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P053


1 proposals Propose
Un/commoning ways of being in the world  
Convenors:
Arne Harms (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Annette Hornbacher (University of Heidelberg)
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Format:
Workshop
Working groups:
Ethics

Short Abstract:

This panel explores the intersections of self-cultivation and un/commoning. We explore how processes of crafting modes of being in the world and of un/commoning come to be mutually shaped. Doing so, we ask for the role anthropology may play in the face of contemporary crises.

Long Abstract:

Un/commoning hinges on experimental modes of self-formation. This applies to the cultivation of selves required to engage in the solidarities commoning projects entail. It applies to visions of global knowledge commons, and the selves they afford. Or it applies to the refusal of corporate capitalism’s quest to subject all there is to the reach of the market, a refusal building on visions of new socialities informed by postcolonial critique. This raises the question of how exactly processes of un/commoning intersect with explicit criticism, tacit refusal and the cultivation of selves. This panel explores these intersections through the lens of fresh ethnographic research.

Across papers, we call attention to how both projects – un/commoning and self-formation – come to be mutually shaped. This involves exploring inequalities built into commoning practices or into aspirations to unplug and uncommon. It involves scrutinizing processes of experimentation with what might count as suitable selves or collectives. And it might involve unpacking utopian/dystopian visions and the promise of a return to ‘tradition'.

On another level, we call attention to anthropology’s role in multiple crises. How are anthropological knowledge practices, critiques or methodologies related to dynamics of exploitation and appropriation as well as to solidarity and responsibility? How are they best applied in situations where, say, un/commoning strains the good life or where cultivating a specific way of being in the world produces tensions with commons projects? What does the discipline have to offer, and where and how are we – as anthropologists – (ill)advised to intervene?

This Workshop has so far received 1 contribution proposal(s).
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