EMMA CREWE

When you encounter potential conflicts in organisations, which are inevitable because groups always have different needs, interests and intentions, diplomacy is needed. Management involves diplomacy if we assume that this is political work between groups that enables some kind of movement towards a merging or at least intertwining of goals. Diplomacy is normally seen as negotiation between nations.  Claude AI claims: ‘Diplomacy is the art and practice of managing international relations through dialogue, negotiation, and peaceful means. It serves as…

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This article, written with political scientist Michelle Taylor-Robinson, is about co-operative and polarised politics in Texas. Political work requires alliance building, but antagonism and divisions dominate legislatures and society in many democracies. In Texas legislators are pulled in both directions simultaneously in surprising ways. We use the anthropological method of ethnography and the political science method of network analysis and show how their combination enhances understanding of cross-party cooperation among Representatives even when such work is not depicted in the…

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I recently wrote an article about the UK Parliament’s role in creating, maintaining and delaying the abolition of Transatlantic African Trafficking and Chattel Enslavement. If Parliament were to face up to this history and its impact, it could contribute to the repair that is needed in a world that remains racist towards Africans both on their continent and in the diaspora. I discovered that at least one of my ancestors was an enslaver. John Crewe was compensated £5,102 for 234…

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Texas politics is a harbinger of what is to come or decades behind the UK. Or both. The long tradition of bipartisanship in the Texas House of Representatives, whereby elected Representations in both political parties collaborate to get bills passed, is under attack. The Republicans have dominated Texas politicis since the 1990s. But while their ideology and aspirations have been moderate, and mostly focused on the economy and providing services, in the Texas House of Representatives they worked with Democrats…

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In universities we face the triple burden of: a financial model that no longer works well because we are not funded by government and want to resist the push to become businesses; a mental health and economic crisis facing staff and students; intense (and often uneven) workloads, taking us away from what we want to be doing: teaching, researching, writing and contributing to public good. I am typical in trying to do too much. In my case I’m head of…

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An exhibition on the relationship between politicians and people! Taking place in the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, 9am to 5pm, 13 January to 16 March 2024, it features research findings from six countries: Brazil, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, the UK and the US. Living Democracy – Frayed entanglements offers films, photography, installations, audio and text that reveal riffs, rhythms and rituals in Parliaments. It is an explosion of creativity by a team of researchers and film-makers from Brazil, Ethiopia, Fiji and the…

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The Global Research Network on Parliaments and People, at SOAS’s Department of Anthropology and Sociology, has initiated a new research programme with the Mursi (or Mun), a group of agro-pastoralists living in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia. They have found encounters with outsiders mostly painful, and often violent, in tune with most indigenous groups globally. This new GRNPP initiative will support members of the Mursi community to promote more peaceful encounters with the outside world and advise their…

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