Paper short abstract:

During the European integration process, corruption served as a major signifier of the distance separating East European countries from those already inside the Union. The paper proposes that, rather than being simply a socialist legacy, corruption can be understood as part and parcel of neo-liberalism´s project of restoring the power of ruling classes.

Paper long abstract:

In the last two rounds of the European integration process, corruption served as a major signifier of the distance separating East European countries from those already inside the Union. The first were seen as emerging from decades of communist regime the economy of which rotted under the moist grip of central planning. As such, they were deemed in need of rapid transformation towards Western standards of democracy and free market. East and West, plan and market, public and private, past and future, socialism and capitalism were collapsed into a mutually reinforcing opposition which highlighted contrasting features of, on the one hand, corruption, opacity and waste, and, on the other, transparency, accountability and efficiency.

Challenging this stark opposition, the paper proposes that, rather than being simply a socialist legacy, corruption can be understood as part and parcel of neo-liberalism and of its project of restoring the power of ruling elites and classes (Harvey, 2005). Indeed, corruption contributes to this project both on the material level (by helping to channel additional resources in the hands of the corporate class) and on the ideological level (by redefining corruption as an issue external to the market, because situated in the public sector or in "other", non-market economies). But while ruling or ascending classes re-appropriate the global neo-liberal discourse in a locally specific manner, dominated classes also develop their own understandings of corruption that challenge the dominant view.

Paper short abstract:

On the basis of experience with the Safe Motherhood Program, the present study uses a health and ethnographic approach to analyze the factors that affect the choices and often tortuos path, arising from obstetric complications.

Paper long abstract:

The lack of access of women to Sexual Reproductive Health services, particularly in developing countries, contributes to the high morbidity and mortality arising from health problems that should be largely avoidable. So, at the Millennium Development Goals, "universal access" become a target to improve maternal health by 2015

Access represents the posibility to obtain reproductive health care when required. Consequently, this implies a dialectic between the supply of and the potential demand. Due to this dialectic, the pregnant woman and her cultural context becomes a key dimension, whose study and analysis are generally ignored in public health policies.

On the basis of experience with the Safe Motherhood Program in southern Mozambique, the present study uses a health and ethnographic approach to analyze the factors that affect the choices and often tortuos path, arising from obstetric complications in a society where biomedicine coexist with other medical sistems. Those choices and courses do derive not merely from kinship and gender relations and the cultural logic about maternity, disease, risks and causality but also from the socialization of experiences that individuals have with the health services. Conditioned by the context of poverty, the health system offers a fragile alternative for responding to the population's medical needs "when required". In this scenario, where access has health and cultural dimensions, the present study about access analyzes the "meetings and misses" between the health services and the population and furnishes a basis for a qualitative interpretation of the reproductive health indicators.

Paper short abstract:

My first fieldwork in West Africa (1982-1991) turned to a situational analysis of the situation of the Bissa people before the building of the Bagre Dam on the Nakambe/Volta River. Then I studied the social and cultural impacts of 5 large dams in the Dordogne Valley in France (1998-2005). My research has become a part of a major contemporary topic, the worldwide anthropological approach of Large dams, catalysed by the work of the World Commission on Dams.

Paper long abstract:

A retrospective ethnographic assesment of the social impact of the displacement caused by large dams in France involves the memory of local witnesses and a careful study of the local archives. The french large dams built in 1930-1970's have displaced about two thousand people in the Alps, Provence, the Pyrenees and the Massif Central (The Dordogne Gorges).

New insights arose while listening to the people such as the importance of rebuilding transport connections ; railways in France. Local knowledge highlights the perception of the identity of an infrastructure, and the rituals related to it, including those caused by the loss of cultural heritage. Interviews show that even among the third generation people still feel anger against the social process.

