Luca Pfirter is an associated researcher at the Laboratoire d’études des processus sociaux (LAPS) at the University of Neuchâtel. He also works as a social worker and researcher at the Soupe Populaire and the Fondation Mère Sofia in Lausanne. In parallel, he is engaged as a violence prevention instructor at the mannebüro Zürich, leading workshops and short training sessions for adolescents, young adults, and educational professionals on masculinities, power, and violence in (socio)pedagogical contexts. Previously, Luca worked as a lecturer at the university of Neuchâtel and taught the master courses Méthodes et recherches qualitatives en sciences sociales (together with prof. Janine Dahinden) as well as Bureaucratie et pouvoir : regards théoriques et ethnographiques sur l’Etat.

Luca received his PhD in 2023 at the LAPS and the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) – on the move at the University of Neuchâtel after having completed masters’ degrees in Anthropology (University of Neuchâtel) and in Development Studies (IHEID, Geneva). Luca spent time in Colombia and Argentina, and worked for the Swiss Observatory for Asylum and Foreign Nationals Law (SBAA, Bern). Currently, Luca is compliting a bachelor degree in social work at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW).

The doctoral thesis Doubting the national order of Poverty – the moral administration of ‘poor others’ in Swiss welfare and migration bureaucracies consists of ethnographic research within public administrations (social services and cantonal migration offices). It explores how contradictions and doubts emerge – or are suppressed – in everyday bureaucratic life. Luca’s main interests include contemporary forms of governing doubts in upholding hierarchies and differentiations between humans; how these practices are conditioned and shaped by the morality of state power; and how they contribute to the normalization of “the banality” and “the evil” of national, classed and gendered orders.

Thesis:

Pfirter, L. (2023): Doubting the national order of Poverty. The Moral administration of ‘poor others’ in Swiss welfare and migration bureaucracies. Neuchâtel: University of Neuchâtel. https://doi.org/10.35662/unine-these-3040

 

Peer reviewed articles:

Borrelli, L.M., C. Achermann, D. Niragire, and L. Pfirter (2024): “Governing Poverty and Migration in European Nation-States – Keywords Revisited”, Critical Social Policy 44 (4): 573–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183241273582.

Achermann, C., A. Heindlmaier, S. Mantu, and L. Pfirter (2024): “Welfare Governance”, Critical Social Policy 44 (4): 605–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183241273587.

Borrelli, L.M., A. Heindlmaier, S. Mantu, and L. Pfirter (2024): “Suspicion and Surveillance”, Critical Social Policy 44 (4): 667–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183241273585.

Borrelli, L.M., L. Pfirter, and D. Niragire (2024): “Discipline”, Critical Social Policy 44 (4): 651–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183241273601.

Achermann, C., L.M. Borrelli and L. Pfirter (2023): “For just decisions we need you!”: Relational decision-making and the bureaucratic exclusion of “poor others”, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 46(2): 177–190. https://doi.org/10.1111/plar.12542 

Borrelli, L. M., S. Kurt, C. Achermann and L. Pfirter (2021): “(Un)Conditional Welfare? Tensions Between Welfare Rights and Migration Control in Swiss Case Law”, Swiss Journal of Sociology, 47(1): 93-114. https://doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2021-0008

Pfirter, L. (2019): “Constructing ‘unteachability’ through menacing warnings: The coupling of welfare benefits and migration control in Switzerland”, Journal of Legal Anthropology, 3(2): 29-49. https://doi.org/10.3167/jla.2019.030203

 

Book Chapters:

Pfirter, L., L.M. Borrelli, D. Ruedin and S. Kurt (2021): “Citizenship models and migrant integration – Rethinking the intersection of citizenship and migrant integration through (b)ordering”, in: Handbook of Citizenship and Migration, edited by Giugni, M. and M.T. Grasso, 52-65. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789903133.00010

 

Other:

Borrelli, L.M., Kurt, S., Achermann, C. und Pfirter, L. (2021): Armut ist kein Verbrechen – (Un)bedingte Wohlfahrt in der Schweizer Rechtsprechung. «décodage» – Blog der SchweizerischenAkademie der Geistes– und Sozialwissenschaften (SAGW): https://sagw.ch/sagw/aktuell/blog/details/news/armut-ist-kein-verbrechen-unbedingte- wohlfahrt-in-der-schweizer–rechtsprechung/

Achermann, C., Borrelli, L. M., Kurt, S., Niragire Nirere, D. and Pfirter, L. (2021): Die zunehmendeVerschränkung von Migrationskontrolle und Sozialhilfe. Solidarité sans frontières: https://www.sosf.ch/de/themen/migrationspolitik/informationen-artikel/die-zunehmende-verschraenkung-von- migrationskontrolle-und-sozialhilfe.html

Achermann, C., Borrelli, L. M., Kurt, S., Niragire Nirere, D. and Pfirter, L. (2021): L’ intricationcroissante du contrôle des migrations et de l’aide sociale. Solidarité sans frontières: https://www.sosf.ch/fr/sujets/politique- migratoire/informations-articles/die-zunehmende-verschraenkung-von-migrationskontrolle-und-sozialhilfe.html

Achermann, C., Pfirter, L., Kurt S. and Borrelli, L. M. (2020). The Making of Social Cohesion: A Critique of Migration Law and Practices in Switzerland. National Center of Competence in Research – The Migration-Mobility Nexus Blog: https://blog.nccr-onthemove.ch/the-making-of-social-cohesion-a-critique-of-migration-law-and-practices- in-switzerland/?lang=de

Kurt S., Achermann, C., Borrelli, L. M. and Pfirter, L. (2020). Zuwanderungs– und Aufenthaltssteuerung via Sozialhilfe? National Center of Competence in Research – The Migration-Mobility Nexus Blog. Available at: https://blog.nccr-onthemove.ch/zuwanderungs-und-aufenthaltssteuerung-via-sozialhilfe/?lang=de