Anthropology Research Seminar (Institute's colloquia) at the Spring Semester 2023

Everybody who is interested is welcome! It starts at 6.15 pm!

Dreadlocks, Reggae, Winnetou - Was bleibt von der Debatte um kulturelle Aneignung?

Weisse Reggae-Musiker mit Dreadlocks oder neue Winnetou-Bücher haben letzten Sommer eine Diskussion um kulturelle Aneignung befeuert. Wann sind kulturelle Anleihen problematisch? Wann legitim? Wie sieht ein angemessener Umgang damit aus?
Die Debatte war emotional und oft gehässig. Dennoch hat sie nicht nur zu verhärteten Fronten geführt, wie Sozialanthropologe Rohit Jain beobachtet. Er stellt auch eine wachsende Sensibilisierung fest und findet die Debatte müsse endlich geführt werden. (Bild: Moshtari Hilal/MissyMagazine)

Decolonizing Disasters in Kashmir: A conversation with Omer Aijazi and Pascale Schild

Centre of Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria, Canada

Thursday, 16 March 2023

Archive

Public lecture within the series Interdisciplinary Lectures and Symposia on Key Concepts of the Humanities and Social Sciences of the doctoral program Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies. Moderation of the Colloquia by Prof. Michaela Schäuble

Nomination: Neofaschismus in Italien. Politik, Familie, Religion in Rom. Eine Ethnographie.“ (transcript. 2021)

The Institute congratulates Lene Faust, whose book "Neofaschismus in Italien. Politics, Family, Religion in Rome. An Ethnography." (transcript. 2021) has been nominated for the short-list of the "First Book Award 2023" of the Memory Studies Association.

Le travail, une histoire.

„Histoire vivante“ mit einem Gespräch mit prof. Heinzpeter Znoj

Appeal for donations for earthquake victims in Turkey and northern Syria

The Institute of Social Anthropology extends its deepest condolences and sympathy to all those who have lost loved ones or friends in the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Solidarität: Chancen und Grenzen transnationaler Solidarität

Online Beitrag: Sind unsere Ideale noch realistisch?

Förderung Studierendenprojekte an den Berner Hochschulen

Hast du eine Projektidee und benötigst noch finanzielle Unterstützung? Dann findest du hier zwei Möglichkeiten zur Unterstützung deines Projekts.

Das andere Lehrveranstaltungsverzeichnis

Isabel Käser wins the AMEWS Book Award

The Institute congratulates Isabel Käser who wins the AMEWS Book Award with her book The Kurdish Women's Freedom Movement: Gender, Body Politics and Militant Femininities (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Review: Living Water – visually magnificent meditation on Jordanian desert

Eco-documentary contemplates the exploitation of the valuable Disi aquifer beneath the Wadi Rum valley, in one of the most water-poor countries in the world

Co-organizing the Biennial Conference of the IASC

The Commons We Want: Between Historical Legacies and Future Collective Actions.
Our institute will co-organize the Biennial Conference 2023 of the IASC (International Association for the Study of the Commons in Nairobi, Kenya (19-24.6.2023.)

Kurzfilm «Jakub, 115110, Jacques, Jake, Jakob»

Anna Fersztand erzählt über ihren an unserem Institut entstandenen Kurzfilm «Jakub, 115110, Jacques, Jake, Jakob»

After Covid? Work and Daily Life in Indonesia. Summer School in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The third edition of the international summer school Southeast Asia in Motion will take place from the 4th – 22nd of July 2022, and be hosted by Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Welcome Tobias Haller – new Regional Coordinator for IASC Europe

Das andere Lehrveranstaltungsverzeichnis

A Few Words from the EASA Book Series Editors

Sabine Strasser, Jelena Tosic und Annika Lems stellen ihre Arbeit als EASA book series editors im Anthropological Journal of European Cultures (AJEC) vor.

Video about our Institute

Swiss Graduate Program in Anthropology for PHD students

Blogbeiträge zur Corona-Krise

Hier veröffentlicht das Institut für Sozialanthropologie Blogbeiträge zur Corona-Krise von Mitarbeitenden und Studierenden.

Archive

Publications

Sawt, Bodies, Species. Sonic Pluralism in Morocco von Gilles Aubry

Die Dissertation von Gilles Aubry «Sonic Pluralism. An Artistic Research on Postcolonial Aurality, Embodiment, and Ecological Voices in Morocco” (betreut von Prof. Dr. Michaela Schäuble) ist in Buchform mit dem Titel Sawt, Bodies, Species. Sonic Pluralism in Morocco (open access) erschienen

Swiss Academies Factsheet: The New Global Connect: Mega-Infrastructure Projects and Their Local Impacts

Interrupted Futures. Transformed Activist and Research Knowledge Practices in Times of 'Crisis'

Drawing from personal and collective experiences, as well as ongoing fieldwork with urban activists in Zurich and the Fridays for Future movement in Mexico, in this article, the authors explore how interrupted future imaginaries observed during the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic play a significant role in reshaping the knowledge repertoires (della Porta and Pavan 2017) of both activist and academic endeavours and create possibilities for changed forms of future-making.