An international academic community shared interest of large dams starting in the 60's. These African dams displaced around fifty thousand people each. Displacement and resettlement became common issues on infrastructure projects. Prof. Cernea (World Bank) prepared a safeguard policy : Involuntary Resettlement. A milestone has been published : « The Future of Large Dams » (Scudder 2005). At a national level in France, the support from the international community led to publish this year the first book on large dams and on displacement.

A new generation is becoming increasingly global, using digital communication. Each engaged as social experts during the building of dams and other infrastructure. The new projects may contribute to the critical movement for a better understanding of what is at stake. In this way the situation of the so called « affected population » can be improved.

Paper short abstract:

This poster contains images and artwork collected and photographed during black metal music concerts in Serbia, Romania and the Czech Republic, in which my fieldwork is being conducted. The images depict a church that was destroyed by musicians as well as concert photographs and textual analysis of material displayed.

Paper long abstract:

This poster explores the experience of comunitas within the context of the Slavic black metal music scene. Due to the multi-sited-ness of this music scene, attention will be drawn to the meanings created through different forms of participation e.g. from everyday face-to-face interaction to the production of music, artwork and small scene based entrepreneurial activities.

An examination of the kinds of interaction produced when a band plays a number of shows in different regions, areas and countries, tells us something about the role of prior musical knowledge. In the case of bands from former Yugoslavia, this often sheds light on the tensions inherent and negated through shared music scene based identities. However this prior knowledge may be deemed less relevant in the context of a ‘crowd winning’ performance and the mutual sense of ‘collective effervescence’ forged during these occasions tells us much about the ‘quality’ of the music performed.

Therefore this poster provides an insight into a relatively modern (early 1990s) music scene that is aesthetically misanthropic and came to prominence due to several cases of church arson, murder, suicide and other forms of violence. Yet, in practice this facilitates a high degree of (relatively) egalitarian interaction, displays novel forms of anti-reflexive reflexivity in regards to extremist hate based politics and has produced tangible and lasting ‘glocal’ communities/neo-tribes.

Paper short abstract:

La « construction social de l'anthropologue » et sa pertinence épistémologique sont au centre du poster. Les exemples sont puisé des relations de terrain mené à la Zen, un quartier massivement médiatisé et stigmatisé de Palerme, devenu icône maudite de la banlieue italienne.

Paper long abstract:

L'objet de ce poster tient aux logiques microsociales qui gouvernent la construction de la frontière symbolique séparant la ZEN (un quartier périphérique au nord de Palerme, Sicile, Italie) du reste de la ville. Les tropes médiatiques « d'enfer, ghetto, Bronx…» décrivent son univers social à l'aide d'un cadre narratif qui enferme les intervenants extérieurs (bénévoles, hommes politiques, travailleurs sociaux, urbanistes) dans les discours de la déviance et de la pathologie sociale et stigmatise les résidents en les dessaisissant de toute initiative personnelle mis à part, bien sûr, les comportements déviants. L'enquête de terrain analyse la construction des identités à l'intérieur d'un service social et dans l'espace résidentiel. Les récits à orientation biographique et le matériau ethnographique sont resitués dans l'unité interne d'événement et de sens de la rencontre anthropologique par l'identification, différée et processuelle, de la construction social du chercheur. Ainsi se manifestent deux sociabilités avec leur propre cohérence. Dans le service sociale il en résulte un récit ( le quartier des agents) axé sur « la violence », « la sexualité sauvage », « la temporalité » et tissé du « jargon » professionnel (la notion de progettualità, de risque et de famille multiproblematique). Il sert à reproduire la hiérarchie interne et aide à gérer un clivage social tout en contribuant à le reproduire. Dans l'espace résidentiel, le récit pluriel du quartier, entrelacs de lieux et de trajectoires biographiques singulières, négocie la stigmatisation externe tout en aidant à gérer la sociabilité interne : les relations de voisinage polarisées par la gestion des signes manifestant les écarts dans la hiérarchie sociale locale, un dispositif familial centré sur la maîtrise de l'initiative personnelle qui, inhibée à l'extérieur par les contraintes structurelles, fait des rapports de genre le pivot du positionnement réciproque dans l'espace commun. La « construction sociale de l'anthropologue» joue alors comme un révélateur de ces frontières et des logiques qui les reproduisent.

