Gregor Dobler
Biographic Data
| ID | 158194 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gregor Dobler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gregor |
| FAMILY NAME | Dobler |
| SIGNATURE | DOBLER G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Freiburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6598-1709 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Muße und Mußeforschung
Building on more than ten years of interdisciplinary research at the University of Freiburg, this volume offers the first comprehensive overview of Muße (otium or dignified leisure) and its societal relevance. As a time of temporary relief from societys demands for productivity, otium enables freedom and creativity - but, controversially, only for some.
Muße und Mußeforschung
Der vorliegende Band gibt einen kompakten, interdisziplinär angelegten Überblick über die Konzeptgeschichte und die gesellschaftliche Relevanz von Muße. Muße entlastet auf Zeit von Produktivitätsansprüchen der Gesellschaft und ermöglicht damit Freiheit und vielfältige Kreativität. Gerade deshalb ist sie umstritten: Die Möglichkeit, gesellschaftliche Ansprüche für eine Weile zu vergessen, wird stets nur gewissen Gruppen zugestanden. An Diskussione…
Produktive Unproduktivität
Muße wird gemeinhin als selbstbestimmte Zeit charakterisiert, die sich durch die Freiheit von Zwängen auszeichnet - Arbeit gilt dann schnell als ihr Gegenteil. Bei genauerer Analyse hingegen sind die Grenzen zwischen Muße und Arbeit keineswegs so scharf zu ziehen und ihre Beziehung zueinander stellt sich als deutlich komplexer heraus. Welche Spielräume bietet Arbeit für Muße? Inwiefern kann Muße Arbeit und Arbeit Muße sein? Die interdisziplinären…
Secessionism in Anjouan, Comoros
Waiting
Waiting has become an important topic for the social sciences and a metaphor for the situation of young people in a variety of regions. This essay proposes to take a step back from metaphors of waithood, stuckedness, timepass or boredom to newly ask what waiting is and what social consequences it has. I see waiting as the evaluation of a situation; by social framing, this evaluation can coagulate into a specific action. Both evaluation and action…
Who defines the new? A plea for ethnographic humility
After ethnos” on the history of anthropologyMy difficulties with Tobias Rees’s approach start with the history of anthropology. In the effort to clearly present what he sees as new in recent anthropology, he defines away most of its traces from established ethnography.Rees’s reconstruction of the history of ethnography and anthropology more or less takes Malinowski’s word for the shortcomings of his predecessors and for the novelty of his own app…
Swiss extractivism
Switzerland is usually not looked upon as a substantial economic actor in Africa. Taking Zambian copper as a case study, we show how important Swiss companies have become in the global commodities trade and the services it depends on. While big Swiss trading firms such as Glencore and Trafigura have generated increasing scholarly and public interest, a multitude of Swiss companies is involved in logistics and transport of Zambian copper.Swiss ext…
Presence and absence
This photo essay shows images of closed-down shops in rural northern Namibia, businesses that flourished in the context of an apartheid homeland but had to shut down when democracy opened up the area to competition and urbanisation. The photographs are of buildings that bear the traces of the people who built and owned them — people who are present in the images only through their absence. The narrative gives a background on the history of local …
Muße und Gesellschaft
Muße ist ein freies Verweilen in der Zeit jenseits von Zweckrationalismus und Utilitarismus. Sie zielt auf Freiheit von Zeitzwängen und unmittelbarer Leistungserwartung, auf ästhetisch und räumlich inszenierte Lebensformen einer Freiheit, die in der Zeit nicht der Herrschaft der Zeit unterliegt. Muße mag damit zunächst als individuelle Erfahrung und Haltung erscheinen, die den Menschen aus gesellschaftlichen Zwängen herausnimmt, aber sie ist auch…
Muße und Gesellschaft
Leisure (Otium) and Society
China and Namibia, 1990 to 2015
The article identifies changes in Namibia’s society linked to China’s new role. To understand such changes, it is important to avoid isolating ‘Chinese actors’ from their host society. The author analyses links between Chinese and Namibian actors in three domains: ‘soft power’, Chinese traders and the construction industry. In all three, the presence of Chinese actors does not simply change Namibia’s relations with the world. It has important rep…
The green, the grey and the blue
What are the reasons for the extraordinary dynamism of many African border regions? Are there specificities to African borderlands? The article provides answers to these questions by analysing the historical development of African state borders' social and economic relevance. It presents a typology of cross-border trade in Africa, differentiating trade across the 'green' border of bush paths and villages, the 'grey' border of roads, railways and …
Work and rhythm' revisited
