Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

In this introduction we frame the following papers, using ‘radical optimism’ as a way to recuperate and sharpen anthropology’s liberatory potential.

Paper long abstract:

In this introduction we frame the following papers, using ‘radical optimism’ as a way to recuperate and sharpen anthropology’s liberatory potential.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

I will discuss: hope as making sense of the world regardless of how it turns out; optimism that all will turn out well; and radical optimism relating to the future of anthropology and its potential to produce and disseminate knowledge that inspires collaborative action on behalf of a livable future.

Paper long abstract:

Given the state of the world, many are at a loss about what can be done to change its destructive course. Given that anthropology, at points in its history, has been implicated in facilitating the same destructive course that scholars look to study and understand, it is no wonder that some suggest abolishing the discipline as we have known it (Jobson 2020). Having felt despair while committing my life as an anthropologist to a radically optimistic future for the discipline, I recognize that to sustain hope and radical optimism requires imagining an alternative world and an alternative discipline, and to be specific about what we want, and what it takes to achieve. In this paper, I discuss the ideas of: hope as it relates to making sense of the world regardless of how it turns out (Havel 1986); optimism as the conviction that all will turn out well; and radical optimism as it relates to the future of anthropology and its potential to produce and disseminate knowledge that inspires collaborative action on behalf of a livable future. Invoking examples from my work and of other engaged scholars, I also discuss specific actions and activities anthropologists have taken, do take, and may continue to take in the effort to replace radical evil with radical good. They are doing the work, day-in-and-day-out, most often without recognition in the mainstream media or popular culture, and sometimes suppressed by extremely powerful opposing forces. Still, they persist, as do I and as can we.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This paper does two things. First, it discusses the specific theme and methodological approach I use for a project on "the legal afterlife of war". Second, I share the methodology, structure and thinking behind a "slow scholarship" project I convene on this topic with 7 other scholars.

Paper long abstract:

This paper does two things. First, it discusses the specific theme and methodological approach I use for a project on "the legal afterlife of war". This research aims to better understand how Syrians understand the law in the aftermath of mass violence and revolutionary events. These events began in the public consciousness in 2011 with the revolution and subsequent Syrian civil war, but really Syrians' relationship to violence and the law extended well before into the half-century reign of the al-Assad regime and will, no doubt, proceed in various ways, regardless where they are now located, for many generations to come. Through ethnography, collaboration and co-creation with Syrians' I have known for around 10 years we seek to bring to the surface unconscious ways of thinking about violence and the law. In doing so, we hope to bring "above the horizon of history" many "unknown unknowns" as a way of radically reshaping the present and the future. The second part of the paper shares the methodology, structure and thinking behind a "slow scholarship" project I am convening on the broader topic of "the legal afterlife of war". This project involves 8 scholars working over a period of 12-18 months on the theme across various cases and examples. It reflects on what works and what doesn't in trying to bring a pedagogy of care, personalisation and non-production to academia.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores how radical optimism is located in small actions, moments of collective resistance and social togetherness in a police occupied neighbourhood, that can inform Anthropological pedagogy by centring socially caring critique.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I attempt to draw lessons from collective practices of resistance in an Athenian neighbourhood, finding itself under a policed 'real estate of emergency', where locating and practicing radical optimism becomes a mechanism of social survival. Drawing from my own experience of radical optimism while researching self-organised migrant/refugee squatted communities there under a context of increased oppression, for example, when supporting someone to border-cross, participating in collective assemblies, in housing and anti-gentrification protests or getting someone out of detention, in collective public dancing or sharing a foraged meal in a refugee camp, I try to analyse the common attributes of these experiences and theorise a critique of both systemic oppression and of the solidarity movement's micro-aggressions, that could inform vision(s) of engaged Anthropological pedagogies which can mobilise critique for the sake of a common(s) good.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

Focusing on the interwar Balkans, I explore how a multinational array of female activists cultivated collegiality and friendship and encouraged collaboration 'across enemy lines', despite disagreement, motivated by a radical optimism that feminist pragmatist practices could build support for peace.

