton at the Feast: Contributions to East European Anthropology
Kapitalizm: Russia's Struggle to Free Its Economy
Rose Brady, former Moscow bureau chief for Business Week magazine, here provides a compelling firsthand account of Russia's transition from a socialist state to a market economy. Taking us into the factories, stores, banks, markets, homes, schools, and corridors of power in Russia, she explains how the country's own brand of capitalism has evolved
Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power
Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power. Cris Shore and Susan Wright. eds. New York: Routledge, 1997. 294 pp
Homo Sovieticus, the Naïve American and 11.9
Society for the Anthropology of Europe: Governance in a Globalizing World
Expert Knowledge: First World Peoples, Consultancy, and Anthropology
The essays in this forum collection are concerned primarily with the application of expert knowledge in fields where there is the expectation of considerable cultural, social, and political consequence for human populations, as a result of state, corporate, or non-governmental organizational action. The essays here are, with a couple of exceptions, written by anthropologists whose knowledge—insofar as it may be distinct from others in the social …
Accountability in International Development Advising: When Individual Conscience Is Not Enough
Expert Knowledge: First World Peoples, Consultancy, and Anthropology
Courtage international et institutions floues: Des rôles multiples, ambigus et contradictoires dans les relations russo-américaines
L’étude de la politique étrangère, de l’aide au développement et des relations internationales tend à se concentrer sur l’analyse des alternatives politiques. Pourtant, les modalités selon lesquelles s’organisent les relations entre les parties prenantes ainsi que les courtiers qui leur servent d’intermédiaires culturels peuvent très largement influencer les résultats des politiques, voire en contrarier les objectifs. Les liens américano-russes q…
U.S. Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy: Building Strong Relationships by Doing It Right
Foreign aid policies cannot be more successful than their implementation, which inherently involves people and institutions. But people have their own interests and cultural frameworks, and institutions are inevitably grounded in culture and politics. Inattention to the agendas of individuals involved on both sides of foreign aid to Central and Eastern Europe played a major role in its shortcomings. A recent court decision holding two Harvard uni…
Toward an Anthropology of Public Policy
As the rational choice model of "policy" proliferates in "policy studies, " the social sciences, modern governments, organizations, and everyday life, a number of anthropologists are beginning to develop a body of work in the anthropology of public policy that critiques the assumptions of "policy" as a legal-rational way of getting things done. While de-masking the framing of public policy questions, an anthropological approach attempts to uncove…
The Role of Sovereign Cliques in the Derailing of Democracy
Why an anthropology of public policy
We have co‐founded the Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy (IGAPP), which is affiliated with the American Anthropological Association, to provide an institutional framework to identify and foster the work of anthropologists studying policy. IGAPP's initial projects include compiling existing anthropological studies of policy discourses, processes and impacts, and developing curricula and syllabuses. We welcome the input of reader…
Le développement pris en otage, comment l'aide américaine à la Russie a été détournée par les « transacteurs
This article examines the nature of ?transactorship? as manifested in US economic aid to Russia via advisers from Harvard University during the 1990s. The case illustrates the implications for nations when vital state functions are delegated to players who not only operate on both sides of the state-private divide but also advance, in collusion with players from the opposite side, group agendas that supersede the goals and/or interests of their n…
Anthropology of Public Policy
Anthropology and Migration Policy Elzbieta M Gozdziak
Political science (30 works) · Law (23 works) · Sociology (21 works) · Law (15 works) · History (13 works) · Politics (12 works) · Political economy (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · History (9 works) · Geography (8 works)