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- Convenors:
-
Chrysi Kyratsou
(Queen's University Belfast)
Raluca Bianca Roman (Queen's University Belfast)
Cris Shore (Goldsmiths)
Niamh Small (Queens University Belfast)
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- Format:
- Plenary
- Location:
- Whitla Hall
- Start time:
- 28 July, 2022 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This plenary explores the multi-faceted notion of ‘responsibility’ as traced within the small scale of the discipline and as unfolded across the complexities pertaining to the global order of things.
Long Abstract:
Responsibility is recognized by many as central to ethical encounters, and consequently is increasingly discussed as a prerequisite for mutually respectful coexistence. Given that ‘encountering’ and ‘relating’ lie at the heart of anthropology, responsibility forms part of the backbone of the discipline. More specifically, responsibility underpins anthropologists’ relations with their interlocutors, their discipline, their students and the academy (as their working place). Responsibility is expressed in our duty of care to ourselves and ensuring our safety in the field. It emerges in the relationships we build with our interlocutors and the world, the knowledge we acquire, and our commitments to the environment, class, human rights, and advocacy.
Despite its importance, ‘responsibility’ is asymmetrically discussed as such. This plenary explores the multi-faceted notion of ‘responsibility’ as traced within the small scale of the discipline and as unfolded across the complexities pertaining to the global order of things. Possible questions the plenary will raise include: How can anthropologists explore, ethnographically and theoretically, the notion of ‘responsibility’? What can we learn about responsibility from our practices? Could responsibility to the University conflict with responsibility to the discipline and/or to our interlocutors? What sort of ‘responsibilities’ does anthropology have to its students, particularly in a context of increased and prevailing ‘precarity’ and uncertainty? How do global challenges (e.g. climate change) and histories of violence (e.g. colonialism, war, displacement) orientate our thinking around ‘responsibility’?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
An investigation within the French National Committee for Digital Ethics offers a way to explore ethnographically the concept of responsibility.It also presents a counterpoint to question the interweaving of responsibility, authority and power - both in ethical and anthropological reflection.
Paper long abstract:
Ethical thinking about new technologies often appears as an attempt to navigate between excessive prudence and lack of anticipation. This paper, based on a two-years investigation within the French National Committee for Digital Ethics intends to go beyond the understanding of responsibility as some sort of risk management and to apprehend ethnographically other aspects of this notion.
At first, this Committee may appear as an institutional guarantee established to prevent risks induced by digital transformation. Nevertheless, members often insist on the fact that ethical thinking should go beyond the notion of risk and also assume some responsibility in shaping better worlds by opening up possibilities - without pointing to any particular one themselves. They rather try to enlighten the choices of everyone imagining, designing, manufacturing, regulating or using digital technologies - to offer to each one of them ways to assume their own responsibilities.Thus we are left with an apparent paradox where the committee has a certain moral obligation towards society, but denies having any political legitimacy for exercising it.
This paradox echoes the ambiguities early career anthropologists sometime discover in their first fieldworks : we also have some moral obligation towards our interlocutors in the field yet cannot speak for them.
The analysis of the articulation between the moral and the political dimensions of the responsibility of this committee then offers an opportunity to question the relationship between responsibility, authority and power more generally.
Paper long abstract:
Despite recent insightful contributions (including Field 2021, High 2019), I find that the study of elites remains under-researched in anthropology. Particularly so in relation to processes of societal transformation and transnational phenomena. This is partly due to methodological limitations such as attaining access to elites’ networks. It also stems from theoretic disagreements on who constitutes ‘elites’. Further, unfavourable associations with the term promoted in recent history by pop-culture and scholars alike make ‘elites’ a rather unpopular field of study. Moreover, ethical considerations have meant that anthropologists have had a preference in studying ‘the marginalised’ and hesitate to give a voice to the “wealthy and powerful” (Hughes 2017).
In this talk I not only argue for a responsibility towards the study of elites, but also that this must be done responsibly. By providing methodological and ethnographic insights into my experiences with ‘studying up’ (Nader 1972), I advocate a non-judgemental, respectful approach to studying elites. Much of the social science work on elites has been presumptive. Immersive, ethnographic research ideally equips anthropologists with the means to provide nuance to this field. This entails allowing interlocutors to share their own conceptualisations of their roles in society. Particularly in an era marked by growing climate change concern, for which corporate elites are held in large part accountable (Hughes 2017), it is essential to gain a better understanding of how they view their own responsibilities.
Paper long abstract:
The paper reviews the notion of responsibility in the practice of ethnographic fieldwork with
Afro-Colombian artists and community leaders who use diverse artistic practices to fight
structural racism in Colombia in their daily contexts. Challenging structural racism through
Afro-contemporary dance and filmmaking where the children play leading roles led me to
think about: i) How can we build our positioning when we work with impoverished and
racialised communities; ii) What are the limits on narratives that can be told through artistic
expression; iii) How can we manage the issues that arise when collaborating with social
movements from our anthropological background? The experiences I will talk about arose
from my recent research as a part of the project Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America
(CARLA), coordinated by Prof. Peter Wade and based in the School of Social Science,
University of Manchester.