The State, Bureaucracy, and Policy in Contemporary Pakistan

Monday, 15 June 2026, 9am to 5.30pm

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: https://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/[…]/oxpo-network.

Speaker(s): Christophe Jaffrelot (Sciences Po), Laurent Gayer (Sciences Po), Zoha Waseem (University of Warwick), Guillaume Beaud (University of Oxford - Sciences Po), Sameen Mohsin Ali (University of Birmingham), Maria Rashid (University of Wolverhampton), Yasser Kuresh (University of Oxford), Ayaz Qureshi (University of Edinburgh), Sanaa Alimia (Aga Khan University), Adnan Naseemullah (University of Oxford)

Series: OxPo Network

Venue: Nuffield College - Chester Room (staircase C) - Chester Room (staircase C) Nuffield College New Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 1NF United Kingdom

Department: Politics & Int Relations (Department)

Organiser: Guillaume Beaud

Host: OxPo network

Register here: https://Booking Not Required

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