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- Convenors:
-
Ana Margarida Sousa Santos
(Durham University)
Nadine Beckmann (University of Roehampton)
- Formats:
- Panels
- Stream:
- Environment
- Location:
- Queen Elizabeth House (QEH) SR2
- Start time:
- 19 September, 2018 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel probes the parallels and distinctions between those living in coastal regions, and explores the ways in which these influence the political, moral realms, and the shifts in collective and personal memories.
Long Abstract:
Coastal areas have for long been spaces of encounter, with a range of cultural, economic, and religious exchanges, connected to the wider region/world via trade and travel. They are both spaces of continuity (historical and cultural) and fragmentation, openness to other parts of the world and meeting points of people with distinctive historical experiences and imaginations. Taking up historically and geographically diverse cases from coastal communities around the world, this panel examines recent political, economic, physical and social changes, and the way these are projected onto present politics and demands on the state. By bringing together inquiries into the lives of coastal peoples, the panel probes the parallels and distinctions between those living by the coast, exploring how these influence political, and moral realms, and the shifts in collective and personal memories.
We are looking specifically for papers that address the multiple, historically contextualized experiences of life in coastal areas and the experience of change.
Some of the questions we hope to address are:
In what ways are distinctive memories of the past integrated, valued and commemorated in multiethnic coastal contexts?
How are different understandings of the past used to assert political claims in current debates around rights and legitimacy?
How is a desire for a better future from outside/within expressed through local idioms of morality and aspiration?
What narratives of belonging are being developed?
By bringing diverse perspectives into discussion we aim to illuminate shared experiences of life in coastal regions in historically and geographically distinctive contexts.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Vera Azevedo (CRIA NOVA-FCSH)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation considers the impact of sea patrimonialization in Ericeira and explores how official discourses about Portuguese maritime heritage are related to the (re)definition of surfing and fishing pratices in the village.
Paper long abstract:
In the context of contemporary patrimonialization processes in various sectors of Portuguese society, this presentation reflects the impact of sea patrimonialization in Ericeira village and accounts for the reconfigurations generated by this process in creating a habitus of sports, work and leisure.
Based on the official governmental discourses and policies about Portuguese maritime heritage - the National Strategy for the Sea 2013/2020 - and because the village was elected World Surfing Reserve in 2011, this paper analyzes the relationship between this sport and the local economy and policies, observes the changes in the tourism sector, the growth of the local surf industry and its impact on the fishing community.
Since the multiplicity of coastal and beach uses contextualizes the leisure and work dynamics in Ericeira, we relate the economy of goods and services to the economy of experience and sharing, observe the existing continuities and ruptures and investigate how surfers, fishermen and local authorities define or redefine sports, work and leisure practices and strategies.
Because surfing and fishing practices are constituted in the 'lived experience', we also focus on the performative action of the surfer and fisherman in the daily life of the World Surfing Reserve of Ericeira, in order to ascertain which maritime narratives and memories emerge from this new reality.
Jaana Kouri (Åbo Akademi)
Paper short abstract:
I approach the human‒nature relationship in the past experiences of water revealed in the oral tradition of the Baltic Finns to the present experiences of the villagers in my case study. I examine imagination as a theoretical and analytical framework for tacit and experience based knowledge.
Paper long abstract:
In my doctoral thesis (2017) I studied the history production of an old pilot village, Lypyrtti, in the southwestern archipelago in Finland. The Finnish National Board of Navigation abolished the pilotage of Lypyrtti in 1961. The nostalgic process and the textualisation of the researcher's own experiences transmitted also the non-human co-actors involved in the signification process and the tacit knowledge constructed by the villagers' empirical practice. The oral history of Lypyrtti highlighted the functional aspect of relations to and experienced-based knowledge of water as epitomized by stories and performances. It was a shared sense of belonging to the communality of the people lived by and with the water. Beyond the village in question, the research also displayed the concern of the environmental condition of the Baltic Sea.
In my presentation I approach the human‒nature relationship as a historically constructed phenomenon. I have a long-term perspective starting from the past experiences of water revealed in the oral tradition of the Baltic Finns to the present experiences of the villagers in my case study. Imagining is a social action, connecting human and non-human, material and immaterial actors. I examine imagination as a broader theoretical and analytical framework for tacit, situated and experience based knowledge. I ask, whether social imaginary and co-imagination as analytical tools are convenient to bridge the caps between individual and collective memory and between oral tradition and present experiences of water.
Ana Margarida Sousa Santos (Durham University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will explore the ways in which different communities living by the coast in Cabo Delgado try to create, position and represent themselves within contemporary Mozambican history.
Paper long abstract:
The history of the northernmost districts of Mozambique has for long been shaped by different kinds of movement and encounter: between the coast and the hinterland, and between Mozambique and Tanzania. These encounters have often been violent. Drawing on ethnographic research with Makonde and Mwani in coastal Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, this paper addresses different experiences of violence (past and present), and its legacies. It considers the historical construction of difference in a volatile political environment: the impact of colonial and post-colonial memory and forgetting, framed by local, vernacular interpretations of history that reinforce or counter official historical narratives. It will focus on the fragmented nature of history and memory, and the way it is refashioned and projected onto current social and political relationships. It will further highlight the temporality of storytelling, and the ways in which divergent memories are part of current struggles for recognition and political authority. This paper will explore the ways in which different communities try to create, position and represent themselves within contemporary Mozambican history.