Missing persons, political landscapes and cultural practices : Violent absences, haunting presences

Abstract

This book examines human disappearances in various contexts, ranging from enforced disappearances under oppressive governments and during armed conflicts to disappearing undocumented migrants and, finally, to people who go missing under more everyday circumstances in the Global North. The book argues that a missing person is always an anomaly in relation to the social and cultural order, and every disappeared person disturbs the normal flow of social life in families and communities, often also the smooth working of state bureaucracies. The book analyses both the circumstances that make some people disappear and the variety of responses that disappearances give rise to; the latter include projects focused on searching for the missing and identifying unidentified dead bodies, as well as political projects that call for accountability for disappearances. Moreover, the book examines more symbolic forms or reappearance, including museums, memorials, artworks, ghosts and spirits. Empirical examples range from Argentina to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Mediterranean, Finland, Poland and beyond. Departing from this diversity, the book provides a theoretical frame within which to think about disappearances across cultural, political and geographical variety.