REPOSITIONING ENGAGED ANTHROPOLOGY
Critical Reflexivity and Overcoming Dichotomies
REPOSITIONING ENGAGED ANTHHROPOLOGY
Critical Reflexivity and Overcoming Dichotomies
Peter Larsen, Doris Bacalzo, Patrick Naef, Eda Elif Tibet, Leïla Baracchini, Susie Riva
TSANTSA's special issue "Engaged Anthropology in and beyond Switzerland" aims to shed light on and recognize the full potential of engaged anthropology and its place in academia and beyond. It argues for an inclusive approach to be both theoretically enriching and methodologically grounded in diverse practices and forms. The introduction addresses common confusions and obstacles distracting engaged anthropology from its core premises and potentials. As the Interface Commission of the Swiss Anthropological Association (SEG), we seek to deepen the conversation about how engagement bolsters the discipline to stay relevant and robust, and embark on new paths of theoretical reflection. By "repositioning" engaged anthropology at the heart of contemporary anthropology, we seek to overcome unproductive dichotomies on engagements and practices by embracing critical reflexivity in the process of knowledge production and social action.
Guest editors: Peter Larsen, Doris Bacalzo, Mò Bleeker, Patrick Naef, Eda Elif Tibet, Leïla Baracchini, Susie Riva
LEARNING TO BE FREED
Affective Multi Modalities in Third Space
Eda Elif Tibet & Abdi Deeq
This paper delves into the life stories of three unaccompanied asylum seeking youth residing at a state care shelter in Istanbul in 2015 and 2016. Through its intervention, the re-search follows an engaged anthropological approach to reveal the hidden aspects of the youth’s emotional and intellectual worlds. The in-depth life stories shared here illuminate Homi Bhabha’s Third Space Theory (1994) and are amplified by a methodological approach we call affective multimodalities. As we seek to understand the various ways the youths navigate survival and learning to be freed from institutional categories, we explore a few concepts of Third Space Theory: extraterrestrial territories, paradoxical worlds, afterlife- rebirth, and a displaced angle of vision. Through the practice of a collaborative radio show and photography elicitations, the youth were asked to share their dreams as they were encouraged to realize their potentials. During this co-creative approach, one of the youth even became a co-author of this paper. The ethnographic insights produced through this approach allows us to explore the third space theory with a poetical reflection through words and images.
EXPOSER DE L’ART BUSHMAN EN SUISSE
Retours sur l’exposition Kuru. L’art d’un monde en mutation
Leïla Baracchini, Elodie Gaille et Blaise Mulhauser
This article discusses the collaborative process that led to the conception of the exhibitionKuru. L’art d’un monde en mutation held in 2019 at the Botanical Garden of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. This project, which brought together San Naro artists from Botswana, anthro-pologists and museum professionals, aimed to rethink the museum’s approach to contem-porary San art and to develop more inclusive modes of exhibition. This article documents the strategies of representation of the Self and the Other mobilized in this context and proposes a reflection on the contributions, the stakes and the limits of this collaboration at the intersection of art, anthropology and botany. It highlights the unintended effects, con-stant adaptations, and persistent asymmetries at work in the exchanges, and discusses the value of making sense of these interactional dynamics within the museum space
AN AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHY OF ENGAGEMENT THROUGH DANCE
Claire Vionnet
This paper proposes a reflection on collaboration through dance. Drawing on ten years of fieldwork within the Swiss contemporary dance scene, the author, an anthropologist, dance scholar, and dancer, discusses her ethnographic practice, method, and writing in-spired by collaborative anthropology. The first part of the paper advocates for dance as a practice-based research method, and for auto-ethnography to convey anthropological knowledge in a more accessible way. Research-creation is claimed to particularly suit sen-sorial topics, tending toward symmetrical relationships between anthropologists and fieldwork interlocutors. Drawing on an applied anthropological project using djembe dances for better social cohesion, the second part of the paper shows one possible en-gagement with society through dance practice. Generating intimacy and misconceptions, the project Kunda emphasizes how dance can become a laboratory to learn and negotiate intercultural differences.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE INTERNATIONAL SPHERE
A Conversation Grounded in Swiss Experiences
Peter Bille Larsen, Mô Bleeker, Isabel Käser, Esther Leemann, Susan Riva, Raphael Schapira, Yvan Schulz, and Ellen Hertz
As anthropologists increasingly embark upon the study of the international sphere, this often builds on different forms of engagement within and around organizations, processes, and institutional corridors. The co-authors, building upon a round table exchange, address the advantages and dilemmas of anthropological engagement in the field of international governance, including humanitarian work, diplomacy, international organizations, the Swiss federal government, NGOs, and multinationals.
"Roles, contributions, and dilemmas of anthropological engagement in international governance". Peter Larsen
"The collapse of certainties: a golden age for engaged anthropology?" Mô Bleeker
"Reflections on feminist research in diplomacy and situating “Art in Peace Mediation” Isabel Käser
"Anthropologist on the advisory board: Contributions and dilemmas of anthropological engagement in knowledge production". Esther Leemann
"Engaging in anthropology through virtual landscapes and international education partnerships: Flying through the window when the door is locked". Susan Riva
"Anthropological activist engagements". Raphael Schapira
"Anthropologists as public intellectuals: Our experience with the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative". Yvan Schulz and Ellen Hertz
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE ART WORLDS
Patrick Naef, Bastien Birchler
This article looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the “art worlds” (Becker 1988) in Geneva, Switzerland’s second largest city. The main objective is to determine whether the pandemic has radically reconfigured the art worlds, or if this health crisis has merely reinforced existing trends, namely the market logic that underlies the art sector and the ever-increasing need for artists to develop entrepreneurial capacities. By examining the discourses of artists and cultural institution managers, this study focuses on two periods: the first one following the first wave of Covid-19 in the summer of 2020, and a second one taking place after the second wave in the spring of 2021
This paper proposes a reflection on collaboration through dance. Drawing on ten years of fieldwork within the Swiss contemporary dance scene, the author, an anthropologist, dance scholar, and dancer, discusses her ethnographic practice, method, and writing in-spired by collaborative anthropology. The first part of the paper advocates for dance as a practice-based research method, and for auto-ethnography to convey anthropological knowledge in a more accessible way. Research-creation is claimed to particularly suit sen-sorial topics, tending toward symmetrical relationships between anthropologists and fieldwork interlocutors. Drawing on an applied anthropological project using djembe dances for better social cohesion, the second part of the paper shows one possible en-gagement with society through dance practice. Generating intimacy and misconceptions, the project Kunda emphasizes how dance can become a laboratory to learn and negotiate intercultural differences.
DE LA LUTTE BIOLOGIQUE AU COMBAT POLITIQUE : ITINÉRAIRE D’UNE RECHERCHE ENGAGÉE
Pierre Caballé, Leïla Baracchini
Alex Aebi est biologiste et ethnologue. Il occupe actuellement un poste de maître d’enseigne-ment et de recherche (MER) en agroécologie au sein de l’Université de Neuchâtel. Il y est également professeur, responsable de la filière biologie-ethnologie. Alex se définit au-jourd’hui en tant que « chercheur engagé ».
Why the World Needs Anthhropologists?
Book review by Doris Bacalzo
In 2013, the Applied Anthropology Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists started their annual international symposiums on Why the World Needs Anthropologists leading to this edited volume.
A Message by Susan Riva on Engaged Anthropology.