ASCONA CHARTER PUBLICATION> SWISS JOURNAL OF SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Out now Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology, Issue 31/2025

Reciprocal Vulnerability: Privilege, Violence, and Solidarity From Fieldwork to Academia

Vulnérabilité réciproque: privilège, violence et solidarité du terrain jusqu' à l'université

Wechselseitige Verwundbarkeit: Privileg, Gewalt und Solidarität von der Feldforschung bis zur Wissenschaft

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https://www.seismoverlag.ch/en/daten/wechselseitige-verwundbarkeit-privileg-gewalt-und-solidaritat-von-der-feldforschung-bis-zur-wissenschaft/

This issue of the Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology hosts a dossier that seeks to uncover the vulnerabilities encountered by researchers in anthropological fieldwork and academia, tracing their political and epistemological potential in the creation of ethnographic knowledge grounded in practices of reciprocity and solidarity. The contributions explore how anthropologists recover from various experiences of discomfort, harm, and violence by creating bonds of care and support with others, including interlocutors and fellow researchers. These relationships critically shape and reshape their perspectives and the knowledge they create. The guest editors introduce the concept of “reciprocal vulnerability”, recognizing that vulnerabilities are relational, shifting, and situational experiences and positionalities that can connect people across differences and inequalities, thereby enabling for new forms of exchange and reciprocity to emerge and thrive in fieldwork and anthropology more generally.

The dossier is followed by two special features. The first investigates how anthropologists engage in multimodal practices to convey research and negotiate power dynamics, advocating for a dynamic, performative approach to representing the “other” and rethinking scholarly practices. The second set of interventions initiates a conversation around the Ascona Charter, which spells out generic values and concrete commitments to inspire hope and collective deliberation and to catalyze transformative change within and outside the discipline of anthropology.

We as the Interface commission are delighted to see the debate on a vision and charter for a transformative anthropology "the Ascona charter" published in the Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology accompanied by thoughtful debate pieces from colleagues Danny Pinedo  Laurent Fournier Dr. Raminder Kaur and Estella Carpi.

Special Issue / Dossier / Dossier by Wiebke Wiesigel, Pascale Schild, Paola Juan & Larissa da Silva Araujo with articels by Phuong Nguyen, Pascale Bugnon, Amanda Jousset, Lise Woensdregt, Anna Hänni, Sandhya Fuchs, Esther Leemann, Serjara Aleman, Federica Moretti, Sara Wiederkehr, Claudia Howald, Nina Khamsy, Léo Maillet, Monika Salzbrunn

Book Reviews by Filippo Bozzini and Marco Motta.

ASCONA CHARTER, Guest editors Peter Bille Larsen, Dr.Eda Elif Tibet, Mike P.oltorak and Doris Bacalzo, Ana Ivasiuc, Roberta Colombo Dougoud, Kylian Henchoz-Manitha, claire vionnet, Alexandra Oancă, PhD, Tobias Haller, Danny Pinedo, Laurent S. Fournier, Raminder Kaur, Estella Carpi

Led by The INTERFACE commissioninvolving European Association of Social Anthropologists colleagues with kind support from the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences-. UNIGE - Sociologie Environmental Governance and Territorial Development (GEDT)