The growing engagement with sovereignty in anthropology has resulted in a range of concepts that encapsulate how various (non-state) actors execute power. In this paper, we further unpack the concept of ‘corporate sovereignty’ and outline its conceptual significance. Corporate sovereignty refers to performative claims to power undertaken by (individuals aligned to) corporate entities with profit-making objectives within a state-sanctioned space. This contrasts with claims made by other (non-state) actors who operate in a permissive space that (regularly) lacks this legally grounded relationship with the state. By unpacking this state-sanctioned permissive space and highlighting the role of the state as the arbiter, our approach to corporate sovereignty offers a new comparative analytical perspective to theorize how sovereignty is performed and opens ethnographic avenues to explore how sovereignty is negotiated and co-produced across diverse localities. To elucidate our argument, we draw from ethnographic fieldwork conducted on coal mining companies in Mozambique and private security companies in South Africa. By focusing on cases that differ, we want to show the multitude of ways in which corporate sovereignty is enacted and takes shape.

人类学中越来越多地涉及主权，产生了一系列概念，这些概念概括了各种（非国家）行为者如何行使权力。在本文中，我们进一步解开“公司主权”的概念，并概述其概念意义。公司主权是指在国家批准的空间内由（与个人结盟的）具有盈利目标的公司实体所承担的权力行使。这与其他（非国家）行为者的主张形成鲜明对比，这些行为者在一个（通常）缺乏与国家的这种法律基础关系的宽容空间中运作。通过打开这个国家认可的许可空间并强调国家作为仲裁者的作用，我们对待企业主权的方法提供了一种新的比较分析视角，以对主权如何执行进行理论化，并开辟人种学途径来探索主权如何在不同地区协商和共同产生。为了阐明我们的论点，我们借鉴了对莫桑比克煤矿公司和南非私营安保公司进行的民族志实地调查。通过关注不同的案例，我们希望展示公司主权制定和形成的多种方式。