Paper short abstract:

to follow

Paper long abstract:

This poster represents the research I have been undertaking on the theme of youth and child labour in diamond mining in Liberia. I spent four weeks in Liberia talking to diamond miners, young and older, mine owners, government mining agents and local NGOs about child/youth labour, diamond mining as an economic activity. Child labour is condemned by the international community. Child labour is portrayed as an aberration, yet the incidence of child labour remains stubbornly high in sub-Saharan Africa. Susan Levine’s study of child labour in South Africa, throws light on this situation in that she concludes that both “pre and post apartheid, child labour both waged and unwaged-figures prominently in family survival strategies” (Levine, p48). Yet, so often, western notions of a correct and proper childhood dominate the debate among the international community on the issue of child labour. What impact does the child rights debate have on those young miners in Liberia?

While these young Liberian miners spend their youth in hard labour but for very little gain in the diamond mining industry, diamonds are a girls’ best friend in the developed world of the West and the rapidly developing worlds of Asia and the Middle East. What light can development thinkers throw on the increasing poverty and lack of development evident in Liberia and throughout West Africa? Development theorists, like Andre Gundar Frank, Raul Prebisch, Samir Amin and Immanuel Wallerstein postulate that the international capitalist trade system is configured in ways which enrich the wealthy developed countries. The diamond industry is a very good example of primary product extraction in the developing world, enriching the importers of the developed world.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to compare the findings of two field-researches on minority education in Portugal and Romania with particular focus on the Roma minority. Are the political and social measures/practices promote the integration or segregation of Roma children?

Paper long abstract:

It is estimated that there are 12 million Gypsies in the world and that two thirds live in Europe. The biggest communities are concentrated in Central European countries, like Bulgaria (700 ­ 800 thousand), the Czech Republic (250 ­ 300 thousand), Hungary (550 ­ 600 thousand), Romania (1 million 800 thousand ­ 2 million 500 thousand), Slovakia (480 ­ 500 thousand) and the former Yugoslavia (between 690 thousand and 1 million). It is estimated that 30 to 50 thousand Gypsies live in Portugal.

There is certain transverseness at the level of social situations, living conditions and difficulties experienced by Gypsies in several countries, as it happens in Portugal and Romania. In both contexts, Gypsies are categorized as an ethnic group, a minority group, a minority particularly vulnerable to poverty, social exclusion and possibly to marginalization. There seems to be a certain consistency and historicity in the prejudices that are built by the majorities in these two countries regarding the Gypsies. It seems evident among the major population an attitude of general antipathy, sometimes, of not controlled but open rejection. Therefore, in this communication we would like to present and discuss some of the results of two case studies: one of them made in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and the other in Nusfalau (Salej County) in Romania. Among the dimensions to be analysed, we will debate the impact of some political and social measures and their effect on the practices, that is, both on the Gypsies' behaviours regarding schooling and educational system, and on the practices of some of the educational system's actors (teachers, educators, education assistants). Are we facing political measures that are in consonance with the practices, that can promote an integrated and/or a separated education? In a wider context, that of the relations between Gypsies and non-Gypsies, we will try to account for the representations, practices, obstacles and difficulties that mark the relation between Gypsies and the formal educational system. The interpretation of the results demands a reflection on the importance of the table of values of the Gypsy ingroup, about its internal structure and the relevance of informal education within itself.

Paper short abstract:

This study of ethnic minority-women’s narratives shows that the women experience unintelligible pains that the healthcare system is not able to recognise or treat. We propose a starting point of a new, mutual understanding between the women and the Danish health care system: InterMultiFemina.

