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- Convenor:
-
Alessandra Radicati
(London School of Economics Political Science)
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- Stream:
- Urban Space
- Sessions:
- Friday 18 September, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel examines how the city functions as a site of encounter between geographers and anthropologists and looks at how methods, concepts and the politics of knowledge production are shaped by an increasing interest in the study of world-class cities.
Long Abstract:
Anthropologists and geographers often encounter each other (literally and metaphorically) in the city. But while the city may appear to be a "natural" site of theorizing and knowledge production for geographers, anthropologists have a much more fraught relationship with cities: urban settings are sometimes viewed as less "authentic" than rural spaces, or as mere backdrops to studies which happen to take place within a city. As cities increasingly market themselves as "world-class" or "global", anthropologists and geographers alike have an urgent interest in understanding various dimensions of urban life. Disciplinary relationships to cities as sites of knowledge production are transforming: geographers increasingly worry about the generation and direction of urban theorizing, while anthropological work on cities has begun to directly engage the large-scale visions that drive world-class city-making projects.
Bringing together ethnographically-minded geographers and anthropologists, this roundtable will examine interdisciplinary encounters in/about the city. Sites of encounter include exchange between scholars while conducting fieldwork; professional encounters within institutions; and theoretical/conceptual encounters. Some questions to be discussed include: what does it mean to see a city either as a "geographer" or an "anthropologist" and how do these labels define possibilities for knowledge production of different kinds? What concepts have travelled between our fields and how have they been transformed through usage in either geography or anthropology? What implications do these discussions have for the lives of our research participants - can a closer look at our own methodological and theoretical orientations change how we relate to our research sites?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 18 September, 2020, -Jacqueline Brown (City University of New York)
Paper short abstract:
This ethnographic case study on race and place in New York City highlights the usefulness of geographical insights on relational space, while pointing to some limits of the important field of Black Geographies in its approach to race.
Paper long abstract:
Urban anthropology in the United States arguably begins with the 1899 publication of The Philadelphia Negro by W.E.B. Du Bois. Since then, American Blacks have mostly been studied—and imagined--in relation to cities. So close is the association that terms such as 'urban' and 'inner city' serve as euphemisms not simply for "Black people" but also for "social problems." This paper subjects the geographical construct of landscape to cultural analysis in ways that reimagine Blacks' literal place in the production of meanings of New York City. In so doing, it highlights the usefulness of geographical insights on relational space, while pointing to some limits of the important field of Black Geographies in its approach to race.
Alessandra Radicati (London School of Economics Political Science)
Paper short abstract:
This paper asks what methodological tensions, challenges and opportunities emerge in using ethnography to study and understand emerging "world-class cities" with a focus on the Global South.
Paper long abstract:
Is there a method for studying aspiring "world-class" cities? This paper argues that the
anthropological study of large cities, particularly in the Global South, may necessitate new
understandings of ethnographic methods and practice. Across much of Asia, Africa and Latin
America, cities are increasingly marketing themselves in competition with one another as
national and regional governments often proclaim that different urban centres are to
become the next Dubai or Singapore. The aspirational appeal of the "world-class city"
(Ghertner 2015) is evident across numerous different countries and contexts, including
Dakar (Melly 2017), Ho Chi Minh City (Harms 2016) and Phnom Penh (Nam 2017).
Anthropologists increasingly work in these emergent world-class cities, and the aspirational
rhetoric of urban development has become an interesting ethnographic object in its own
right. But what challenges or tensions does studying rapidly growing and changing urban
environments pose in a discipline whose core method was developed in considerably
different circumstances? The paper focuses on two key tensions that arise in ethnographic
methods used to study urban spaces in these conditions. The first tension is the role of
interviews as opposed to "participant observation"; the second tension is the role of
mobility, both that of the ethnographer and of her informants. This investigation is rooted in
a close reading of both recent ethnographies of emerging world-class cities, and my own
ethnographic research conducted in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Mark Curran (Institute of Art, Design Technology (IADT))
Paper short abstract:
The paper will frame central research themes & methodology of Studying Up, constructing an audiovisual ethnography of finance which offers the cultural description of 'normalising deviance', necessary for the functioning of this sphere & critical to understand in establishing a post-capital future.
Paper long abstract:
In the continuing evolutionary aftermath of the global economic collapse of 2007/2008 and absence of sustained audio-visual ethnographic engagement with the central locus of this catastrophic event, THE MARKET (2010-), critically addresses the functioning and condition of the global markets and role of financial capital. Continuing a cycle of long-term research projects, beginning in late 1990s, on migrations of predatory global capital, this paper will outline the theoretical and ethnographically-informed methodological framework of this multi-sited, transnational project and resulting installation. Having undertaken an extensive process of negotiation, averaging 1.5-2 years, to access strategic sites and/or individuals, this visual and media anthropological research project incorporates photographs, film, soundscape, artifactual material, 3D data visualisation and verbal testimony. Taking the sphere out of abstraction and positioning it as a pervasive force central to our lives, themes include the algorithmic machinery of financial markets, as central innovator of this technology, the absorption of crises as normalisation of deviance, and long-range mapping and consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens and everyday life. Profiles include London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Addis Ababa. While the paper will frame the central research themes and methodology of Studying Up, in its summation, THE MARKET constructs an ethnography of power and finance, offering the cultural description of 'normalising deviance', necessary for the functioning of this sphere and critical to understanding in the establishment of a beyond-/post-capital future.