David Loher is a social anthropologist, specialised in the anthropology of law, the anthropology of the state, and economic anthropology. For his PhD, he conducted ethnographic research on programs for so-called assisted voluntary return migration (AVR) between Switzerland and Tunisia. The study explores the paradox of governed voluntariness and asked how voluntariness is produced, shaped, and governed in the context of the European border regime.
In the current research project Creeping Death. Asbestos Victims and the Allocation of Moral and Legal Responsibility in the Aftermath of an Industrial Disaster, David Loher studies the asbestos industry and examines how responsibility is allocated for the industry’s deadly legacy. In particular, he is interested how ideas of moral responsibility and legal responsibility co-constitute each other.