Paper long abstract:

In Denmark, the general discourses on health show a lack of ethnic minority perspective. Especially, ethnic minority women’s perspectives are rarely represented. This study investigates ethnic minority-women’s experiences with health and well-being in the context of migration and exile. The method is participant observation in minority dense communities in the city pf Aarhus, Denmark combined with ten semi-structured interviews with ethnic minority women. The study shows that these women experience unintelligible pains that the Danish health system is not able to recognise or treat. We propose a new understanding of these women and a starting point for a new, mutual understanding between the women and the Danish health care system: InterMultiFemina.

Paper short abstract:

This poster charts how female sex workers strategize selling sex in Dublin, particularly in relation to recent technological advances, especially mobile phones and the Internet.

Paper long abstract:

The Dublin sex-work industry, like other service industries, is subject to the forces of globalisation. Economic growth, changes in the labour market, migration, national and EU legislative frameworks, and advances in technology, condition how women engage in sex-work. Using life histories from sex workers, this poster charts at how sex-work in Dublin has been transformed in the last 15 years or so, in response to changes facilitated by technological advances, especially with the proliferation of mobile phones and the Internet. In the recent past, covert advertisements in magazines, offering a mere hint at what carnal delight might be on offer, have given way to explicit internet websites, allowing potential buyers to view an array of women in various locations around the city, as well as a menu of services, price lists, and graphic photos. Indeed, far from looking like an exotic enterprise, the sex industry, especially in the escort sector of the market, resembles many other branches of the service industry, in dealing with the effects of globalisation while finding new and innovate means of accessing their potential market as part of their economic strategy.

Paper short abstract:

In this poster we will bring to focus the ways through which a set of selected representations and practices drawn from folk culture come to be part of a local cultural heritage.

Paper long abstract:

In Ribatejo, a region in central Portugal, folklore, festivals and other performances drawn from folk culture often involve displays of 'campinos', local bull herdsmen who have an important role in bull raising and fighting as well as in horse breeding. Bull herdsmen are frequently presented as virile, heroic, faithful and unselfish men, and it is difficult to find an opposite image about them on (local and even national) media, literature, travel guides, ethnographic and geographic studies.

'Campinos' were made the firm symbol of the region in the period between 1840 e 1840, as folk culture was objectified, nationalized and regionalized (Handler 1988, Löfgreen 1989). And from mid XXth on they became the centrepiece of festivals and folklore, subject of exhibitions, monuments and memorials as one of the key elements of identity discourses in Ribatejo and, only recently, part of what is considered local cultural heritage. Finally, it can be argued that local policies of identity and agendas of patrimonialization and re-traditionalization are part of undergoing processes of modernization and globalization.

Based in a multi-sited ethnography (2005-2007) and in historical analysis, this poster will bring to focus the ways through which patrimonialisation in Ribatejo, particularly of local bull herding representations and practices, are built and organized as an enactment of the past and collective memory (Candau 1996, Nora 1984-1992).

Paper short abstract:

The cohabitation between the living and the dead characterizes Cairo's Al Qarafa, the Muslim urban cemetery still in use. During the last century rural immigrants flowed into. The political power has dichotomized the relationship urbans/rurals in order to marginalize Cairene cemetery 's community.

Paper long abstract:

Since 1998 I have been working on Cairo's Al Qarafa", that is the urban cemetery commonly termed "City of the dead". I lived there - because of my field work - as resident till 2005.

I researched about the relationship between the urbanization of the cemetery and the death and burial rituals. As you know, Cairo's City of the dead is extremely interesting because of the close cohabitation between the living and the dead as an exclusive way with which Egyptians communicate their meaning of the sacred, their perception of the dead and the afterlife.

I usually participate to international and national conferences and academic seminars in order to spread the knowledge about this necropolis that is still in use as burial ground. Many prejudices on this cemetery and its resident community give a distort representation of it, even among scholars. So that I feel - as part of my job - to contribute with a different portrayal and interpretation of it.

