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- Convenors:
-
Daniele Cantini
(Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient)
Bouchra Sidi Hida (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA))
Amal Abdrabo (Alexandria University, Egypt)
David Mills (University of Oxford)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Peter Froggatt Centre (PFC), 02/011
- Sessions:
- Friday 29 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The panel brings together papers on how the pandemic has changed fieldwork and the making of anthropology in and of Africa.
Long Abstract:
This panel explores how the pandemic has transformed anthropological practice in a global Africa. The African discipline continues to face extraversion and marginalization, with geographical dependencies being reworked in new ways.
Papers will explore how the pandemic has affected Africa-based anthropologists, their access to disciplinary networks and resources, and the challenge of combining research and teaching. Has it limited or enabled opportunities for global networking, and is online communication - and conferencing - replacing face-to-face networking? How does this reshape knowledge production?
The making of anthropology on Africa from elsewhere is changing because of growing critiques of extractivism and academic coloniality. Are international research projects adapting to these challenges? And what is the impact of increased quantification of research outputs and impact?
The panel will bring together papers - in French and English -exploring how anthropologists working in and on the continent are creatively negotiating existing institutional and disciplinary hegemonies.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 29 July, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
The objective of this communication is to focus on the perception of the Covid 19 pandemic in Africa, to understand and analyze the strengths, constraints and behaviors faced with the restrictions and changes induced following the spread of the Virus.
Paper long abstract:
The objective of this communication is to focus on the perception of the Covid 19 pandemic in Africa, to determine the modes of operation introduced and the transformations that have enabled the continuity of activities during confinement. The aim is also to understand and analyze the strengths, constraints and behaviors faced with the restrictions and changes induced following the spread of the Virus. The COVID 19 pandemic was perceived at the beginning of its appearance as an evil that does not concern Africa. "The virus cannot grow or survive in Africa, it is the continent of the sun." Especially since the first infected with the virus were foreigners from Europe or Africans living in Europe. From an anthropological approach, the study intends to highlight the readjustments of researchers and other actors (politicians, civil society, etc.) in a pandemic situation.
Paper short abstract:
This paper, drawing on an 18-months ethnography on Covid-19 and a 1-month ethnography on Ebola in Guinea, explores how these two pandemics differently impacted anthropologists on site and forced them to craft and create new anthropological methods and research approaches.
Paper long abstract:
In 2020 and 2021, Guinea has declared several epidemics and pandemics. Covid-19, Ebola, Lassa fever, Marburg fever – and their barrier measures – changed the way anthropologists on field were practicing and researching. They forced researchers to craft new research methodologies and approaches, transforming their practices of anthropology to access data and informants. This paper, drawing on an 18-months ethnography on Covid-19 in Guinea and a 1-month ethnography on Ebola resurgence in Forest Guinea, explores how these two pandemics have affected anthropological practices. While Covid-19 impeded most of participant observation in Northern countries and other African countries – leading to a multiplication of online ethnography and methodology relying on social media –, participative research was still possible in Guinea and anthropologists could lead fieldwork in health centres, hospitals and Covid-19 treatment centres. Numerous anthropologists in our team, including I, also turned their compulsory hospitalization in Covid-19 centres into participative fieldworks, having an insight perspective that completed their previous fieldworks and exploring methods of observant participation and « onboard » anthropology. With Ebola resurgence in February 2021 in Forest Guinea, anthropologists were directly integrated within the Response and worked closely with NGOs and Guinean officials. However, in continuation with the 2014-2016 Ebola Riposte, anthropologists were mostly considered as augmented communicators and mediators, and practices of anthropology were perceived as negotiation skills more than research activities. Producing knowledge on the epidemic resurgence was not valued by the Response officials, forcing anthropologists to find creative ways to lead research within the Response.
Paper short abstract:
Are new anthropological research methodologies an emancipatory tool on the African continent or do they accentuate inequalities in knowledge acquisition and production? This paper focuses on North African universities (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) and the potential that hyperconnectivity offers.
Paper long abstract:
Conventional Data gathering relies on the physical locality. However, our research habits have been turned upside down in the pandemic context forcing us to rethink and reinvent the way we do the field and collect data. Virtuality now occupies an important place in our lives and the ethnographic work of the researcher faces other challenges. In this context, we need to interrogate traditional approaches to data collection or reconfigure them by relying on digital data collection. A more concrete methodology and data collection instruments are elaborated through online materials: webinars, workshops, virtual meetings and interviews and discussions on internet, social listening tools and online spaces. These new data collection methodologies have implications for knowledge production on the African continent. In this paper, we will focus on North African universities (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) and try to investigate whether these new knowledge production methodologies can be a tool for emancipation on the African continent or whether they can accentuate inequality in knowledge acquisition and production? we also wonder if this hyperconnectivity imposed by a pandemic context can be a tool to connect the different academic institutions of the continent and create spaces of exchange for African research?
Paper short abstract:
The last two and half years presented unprecedented challenges to the making of anthropology. Many operated in 'crisis mode', dealing with the pandemic as an exceptional moment. This paper proposes to look at long-term effects of Covid-19 for collaborations, fieldwork and projects.
Paper long abstract:
The last two and half years presented unprecedented challenges to the making of anthropology. Travel restrictions and health safety concerns, among other conditions, heavily impacted on everyone's lives, and also to anthropologists working in and on Africa. Many instinctively operated in 'crisis mode', dealing with the pandemic as an exceptional moment, and assuming that normal operations could sooner or later be resumed. Yet in the meanwhile, the making of the discipline underwent important structural changes, some more or less in line with developments in recent years, others more extravagant. 'Staying put', as noted by many, is far from being neutral; it reinforces the position of those who have, and challenges more those in more precarious positions. This is true within academic systems, and even more so across different countries.
This paper proposes to look at long-term effects of Covid-19 for collaborations, fieldwork and projects. While I share the hope that the pandemic will eventually be overcome, some of the changes are likely to stay. Digital meetings, if at all possible, encourage more oriented exchanges, with less travel burdens, and potentially promise to be more inclusive. Yet, they also exacerbate a sense of déjà-vu, taking away the lived experience and its messiness, the serendipity that is such an essential component of any anthropological work. Staying put also reinforces position privileges, encourages cooperation with already known partners, and impacts on the selection of research themes, much in line with current requirements for obtaining funds.