Drylands Facing Change: Interventions, Investments and Identities

London: Routledge,Taylor & Francis. Kronenburg Garcia, A. K., Haller, T., van Dijk, H., Samimi, C., & Warner, J. (Eds.). (2022).
This open access edited volume is the result of the EU COST Action Drylands Facing Change that involved Tobias Haller as work package leader. It examines the changes that arise from the entanglement of global interests and narratives with the local struggles that have always existed in the drylands of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia/Inner Asia.The chapters discuss global land rush and commons grabbing, historical expansion of northern neoliberal orders, urbanization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the spread of violent extremism.

Smart Complaints? ‘Wild’ Things and the Promise of (Un)happiness in Urban Crowdsourcing Apps

uniFOKUS: Speisetabus - die kulturelle Konstruktion des Ekels

Warum funktionieren Tauschmittel? Der gesellschaftliche Rahmen des Geldes

SAGW Bulletin 3/22: Geld: seine Werte, seine Wandlungen

Ein Winter ohne Zentralheizung und Funktionskleidung?

Nollywood-Inspired Migrant Filmmaking in Switzerland: Practice, Performance and Meaning

This book introduces the emerging, but still little-known, phenomenon of Nollywood-inspired filmmaking by African migrants in Europe. Using the unique example of a performance ethnographic case study in Switzerland, it shows how members of the African diaspora represent themselves through audio-visual media and what influence the post-colonial images of the Nigerian video film industry have on their image production.
Drawing on Jean Rouch’s Shared Anthropology and the methods of Performance Ethnography, this book provides an in-depth look at the complexity of migrants’ everyday lives and showcases Nollywood-inspired transnational filmmaking practices. In its refreshing and accessible writing style, it also illustrates the performance ethnographic research process, highlights the pitfalls and challenges of collaborative film projects, and critically engages with fundamental questions of social research in decolonial settings.

From commons to resilience grabbing: Insights from historically-oriented social anthropological research on African peasants

This paper aims to show the relevance that institutions governing common-pool resources (CPRs) play in peasant resilience. It outlines nine variables for resilience taken from socio-economic and ecological anthropological theories focusing on subsistence and minimax strategies and used for the comparative historical analysis of African case studies. The variables could be found under pre-colonial common property but were no longer operating during colonial and postcolonial times leading to commons grabbing and the undermining of local resilience.

«Die SDGs laufen Gefahr, sich zur Anti-Politik-Maschine zu entwickeln»

Large-Scale Land Acquisition in Ghana. Institutional Change, Gender and Power

From earthquake victims to citizens: dependencies and precarious claims on the state in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

Based on ethnographic research after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-controlled Azad Kashmir, this article uses ‘disaster citizenship’ as a conceptual lens focusing on how people renegotiated their relationships with the state in the context of political interventions for reconstruction.

From earthquake victims to citizens: dependencies and precarious claims on the state in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

Based on ethnographic research after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-controlled Azad Kashmir, this article uses ‘disaster citizenship’ as a conceptual lens focusing on how people renegotiated their relationships with the state in the context of political interventions for reconstruction.

Children of the Crisis. Ethnographic Perspectives on Unaccompanied Refugee Youth In and en Route to Europe

is available with 20% off until 1 May, 2022.

Potcast on Serena O. Dankwa's book "Knowing Women: Same-sex Intimacy, Gender, and Identity in Postcolonial Ghana"

"Knowing Women: Same-sex Intimacy, Gender, and Identity in Postcolonial Ghana" (Cambridge UP, 2021) is a study of same-sex desire in West Africa, which explores the lives and friendships of working-class women in southern Ghana who are intimately involved with each other. Based on in-depth research of the life histories of women in the region, Serena O. Dankwa highlights the vibrancy of everyday same-sex intimacies that have not been captured in a globally pervasive language of sexual identity.

Sanctioning Disciplined Grabs (SDGs): From SDGs as Green Anti-Politics Machine to Radical Alternatives?

The universalist ambition of the 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and 169 targets as a global plan of action for people, planet, prosperity and peacebuilding deserves analytical scrutiny from multiple angles. While the SDGs are largely heralded as a paradigm shift compared to their predecessor Millennial Development Goals (MDGs), we argue that four fundamental dynamics undermine or severely hamper SDGs as a game changer to address the deep-running sustainability challenges facing the planet.

Sanctioning Disciplined Grabs (SDGs): From SDGs as Green Anti-Politics Machine to Radical Alternatives?

The universalist ambition of the 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and 169 targets as a global plan of action for people, planet, prosperity and peacebuilding deserves analytical scrutiny from multiple angles. While the SDGs are largely heralded as a paradigm shift compared to their predecessor Millennial Development Goals (MDGs), we argue that four fundamental dynamics undermine or severely hamper SDGs as a game changer to address the deep-running sustainability challenges facing the planet.