The formulation of this volume has benefited from ongoing conversations with Steve Baranyi, Stan Cohen, Patrick Costello, Marie­Bénédicte Dembour, Saul Dubow, Carolyn Hamilton, Shirley Brice Heath, Elsa van Huyssteen, Helene Kvale, Joanne Moores, Fiona Ross, Colin Samson and Jock Stirrat. Thanks especially to Michael Freeman, Bryan S. Turner and Tony Woodiwiss for their encouragement early on in this project. I would also like to thank the participants of seminars at the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, the social anthropology department at the University of Sussex, the Centre for Ethnic Studies, University of Warwick, and the departments of social anthropology and sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand.