Telephone: +46 (0)8 16 36 26
Room: B654
E-mail: gabriella.korling@socant.su.se
Gabriella Körling received her B.A (2003) in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and her M.A (2005) in cultural anthropology from Uppsala University. She holds a PhD (2011) in cultural anthropology from Uppsala University. She joined the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University in March 2015. Körling’s research interests include the anthropology of the state, urban anthropology, politics and decentralization. She has carried out fieldwork in Niger since 2004 and short term fieldwork in Mali since 2011. She has previously taught courses in political and economic anthropology and anthropological methods.
Körling’s PhD dissertation In Search of the State: An Ethnography of Public Service Provision in Urban Niger addressed the everyday construction of the state in urban Niger. It approached the state through the study of public health and education services focusing on people’s daily experiences of and expectations on such services. Körling has also carried out a comparative research project together with Sten Hagberg on decentralization and political practice in municipalities in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso (Expanding Spheres of Opposition? Democratic Culture and Local Development in West African municipalities). Körling’s current project “Waiting for the railway: Infrastructure, mobility and trade at a West African crossroads” sets out to explore the relationships between infrastructure mobility and trade in Niger. The project takes the construction of Niger’s first railway line as an entry point for exploring political and historical processes in relation to infrastructure and mobility in a town situated alongside the future railway tracks. Körling will also be a guest researcher at Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains (LAMC), Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Publications
2020
- Körling, Gabriella. 2020. Bricks, Documents and Pipes: Material Politics and Urban Development in Niamey, Niger. City & Society 32(1): 23-46.
- Körling, Gabriella & Hassane Moussa Ibrahima. 2020. “Tout a été loti!”: Decentralisation, Land Speculation and Urban Expansion in Niamey, Niger. kritisk etnografi 2 (1-2): 67-79.
- Körling, Gabriella. 2020. Great Expectations and Uncertain Futures: Education and Social Im/mobility in Niamey, Niger. In J. Noret, ed. Social Im/mobilities in Africa: Ethnographic Approaches. Berghahn Books.
2019
- Hagberg, Sten, Ludovic Kibora and Gabriella Körling (eds). 2019. Démocratie par le bas et politique municipale au Sahel. Forum for Africa Studies, Uppsala University.
- Körling, Gabriella and Mohamed Moussa. 2019. Les élections municipales de 2011 dans un arrondissement de Niamey (Niger): entre politique nationale et enjeux locaux. In Hagberg.S. L.Kibora and G.Körling (eds). Démocratie par le bas et politique municipale au Sahel. Forum for Africa Studies, Uppsala University.
2016
- Hagberg, Sten & Gabriella Körling. 2016. Urban land contestations and political mobilisation: (re)sources of authority and protest in West African municipalities. Social Anthropology, 24(3): 294–308.
2015
- Hagberg, Sten & Gabriella Körling. 2015. Terrains inaccessibles: Faire de l’anthropologie dans la tourmente politique malienne. Civilisations 64 (1 & 2): 139-150.
- Körling, Gabriella. 2015. Review of Klaas van Walraven's The Yearning for Relief: A History of the Sawaba Movement in Niger (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013) Africa Spectrum 2: 140-142.
2014
- Hagberg, Sten & Gabriella Körling. 2014. Inaccessible Fields: Doing Anthropology in the Malian Political Turmoil. Anthropologie et Développement 40-41: 145-161.
- Hagberg, Sten & Gabriella Körling (red). 2014. YMER 2014: Resurser och politik i Afrika. Stockholm: Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi.
- Körling, Gabriella. 2014. "Vi har gjort allt och staten har inte gjort någonting": Staten, skolor och deltagande i Niger. I Sten Hagberg & Gabriella Körling (red). YMER 2014: Resurser och politik i Afrika. Stockholm: Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi, 167-186.
2013
- Körling, Gabriella. 2013. La matérialité de la reconnaissance: les mobilisations locales pour la fourniture de services publics à Niamey. Politique Africaine 132: 27-47.
- Körling, Gabriella. 2013. Review of Stephen J. Collier’s Post- Soviet Social: Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011) Political and Legal Anthropology Review 36 (1): 182-184.
- Körling, Gabriella. 2013. ‘Den som står i skuld är inte ensam’. Recension av David Graeber Skuld- De första 5000 åren (Diadalos). Tidskriften Respons nr 1 2013.
2012
- Hagberg, Sten & Gabriella Körling. 2012. Socio-political Turmoil in Mali: The Public Debate Following the Coup d’État on 22 March 2012. Africa Spectrum 47 (2-3): 111 – 125.
2011
- Körling, Gabriella. 2011. In Search of the State: An Ethnography of Public Service Provision in Urban Niger. Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology 51.
2009
- Körling, Gabriella. 2009. The mobilization of the local in a public primary school in peri-urban Niamey, Niger. APAD-Bulletin 31-32: 137-159.
Research funding
2014
- International Career Grant, co-funded by the Swedish Research Council and Marie Skoldowska Curie Actions FP7.
Guest research visits
2015
- Guest researcher Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains (LAMC), Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Editorial assignments
- Member of the editorial board of Anthropologie & développement.