Karl Bücher's Arbeit und Rhythmus (1896) foreshadowed a practical turn in the anthropology of work. Concentrating on work rhythms, Bücher described work as human action, not merely as a means to an end. Building on his analysis, I argue that anthropology has much to gain by taking rhythm seriously as an analytical category. Rhythm facilitates and proves the acquisition of skills; it forms a link between the exigencies of 'clock time' and the expe…
Muße und Arbeit
Traders and Trade in Colonial Ovamboland, 1925-1990
"Taking the history of trade and of traders as its subject matter, this book offers the first economic history of northern Namibia during the twentieth century. It traces Namibia's way from a rural, largely self-relying society into a globalised economy of consumption. This transformation built on colonial economic activities, but it was crucially shaped by local traders, a new social elite emerging during the 1950s and 1960s. Becoming a trader w…
Entrepreneurship, colonial monetary economy and the limits of creativity
Innovation has two faces for science and technology studies. First, it describes the invention of a new technique and second, it denotes the process of social adaptation and social role of an innovation is defined. In the study of science and technology, innovation comes first, before adaptation and appropriation, while for social anthropologists, adaptation and appropriation constitute the innovation. This chapter describes the second perspectiv…
On the border to chaos
Borders are places where, in everyday interaction, collective identities are shaped by comparison and contrast. Slight differences in practice are often used to construct huge differences in identity, especially if they can be linked to the legitimacy of political domination. Today's border between Namibia and Angola has been the frontier of Portuguese and British/ South African colonialism since 1915. The South African colonial administration ha…
Oshikango
Angola's economic re-integration into the Southern African region profoundly changes the economic and political landscape in the neighbouring countries. Apart from the country's new political influence, Angolan buying power leads to an economic boom in formerly marginal places along its borders. Oshikango, the main Namibian border post to Angola, is perhaps the most impressive example of that change. Over the last 12 years, a forgotten outpost ha…
From Scotch Whisky to Chinese Sneakers
After the end of the colonial period, international commodity flows into Africa at first continued to reproduce patterns of colonial domination. In the last ten years, however, important shifts have become visible. New commodity chains bypassing the old colonial powers have developed and are changing the way Africa is integrated into the global economy. This article looks at four trade networks that converge in Oshikango, a small trade boom town …
Les élections en Namibie de novembre 2004
Lors des élections présidentielle et législatives de novembre 2004 en Namibie, la Swapo a remporté les trois quarts des sièges à l'Assemblée nationale et S. Nujoma, le président sortant, a cédé la place au candidat qu'il privilégiait, H. Pohamba. En raison de la domination politique écrasante de la Swapo, la guerre de succession entre opposants et partisans de Nujoma au sein du parti fut plus acharnée que les campagnes électorales elles-mêmes. Ce…
From Scotch Whisky to Chinese Sneakers
After the end of the colonial period, international commodity flows into Africa at first continued to reproduce patterns of colonial domination. In the last ten years, however, important shifts have become visible. New commodity chains bypassing the old colonial powers have developed and are changing the way Africa is integrated into the global economy. This article looks at four trade networks that converge in Oshikango, a small trade boom town …
Oshikango
Angola's economic re-integration into the Southern African region profoundly changes the economic and political landscape in the neighbouring countries. Apart from the country's new political influence, Angolan buying power leads to an economic boom in formerly marginal places along its borders. Oshikango, the main Namibian border post to Angola, is perhaps the most impressive example of that change. Over the last 12 years, a forgotten outpost ha…
Work and rhythm' revisited
Karl Bücher's Arbeit und Rhythmus (1896) foreshadowed a practical turn in the anthropology of work. Concentrating on work rhythms, Bücher described work as human action, not merely as a means to an end. Building on his analysis, I argue that anthropology has much to gain by taking rhythm seriously as an analytical category. Rhythm facilitates and proves the acquisition of skills; it forms a link between the exigencies of 'clock time' and the expe…
Swiss extractivism
Switzerland is usually not looked upon as a substantial economic actor in Africa. Taking Zambian copper as a case study, we show how important Swiss companies have become in the global commodities trade and the services it depends on. While big Swiss trading firms such as Glencore and Trafigura have generated increasing scholarly and public interest, a multitude of Swiss companies is involved in logistics and transport of Zambian copper.Swiss ext…
The green, the grey and the blue