Paper long abstract:

How can anthropologists cultivate optimism as well as a hopeful orientation for a better future? One tried-and-true way is to investigate and learn from the experiences of social actors/activists who are, or were, themselves trying to make a better world. In my ongoing project of historical ethnography grounded in the archival records of the internationalist, pacifist and feminist organisation, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), I have been studying a multinational association of women determined to stop future war through building female friendships and political collaborations for peace across enemy lines, with a focus on WILPF activism in the Balkans. In a historical moment (1915-1934) powerfully resonant with our own, of harsh divisions between victorious and defeated states, ongoing colonialism, intense nationalism and rising fascism, women sought out potential female collaborators, discussed and worked together, or disagreed, quarrelled and, sometimes, reconciled, as they defined common ground and developed collective practices. I am especially interested in the commitment to cultivate collegiality and, ideally, friendship among women, despite and across deep differences of opinion, as well as differences of status and affiliation (of class, race, religion, politics, and within civilisational hierarchies). With all their human imperfections and failures, and in bleak political circumstances, WILPF women practiced what we might see as radical optimism by trying to enact, and to model, forms of relationality upon which peace could build and friendships could flourish.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers anthropology’s role for regenerative approaches to securing less bad futures. I argue that expanding on key notions, fostering overlaps between disparate agents and rethinking the nature of politics helps aligning engaged scholarship as a variously grounded practice.

Paper long abstract:

Practitioners, activists or scholars attempting to secure less bad futures now frequently pursue regenerative approaches. They seek ways “to work toward world making that enhances the lives of others” (Deborah Bird Rose). This paper probes the role anthropology might play within such attempts. Reflecting on my working with, and alongside, climate justice activists, I outline three partly intersecting modalities thereof. One refers to expanding on key notions informing debates on regeneration that have received sustained interest in anthropology (such as indigenous ways of knowing, mutuality, or vitality) and thus to the politics of knowledge. The second refers to fostering overlaps and interconnections between struggles, aspirations and life forms, and thus to ontological politics. The third involves joining efforts in rethinking the means and ends of activism, and the scope of politics, and thus to the practice of reflexivity. In pursuing these aims, anthropology may not only become regenerative itself, but also help redoing engaged scholarship as a variously grounded practice.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I argue for the relevance of philosophers Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek, who disconnect hope from optimism, to inspire and revive a militant approach to anthropology. Based on my research in Recife, Brazil, I reflect on the approach of hope as a method for knowledge production.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I explore the relationship between hope and politics in the work of Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek, two prominent philosophers who have not received sufficient attention in anthropology. Badiou considers hope an ethical principle to persevere in a “truth procedure,” holding fidelity to an Event. Politics, for him, is one such procedure, along with Art, Science, and Love. Žižek, on the other hand, considers “the privatization of hope.” Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s statement that “thought is the courage of hopelessness,” Žižek argues that it is only by admitting hopelessness that we can initiate radical change. Politics, for him, is about “the art of the impossible,” insisting on a completely realistic demand that disturbs the core of hegemonic ideology and implies a much more “impossible” change.

These two philosophers, who disconnect hope from optimism, can inspire and revive a militant approach to anthropology. I make this point based on my PhD research on struggles for the Right to the City in Recife, Brazil. In this city, Liberation Theology was crucial in advancing a “preferential option for the poor.” Part of the Catholic Church sided with a strong popular movement that played an essential role in the 1980s for the establishment of an internationally lauded participatory slum governance system. Over time, this movement and program has lost much steam. In the current disoriented times, I show fidelity to this movement, approaching hope as a method for knowledge production.

Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

We discuss all of the previous contributions -- drawing out some key points around which we can imagine different futures for the discipline.

Paper long abstract:

We discuss all of the previous contributions -- drawing out some key points around which we can imagine different futures for the discipline.