Paper short abstract:

To achieve an understanding of individual experiences after a disaster we need to implement theoretical constructs that acknowledge the fragmented nature of reality. This poster uses the concept of heteroglossia to refer to the diverse perspectives different social actors have and how these impact upon their interactions.

Paper long abstract:

Disasters and their impact have traditionally been discussed by non-affected people, while the experiences of affected people are rarely heard, precluding the possibility of constructing a common ground for understanding. This poster will present the concept of heteroglossia as the theoretical assumption underpinning a study aiming to construct narratives of daily life experiences after a disaster.

Different social actors occupy different vantage points and thus their experiences, and their interpretations of these, vary. To illustrate this multifactorial discourse, the Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia will be used. Heteroglossia refers to the multiple discourses operative in every society which regulate access to resources, including power and representation. The various vantage points people occupy, their different perspectives and the different “languages” they speak are intertwined in relationships of power.

The construction of a common language does not eradicate the possibility of misinterpretation, as it perpetuates power differentials, and also excludes people whose experience cannot be understood according to these conventions. Acknowledging heteroglossia enables us to accept the fragmented nature of reality and make sense of the multiple semantic networks within which individual experiences are grounded. The importance of narratives is that by giving lives a sense of continuity and meaning they make them legible, and thus they enable people to communicate towards a negotiated common understanding.

Narratives will illuminate how the participants make meaning of their life worlds. It is in the exploration of these multiple narratives that the hope for the establishment of a common ground for understanding and action lies.

Paper short abstract:

The poster outlines the motivations and concepts that underlie the construction of tourist spaces and illustrates the remarkable popularity of travelling and climbing in a western social setting. Tourism requires the direct interaction between people, often mirrors an ambivalent host- guest relationship and is connected to a number of multidimensional transactions.

Paper long abstract:

Travelling adorns. For the members of rich industrialized countries to journey may be looked at as an imposed duty. Refering to voyages suggests open mindedness, communication skills, experience, sophistication, a spirit of adventure and not least graces the Curriculum Vitae. Moreover itineraries are characterized by a thirst of adventure, the search for the great outdoors, intact nature, Shangri-la, the ultimate kick, and thrill seeking adventure.

Extrem experiences boom. Facing and confronting new and wack challenges became a mass sensation, representing a contemporary feature, which besides body awareness marks a revival of growing consciousness towards the natural environment. In this context, free climbing in particular suits for the illustration, importance and interconnection of several aspects.

My intention is to demonstrate how this trendsport is interlaced with social and cultural interactions, taking the example of a climbing area in southern Spain, which is considered to be a tip among insiders. With this contribution, I seek to portrait the perception of travelling and dwelling in this field. I explore in how far the rocky landscape represents a scene for climbers and how their performance functions as a tourist attraction at the same time. Furthermore, the poster outlines the motivations and concepts that underlie the construction of tourist spaces and illustrates the remarkable popularity of travelling and climbing in a western social setting. The work of the imagination in Appadurai’s sense is inherent to both climbing and travelling and is linked to the fulfillment of dreams and desires. These activities engage people from different cultural backgrounds and may bring them into close contact. Out of this perspective I finally want to present whether travelling and climbing through landscapes may be suited for an intercultural dialogue.

Paper short abstract:

The aim of the research outlined in the poster presentation is to trace the physical as well as symbolical flows of waters in the specific socio-ecological context of a Dalmatian island - Dugi otok.