What are the reasons for the extraordinary dynamism of many African border regions? Are there specificities to African borderlands? The article provides answers to these questions by analysing the historical development of African state borders' social and economic relevance. It presents a typology of cross-border trade in Africa, differentiating trade across the 'green' border of bush paths and villages, the 'grey' border of roads, railways and …
Waiting
Waiting has become an important topic for the social sciences and a metaphor for the situation of young people in a variety of regions. This essay proposes to take a step back from metaphors of waithood, stuckedness, timepass or boredom to newly ask what waiting is and what social consequences it has. I see waiting as the evaluation of a situation; by social framing, this evaluation can coagulate into a specific action. Both evaluation and action…
Traders and Trade in Colonial Ovamboland, 1925-1990
"Taking the history of trade and of traders as its subject matter, this book offers the first economic history of northern Namibia during the twentieth century. It traces Namibia's way from a rural, largely self-relying society into a globalised economy of consumption. This transformation built on colonial economic activities, but it was crucially shaped by local traders, a new social elite emerging during the 1950s and 1960s. Becoming a trader w…
China and Namibia, 1990 to 2015
The article identifies changes in Namibia’s society linked to China’s new role. To understand such changes, it is important to avoid isolating ‘Chinese actors’ from their host society. The author analyses links between Chinese and Namibian actors in three domains: ‘soft power’, Chinese traders and the construction industry. In all three, the presence of Chinese actors does not simply change Namibia’s relations with the world. It has important rep…
On the border to chaos
Borders are places where, in everyday interaction, collective identities are shaped by comparison and contrast. Slight differences in practice are often used to construct huge differences in identity, especially if they can be linked to the legitimacy of political domination. Today's border between Namibia and Angola has been the frontier of Portuguese and British/ South African colonialism since 1915. The South African colonial administration ha…
Les élections en Namibie de novembre 2004
Lors des élections présidentielle et législatives de novembre 2004 en Namibie, la Swapo a remporté les trois quarts des sièges à l'Assemblée nationale et S. Nujoma, le président sortant, a cédé la place au candidat qu'il privilégiait, H. Pohamba. En raison de la domination politique écrasante de la Swapo, la guerre de succession entre opposants et partisans de Nujoma au sein du parti fut plus acharnée que les campagnes électorales elles-mêmes. Ce…
From Scotch Whisky to Chinese Sneakers
After the end of the colonial period, international commodity flows into Africa at first continued to reproduce patterns of colonial domination. In the last ten years, however, important shifts have become visible. New commodity chains bypassing the old colonial powers have developed and are changing the way Africa is integrated into the global economy. This article looks at four trade networks that converge in Oshikango, a small trade boom town …
Oshikango
Angola's economic re-integration into the Southern African region profoundly changes the economic and political landscape in the neighbouring countries. Apart from the country's new political influence, Angolan buying power leads to an economic boom in formerly marginal places along its borders. Oshikango, the main Namibian border post to Angola, is perhaps the most impressive example of that change. Over the last 12 years, a forgotten outpost ha…
On the border to chaos
Borders are places where, in everyday interaction, collective identities are shaped by comparison and contrast. Slight differences in practice are often used to construct huge differences in identity, especially if they can be linked to the legitimacy of political domination. Today's border between Namibia and Angola has been the frontier of Portuguese and British/ South African colonialism since 1915. The South African colonial administration ha…
Entrepreneurship, colonial monetary economy and the limits of creativity
Innovation has two faces for science and technology studies. First, it describes the invention of a new technique and second, it denotes the process of social adaptation and social role of an innovation is defined. In the study of science and technology, innovation comes first, before adaptation and appropriation, while for social anthropologists, adaptation and appropriation constitute the innovation. This chapter describes the second perspectiv…
Muße und Arbeit
Traders and Trade in Colonial Ovamboland, 1925-1990
"Taking the history of trade and of traders as its subject matter, this book offers the first economic history of northern Namibia during the twentieth century. It traces Namibia's way from a rural, largely self-relying society into a globalised economy of consumption. This transformation built on colonial economic activities, but it was crucially shaped by local traders, a new social elite emerging during the 1950s and 1960s. Becoming a trader w…
The green, the grey and the blue
