Guarding the goods, producing the state

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Kostić, D. (2017). Guarding the goods, producing the state: Analysis of narratives of customs officers, 65(1), 65-79. Retrieved from http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08611701065K
Details
Title

Guarding the goods, producing the state

Subtitle

Analysis of narratives of customs officers

Author

Dejana, Kostić

Journal

Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU

Volume
Issue

1

Start page

65

End page

79

ISSN
ISBN
DOI
URL

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08611701065K

Date

2017-2020/03/24/15:41:34

Abstract

By focusing on narratives of customs officers from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, I examine how technological and organizational change of customs work influences governance and sovereignty of the state and how customs officers produced a specific imaginary of the state through their narratives. Supporting the contention that the transnational flow of goods and people restructures rather than undermines the state power, the Serbian and Bosnian cases reveal how technological and organizational change of customs work opened up new arenas for an expression of state sovereignty and new modes of governance. Furthermore, I analyze narratives about unauthorized actions, or shady business as customs officers call it, as a mechanism through which “the state” is discursively constructed.

Keywords

state, customs officers, shady business(muljanje), technological and organizational change