Paper long abstract:

Close attention paid to the relationship between man and his environment on island Dugi otok results in a fact that the Island's distinctive ecological feature of scarce water resources bares various social implications in the life of the islanders. The water in this respect is not only seen as a subject per se (as natural resource) but as a socio-cultural artefact and a symbolic means, interrelating environment, people, their ideas and practices. Therefore, the purpose in the research is to trace the physical as well as symbolical flows of the waters inscribed into the particular landscapes of the Island. The applied approach crosses the boundaries of the main discipline of anthropology and it pursues the principles of ethnoecology, the socio-natural junction of two sciences (and their respective fields): comparative sociology and ecology. The prospective findings would enrich the anthropological knowledge about the everyday life practices and symbolic imagery regarding water in the Adriatic region. At the same time they would be (hopefully) accepted as applicable knowledge that might contribute to the higher efficiency of the developmental projects of sustainable use and management of natural resources (water resources in particular) in the region.

Paper short abstract:

The Moving Anthropology Student Network (MASN) connects students and young scholars of social and cultural anthropology and ethnology through on-line discussions and through international MASN conferences. MASN provides an exchange platform for young researchers and significant opportunities for creative networking.

Paper long abstract:

The poster is intended to embrace the ongoing Moving Anthropology Student Network (MASN) activities. Our point of departure is the creation of an international network of ethnology and socio-cultural anthropology students. Independent from institutional spheres and already established academic hierarchies, MASN provides an exciting and constructive exchange platform for sharing ideas and research experiences between students of diverse backgrounds. “Moving” in the title implies a sort of a movement: the growing membership of the network (over 1300 members) constantly fuelled with the creativity of young researchers, and the ever-changing venue of MASN conferences. Established in 2005 by students and for students, MASN has successfully organised five conferences (in Austria, Croatia, Poland, Germany and Italy), with the sixth coming up in Slovenia, from 19 to 24 August 2008. MASN’s dedication is to create and sustain a space for agency and student involvement, which is structurally often weak in studying at a University. On each conference, MASN-ers focus on diverse anthropological topics in the form of paper presentations, workshops, roundtables, and fringe events. Besides the opportunity to widen their conceptual horizons through productive discussions, participants are offered the space to present their research experiences to international student audiences, as well as to publish their works (the MASN-Germany reader). Inspiring and fruitful new ideas emerge through informal networking, while common research explorations and projects are being developed by MASN participants. Our poster will be presented on the 10th Biennial EASA-Conference by a part of the MASN “collective” – participants of the Slovenian MASN conference.

Paper short abstract:

The “magic healing” is scientifically explained as a BIOPHOTONIC resonance established between the human body ultraweak bioluminescence and the (bio)waves emitted by different curing stimuli. The tradition of CLOTHING is technologically actualized, arguing that the resonant properties of materials, colours, symbols, volumes, accessories are synergetically influencing the human health state.

Paper long abstract:

The poster argues that many of the indigenous healing practices, usually considered as irrational manifestations of the primitive mentality – such as the use of plants and crystals, the synergetic power of music, dance and drawn symbols, the utilization of the magic objects and, finally, the power of the witchcraft ¬– could be explained into the scientific terms of BIOPHOTONICS (biology + theory / technology of lasers). In this way, is possible to justify that the old therapeutic practices are based on the same type of unifying process, namely: (bio)resonance established between the human (living) body emission of light (ultra-weak bioluminescent / auric system) and the (bio)waves emitted by the different types of curing stimuli. It is exactly this mechanism that the modern quantum medicine is bio-technologically valorising.

The syncretism of the ethnical practice of clothing is particularly presented, by arguing that the resonant properties of the natural textile materials, colours, decorative symbols, tailored volumes and accessories are synergetically influencing the human bio-psychical health state. Traditionally based, a modern and ecological / healthy “CLOTHING OF LIGHT” could be developed.

Anthropologically, the archetypal unity of the human being and the light – specifically manifested in all the human cultures – could represent the path towards a NEW SYNCRETISM: magic and technology, soul and body, tradition and modernity, harmoniously together…

* This poster is realized and financially sustained into the frame of the "MATNANTECH" CEEX 32/2005 research program: BIOPHOTONIC NANOTECHNOLOGIES APPLIED IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY. BENEFIC EFFECTS OF "BIOPHOTONTEX" CLOTHING.