Publications - Thomas Hüsken

Monographs

Hüsken, Thomas. 2019. Tribal Politics in the Borderland of Egypt and Libya. Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Praise for Tribal Politics in the Borderland of Egypt and Libya

“The borderland of Egypt and Libya has been explored by four generations of anthropologists who produced among them some of the most innovative ethnographies. Thomas Hüsken thus stands on the shoulders of giants, but has also gained his own honourable position in this elite. After twenty years of living in and writing about the region, he has now produced a study for our times. His account is thick and rich, and brings out the Bedouins’ complex political and economic conditions. In eloquent and unaffected language he also addresses the challenges of fieldwork in difficult times.”
–Emanuel Marx, Author of Bedouin of Mount Sinai

“Thomas Hüsken’s admirably rich study of the Libyan-Egyptian borderlands operates at multiple levels. It affords a highly textured account of the inner workings of tribe and kinship politics and the manner in which the latter mediates cross-border dynamics. It also delivers a fascinating exposé of the manner in which state author- ity has been constituted differently by virtue of the mutual embeddedness of state actors with tribal authority on the two sides of the line. The practical organization of smuggling through kinship associations, and the moral ambiguities surrounding the trade, make an especially valuable contribution to the field.”
—Paul Nugent, Professor, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

“In recent years, particularly since the Arab Spring, the notion of “tribalism” has made a remarkable comeback. However, many discussions of the phenomenon in political science and other fields are based on mistaken assumptions about tribal modes of organization that are basically rooted in evolutionary thinking. With its rich ethnographic data on tribal politics, based on long-term fieldwork under difficult conditions in the Egyptian/Libyan border region, the book offers a welcome and necessary counterweight to such conceptions. This book is scholarship of the highest level. It is theoretically innovative and essential for anyone interested in regional politics after the collapse of the Libyan state. It is relevant for anthropology, political science, cultural geography, sociology and related disciplines. With its critique of eurocentric assumptions about postcolonial statehood it is also highly relevant for political decision makers.”
—Wolfgang Kraus, Professor, University of Vienna, Austria

Hüsken, Thomas. 2006. Der Stamm der Experten, Rhetorik und Praxis des interkulturellen Managements in der deutschen staatlichen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Bielefeld: transcript.

Hüsken, Thomas, and Olin Roenpage. 1998. Jenseits von Traditionalismus und Stagnation. Analyse einer beduinischen Ökonomie in der Westlichen Wüste Ägyptens. Münster: LIT-Verlag.

Edited Volumes

Hüsken, Thomas, Alexander Solyga, and Dida Badi, eds. 2019. The Multiplicity of Orders and Practices: A Tribute to Georg Klute. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

Hüsken, Thomas, ed. 2007. Youth, Gender and the City: Social Anthropological Explorations in Cairo. Cairo: Goethe-Institut Egypt.

Articles in Reviewed Journals

Hüsken, Thomas. 2017. “The Practice and Culture of Smuggling in the Borderland of Egypt and Libya,” in “Contentious Borders: Sovereignty and Statehood in the Middle East and North Africa Post-2011,” ed. Raffaella A. del Sarto and Asli S. Okyay, special issue, International Affairs 93 (4): 897–915.

Hüsken, Thomas, and Georg Klute. 2017. “Heterarchie, Konnektivität, lokale Politik und die Neuaushandlung der postkolonialen Ordnung von Libyen bis nach Mali,” in “Arabellion, Vom Aufbruch zum Zerfall einer Region,” ed. Thomas Demmelhuber, Axel Paul, and Maurus Reinkowski, special issue, Leviathan 31:155–79.

Hüsken, Thomas, and Georg Klute. 2015. “Political Orders in the Making: Emerging Forms of Political Organization from Libya to Northern Mali.” African Security 8 (4): 320–37.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2012. “Tribal Political Culture and the Revolution in the Cyrenaica of Libya.” Orient, German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East 1:26– 31.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2010. “Outside the Whale: The Contested Life and Work of Development Experts.” Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 4:20–36.

Hüsken, Thomas, and Georg Klute. 2010. “Emerging Forms of Power in two African Borderlands,” in “From Empiricism to Theory in African Border Studies,” ed. David Copland, special issue, Journal of African Borderland Studies 25 (2): 28–42.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2009. “Die neotribale Wettbewerbsordnung in Grenzland von Ägypten und Libyen.” Sociologus 2:117–43.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2004. “Ethnologie, Soziologie und skeptische Sozialanthropologie – die Berliner Schule.” Entwicklungsethnologie 1:41–51.

Articles and Book Chapters

Hüsken, Thomas. 2021. “Research in Dangerous Fields: Ethics, Morals, and Practices in the Study of Smuggling.” In The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling, edited by Max Gallien and Florian Weigand, 20–43. Milton Park: Routledge.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2017. “Tribes and Political Islam in the Borderland between Egypt and Libya: a (Trans-)Local Perspective.” In Tribes and Global Jihadism, edited by Virginie Collombier Olivier Roy, 59–81. London: Hurst.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2013. “Tribes, Revolution, and Political Culture in the Cyrenaica Region of Libya.” In Local Politics and Contemporary Transformations in The Arab World: Governance Beyond the Center, edited by Malika Bouziane, Cilja Harders, and Anja Hoffmann, 214–31. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2011a. “Politische Kultur und die Revolution in der Cyrenaika.” In Libyen: Hintergründe, Analysen, Berichte, edited by Fritz Edlinger, 47–71. Vienna: Promedia Verlag.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2011b. “Erhebe dein Haupt. Der Ethnologe Dr. Thomas Hüsken berichtet aus Ägypten und Libyen.” UBT Aktuell: Nachrichten aus der Universität Bayreuth 2 (May): 1–14.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2011c. “Stämme, Räterepublik und die Revolution.” Afrika-Post: Magazin für Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur 2 (June): 12–13.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2009. “The Neotribal Competitive Order in the Borderland of Egypt and Libya.” In Respacing Africa, edited by Ulf Engel and Paul Nugent, 169–209. Amsterdam: Brill.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2008. “Vertrauen und die Organisation von Heterogenität.” In Vertrauen im interkulturellen Kontext, edited by Elias Jamal, 38–51. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2007. “Introduction.” In Youth, Gender and the City: Social Anthropological Explorations in Cairo edited by Thomas Hüsken, 1–14. Cairo: Goethe-Institut Egypt.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2004. “Georg Elwert und die Berliner Schule der skeptischen Sozialanthropologie.” In Anthropologie der Konflikte. Georg Elwerts konflikttheoretische Thesen in der Diskussion, edited by Julia Eckert, 315–30. Bielefeld: transcript.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2001. “Überlegungen zur interkulturellen Kommunikation und zum interkulturellen Management in Projekten der deutschen staatlichen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit.” In Entwicklungspolitische Perspektiven im Kontext wachsender Komplexität, Festschrift für Prof. Dr. Dieter Weiss, Forschungsbericht des Bundesministeriums für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, edited by Steffen Wippel and Inse Cornelssen, 128:379–417. Munich, Bonn, and London: Weltforum.

Hüsken, Thomas, and Olin Roenpage. 1999. “Ein beduinisches Gewohnheitsrecht in der westlichen Wüste Ägyptens als verläßliche und flexible Konfliktlösungsinstanz.” In Settling of Land Conflicts by Mediation, Schlichtung von Landkonflikten – ein workshop, edited by Erdmute Alber and Julia Eckert. Bonn and Eschborn: GTZ Abteilung 4500, Ländliche Entwicklung. CD-ROM.

Working Papers

Hüsken, Thomas. 2009. Stämme, Staaten und Assoziationen – Beduinische Politik im ägyptisch-libyschen Grenzland. Diskussionspapiere 104. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag.

Hüsken, Thomas, and Georg Klute. 2008. Emerging Forms of Power in Contemporary Africa – a Theoretical and Empirical Research Outline. Diskussionspapiere 101. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2003. Der Stamm der Experten. Chancen und Probleme der interkulturellen Kommunikation und des interkulturellen Managements in Projekten der deutschen staatlichen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Sozialanthropologisches Arbeitspapier Nr. 97. Berlin: Hans Schiler.

Online Publications

Hüsken, Thomas. 2012. “Political Cultures and the Revolution in the Cyrenaica of Libya.” Anthropology News (the magazine of the American Anthropological Association).

Forthcoming Publications

Hüsken, Thomas. 2022a. Forthcoming. “Stichwort: Stamm.” In Lexikon nicht-staatlicher Gruppen und Gemeinschaften im Mittelmeerraum, edited by Mihran Dabag. Paderborn: Fink.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2022b. Forthcoming. “Stichwort Klan.” In Lexikon nicht-staatlicher Gruppen und Gemeinschaften im Mittelmeerraum, edited by Mihran Dabag. Paderborn: Fink.

Hüsken, Thomas. 2022c. Forthcoming. “Stichwort Lineage.” In Lexikon nicht-staatlicher Gruppen und Gemeinschaften im Mittelmeerraum, edited by Mihran Dabag. Paderborn: Fink.