C.V. | Publications | Project
Research Interests
The politics and laws of justice, global markets (clothing and shipping industries), labour governance, (maritime) infrastructures, the anthropology of international organizations, moral anthropology, ethnographic theory
Research Areas
Europe, Central America, Turkey, Central Asia
Profile
Luisa Piart is a postdoctoral research fellow with a joint appointment in the Department of Law & Anthropology at the MPI and in the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Her scientific interests are in the fields of economic and legal anthropology, and include industrial labour relations and workers’ rights, the study of global markets, infrastructures, and international organizations. Before relocating to Halle, she received grants from and held positions in research institutions and universities in Turkey (IFEA Istanbul), Uzbekistan (IFEAC Tashkent), and across Europe, including in Germany (Leipzig and Berlin), Austria (Vienna), and Switzerland (Bern and Fribourg). After graduating with degrees in history and geography from Paris (Sorbonne) and in migration studies from Poitiers (Migrinter – CNRS), she earned a binational PhD (cotutelle de thèse) in social anthropology from the University of Vienna and the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS Paris).
Luisa Piart’s dissertation investigated the role of small entrepreneurs and their fluctuating importance in Istanbul’s garment industry. She explored the organization of the industry, as well as the careers, commercial practices, and entrepreneurial success of intermediaries in a context of deep economic restructuring. Her new research project focuses on seafarers, the global shipping industry, and the ILO Maritime Labour Convention (2006) and its implementation regime. In 2019 she was a visiting fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, during which time she laid the groundwork for her current project.
Why Law & Anthropology?
I am interested in the shifting relations between market regulation, state law, and labour. Where do international labour standards fit into this equation? I do believe social anthropology and its powerful ethnographic mode of knowledge production are best equipped to enquire into these issues. More specifically, I want to contribute to debates concerning the (de-)regulation of the economy and the juridification of labour relations through a better understanding of the politics and laws of justice.