This full-day workshop is funded annually by the OxPo (Oxford-Sciences Po Network), which brings together two of the foremost universities in the world in the field of social sciences. It is a joint venture between SciencesPo in Paris and the University of Oxford's Oxford Centre for European History, Departments of Politics and International Relations, Social Policy and Intervention, and Sociology.
OxPo provides a meeting point for scholars at both institutions with the objective of fostering and stimulating joint scientific projects. It provides a platform for the comparative analysis of the evolution of political systems and societies, in Europe and beyond. Further information about OxPo can be found here.
Details of the Event
Title: The State, Bureaucracy, and Policy in Contemporary Pakistan
Date: 15 June 2026
Time: 9:30 - 17:30 (with welcome tea and coffee from 9:00)
Location: Chester Room, Nuffield College, New Road, Oxford, OX1 1NF
Audience: Public
Prebooking: Not required
Workshop Description
Scholarship on contemporary Pakistan remains fragmented across theoretical and methodological approaches structured by disciplinary traditions (Political Sociology, Anthropology, Comparative Politics, South Asian Studies), journals, and academic institutions in which scholars of Pakistan are dispersed. While this fragmentation has enabled prolific research embracing a plurality of approaches and objects, it has also deprived scholars of shared intellectual platforms in which to engage collectively in a reflection on contemporary Pakistan.
This workshop seeks to provide such a space. It brings together current research focusing on the role of the state, bureaucracy, and public policy to illuminate social and political transformations (re)shaping contemporary Pakistan, whether related to issues of class, health, religion, gender, security, discrimination, or the economy. Pakistan has inherited and reproduced an “overdeveloped” postcolonial state structure, as coined by Pakistani sociologist Hamza Alavi in a famous 1972 essay, blending civilian administration and military apparatus.
Interestingly, scholarship on Pakistan has historically devoted sustained attention in the study of the state and its role in shaping society. Whether this academic inclination constitutes a distorted effect of Pakistan’s official state-centric narrative, or instead simply follows the empirical centrality of the state in regulating social life is yet to be assessed. It nonetheless provides a heuristic point of departure to engage in a collective reflection on contemporary Pakistan and its transformations.
The workshop will be structured around eight individual presentations, interspersed with collective discussions, and will conclude with a synthesis and set of shared conclusions. It is part of an annual workshop funded by the OxPo programme.
Speakers
Guillaume Beaud (University of Oxford, Sciences Po)
Adnan Naseemullah (University of Oxford)
Christophe Jaffrelot (Sciences Po)
Laurent Gayer (Sciences Po)
Sameen Mohsin Ali (University of Birmingham)
Maria Rashid (University of Wolverhampton)
Ayaz Qureshi (University of Edinburgh)
Sanaa Alimia (Aga Khan University)
Zoha Waseem (University of Warwick)
Agenda
Organiser
Guillaume Beaud (University of Oxford - Sciences Po)
Contact email: guillaume.beaud@sciencespo.fr