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- Convenors:
-
Dimitrina Spencer
(University of Oxford)
Bojidar Alexiev (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
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- Chair:
-
Jonathan Skinner
(University of Surrey)
- Discussants:
-
Maruska Svasek
(Queen's University Belfast)
Patrick Heady
- Format:
- Workshops
- Location:
- 209B
- Sessions:
- Friday 29 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Ljubljana
Short Abstract:
We invite analyses of mutuality through expressions and experiences of joy and happiness revealing the qualities of social relations and anthropological knowledge and engagements.
Long Abstract:
This workshop invites analyses of fieldwork encounters of joy and happiness and related emotions as constitutive of social relations and actions. We discuss emotions of happiness as embodied intersubjective experiences, practices, discourses, narratives, fantasies, emotive styles, personal transformations, survival strategies and moral dilemmas. How do we experience, observe, conceptualize, repress and write about joy and happiness? What theoretical and methodological implications emerge? What is distinctive and valuable about the anthropological approach to studying happiness; could we enrich it through including other disciplinary approaches such as, for example, psychology, literary theory, philosophy, film studies, or neuroscience? How do particular manifestations such as humour, laughter, creativity, justice, physical well-being, sensuality, love, sexuality, visual pleasure, morality, and others relate to mutual feelings of joy and happiness? How can we relate the experience of fear, insecurity, anxiety, suffering, or pain, to the existence or absence of happiness.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 29 August, 2008, -Dimitrina Spencer (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
I argue for a phenomenological approach in studying emotional experiences, which includes the researcher’s emotions. Such an approach to happiness may allow for a humanistic understanding of mutuality and may limit, moralizing, victimising or rescuing tendencies in research.
Paper long abstract:
This paper situates the anthropological silence on happiness within the emotional regimes of academia. Even if silenced, the emotional is integral to the research process and permeates fieldwork, learning, teaching, writing and discussion. Drawing on examples from labour migration to the UK and from tango dancing, I discuss two ways in which we might gain analytically through studying happiness: firstly, through noticing and allowing more space in theory and method for the experience of happiness and limiting victimising discourses of social suffering (without pushing forward neoliberal notions of social capital); and secondly, through engaging and analyzing our own emotions in research, that is, employing radical empiricism to grasp the meanings and manifestations of mutuality.
The embodied experience of tango dancing, and particularly the intersubjective experience of the ‘the tango embrace’ is the key to understanding the power of mutuality in tango groups. Such research involves an immersion in shared sensuality, joy, creativity, exaltation, sexuality, and oblivion. How do we maintain the analytical value of emotions when conventional anthropological boundaries to participation dissolve?
A holistic enquiry into the experience of migration that includes joy, conviviality and happiness (re-)humanises the migrant, unveils the complexity of migrant experiences and the range of absurdity in the human condition without victimizing and portraying migrants simply as ‘units of labour.’ This questions the value of certain forms of morality and activism in research.
Elke Mader (University of Vienna)
Paper short abstract:
This paper is based on both online and offline exploration of embodied emotions and emotional networks among Indian cinema fans in Europe. I investigate how happiness evoked by one particular film star, Shah Rukh Khan, is expressed and lived as an intersubjective experience.
Paper long abstract:
'Bolywood makes you happy' has been the slogan for marketing popular Indian cinema in Germany and Austria for several years. It has also been articulated by the fast growing audiences in other European countries. Extensive fan networks have formed particularly around the Hindi cinema megastar Shah Rukh Khan. I explore how fans experience, express, communicate and circulate happiness in relationship with Shah Rukh Khan. Drawing on film theory I analyse the relationships between fans and film star as experiences of visual sentimental pleasure. Some of these experiences could also be seen as an exercise of diverse forms of agency and communicative practices. For example, fans met the star at the Berlinale 2008 and through the encounter, they experienced and expressed lasting feelings of joy and happiness. These feelings thrive in internet forums in fans' narratives and visual fan art. More than 400 thank you notes to Shah Rukh Khan for his presence in Berlin wrapped in little stars represent and communicate the love, joy and happiness felt by members of a fan forum through him.
Jónína Einarsdóttir (University of Iceland)
Paper short abstract:
Stress confronting professionals and parents of preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units is well documented. In this paper I examine the links between uncertainty, distressful life and joyful experiences with reference to findings from an ethnographic study conducted in such unit in Iceland.
Paper long abstract:
Premature birth is a leading cause of infant mortality in the US and Western Europe. It leaves many children with severe disability and, for this reason, it has been hotly debated whether and when expensive intensive treatment for infants with extremely low birth weight should be given. These debates produce numerous ethical and emotional dilemmas. While distress surrounding these experiences has been studied well, the shared moments of happiness and joy have been neglected by research although they play an important part in the process of accepting and dealing with emotional pain, distress and uncertainty, including moral uncertainty. I examine the links between moral uncertainty, distress and joy in the daily life of parents and staff in a neonatal intensive care unit in Iceland where I conducted fieldwork in different periods between 1998 and 2002. I highlight the importance of these conflicting feelings in understanding ethical dilemmas and decision-making about treatment.
Michaela Benson (University of York)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on fieldwork among British migrants in southwest France, this paper examines the promise of happiness that inspires migration and the subsequent search for fulfillment in the process of migration and settlement in the new country.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the emotional trajectories of migration shifting between momentary happiness and lasting fulfillment in narratives and experiences of British migrants in Lot, a rural department in southwest France. The life stories and histories of migration describe experiences of instant happiness during holidays in France. These happy moments seem to have produced visions of lasting happiness that have inspired emigration projects from the UK. The decision to emigrate was usually taken at a time when people experienced different forms of dissatisfaction with their life at home, in the UK, in contrast to the glimpse of joy and happiness during the. The quest for fulfillment would set in motion from the beginning of the migration journey. Yet, most migrants shared experiences of great sadness and unhappiness, many unforeseen difficulties and longing for family and friends and even old life back in the UK. Moments of happiness in the midst of lasting sadness would fuel the incessant quest for fulfillment and a vision of happiness that is yet to be achieved. At the same time, migrants would also experience doubts if they would ever achieve their quests and they would often share experiences of disconnection to their vision. I explore the conflicts in the narratives through which migrants seem to make sense of often contradictory emotional, moral, and relational experiences during migration.