What are the reasons for the extraordinary dynamism of many African border regions? Are there specificities to African borderlands? The article provides answers to these questions by analysing the historical development of African state borders' social and economic relevance. It presents a typology of cross-border trade in Africa, differentiating trade across the 'green' border of bush paths and villages, the 'grey' border of roads, railways and …
Work and rhythm' revisited
Karl Bücher's Arbeit und Rhythmus (1896) foreshadowed a practical turn in the anthropology of work. Concentrating on work rhythms, Bücher described work as human action, not merely as a means to an end. Building on his analysis, I argue that anthropology has much to gain by taking rhythm seriously as an analytical category. Rhythm facilitates and proves the acquisition of skills; it forms a link between the exigencies of 'clock time' and the expe…
Muße und Gesellschaft
Muße ist ein freies Verweilen in der Zeit jenseits von Zweckrationalismus und Utilitarismus. Sie zielt auf Freiheit von Zeitzwängen und unmittelbarer Leistungserwartung, auf ästhetisch und räumlich inszenierte Lebensformen einer Freiheit, die in der Zeit nicht der Herrschaft der Zeit unterliegt. Muße mag damit zunächst als individuelle Erfahrung und Haltung erscheinen, die den Menschen aus gesellschaftlichen Zwängen herausnimmt, aber sie ist auch…
Muße und Gesellschaft
Leisure (Otium) and Society
China and Namibia, 1990 to 2015
The article identifies changes in Namibia’s society linked to China’s new role. To understand such changes, it is important to avoid isolating ‘Chinese actors’ from their host society. The author analyses links between Chinese and Namibian actors in three domains: ‘soft power’, Chinese traders and the construction industry. In all three, the presence of Chinese actors does not simply change Namibia’s relations with the world. It has important rep…
Presence and absence
This photo essay shows images of closed-down shops in rural northern Namibia, businesses that flourished in the context of an apartheid homeland but had to shut down when democracy opened up the area to competition and urbanisation. The photographs are of buildings that bear the traces of the people who built and owned them — people who are present in the images only through their absence. The narrative gives a background on the history of local …
Secessionism in Anjouan, Comoros
Waiting
Waiting has become an important topic for the social sciences and a metaphor for the situation of young people in a variety of regions. This essay proposes to take a step back from metaphors of waithood, stuckedness, timepass or boredom to newly ask what waiting is and what social consequences it has. I see waiting as the evaluation of a situation; by social framing, this evaluation can coagulate into a specific action. Both evaluation and action…
Who defines the new? A plea for ethnographic humility
After ethnos” on the history of anthropologyMy difficulties with Tobias Rees’s approach start with the history of anthropology. In the effort to clearly present what he sees as new in recent anthropology, he defines away most of its traces from established ethnography.Rees’s reconstruction of the history of ethnography and anthropology more or less takes Malinowski’s word for the shortcomings of his predecessors and for the novelty of his own app…
Swiss extractivism
Switzerland is usually not looked upon as a substantial economic actor in Africa. Taking Zambian copper as a case study, we show how important Swiss companies have become in the global commodities trade and the services it depends on. While big Swiss trading firms such as Glencore and Trafigura have generated increasing scholarly and public interest, a multitude of Swiss companies is involved in logistics and transport of Zambian copper.Swiss ext…
Produktive Unproduktivität
Muße wird gemeinhin als selbstbestimmte Zeit charakterisiert, die sich durch die Freiheit von Zwängen auszeichnet - Arbeit gilt dann schnell als ihr Gegenteil. Bei genauerer Analyse hingegen sind die Grenzen zwischen Muße und Arbeit keineswegs so scharf zu ziehen und ihre Beziehung zueinander stellt sich als deutlich komplexer heraus. Welche Spielräume bietet Arbeit für Muße? Inwiefern kann Muße Arbeit und Arbeit Muße sein? Die interdisziplinären…
Muße und Mußeforschung
Building on more than ten years of interdisciplinary research at the University of Freiburg, this volume offers the first comprehensive overview of Muße (otium or dignified leisure) and its societal relevance. As a time of temporary relief from societys demands for productivity, otium enables freedom and creativity - but, controversially, only for some.
Muße und Mußeforschung
Der vorliegende Band gibt einen kompakten, interdisziplinär angelegten Überblick über die Konzeptgeschichte und die gesellschaftliche Relevanz von Muße. Muße entlastet auf Zeit von Produktivitätsansprüchen der Gesellschaft und ermöglicht damit Freiheit und vielfältige Kreativität. Gerade deshalb ist sie umstritten: Die Möglichkeit, gesellschaftliche Ansprüche für eine Weile zu vergessen, wird stets nur gewissen Gruppen zugestanden. An Diskussione…
Political science (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Economy (6 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · History (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · African history and culture studies (4 works)