Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the pandemic shapes health perceptions among African migrants in Guangzhou, emphasizing their resilience against healthcare inequalities and navigation of inadequate healthcare through knowledge-making, alternative practices, and informal networks

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how African migrants in Guangzhou, China, reinterpret and manage their health and lives in the post-pandemic era. Comprising primarily Muslim small-scale traders from West Africa, these migrants have grappled with China’s stringent immigration control and social discrimination since the early 2000s. The study delves into how these individuals negotiate, resist, and navigate China's public health requirements and build their lives during and after the pandemic. It unpacks their daily experiences, moving from mistreatment at the onset of the pandemic to enduring strict confinement measures. In the current post-pandemic era, characterized by government neglect and indifference, African migrants—lacking formal health resources as immigrants—rely heavily on their informal networks, both locally and transnationally. The paper further examines how these experiences shape African migrants' perceptions of health as they pursue their dreams and build their future lives. Highlighting the resilient subjectivity of African migrants, this study showcases their resistance to healthcare inequalities and their adept navigation of inadequate healthcare infrastructure through knowledge-making and alternative healthcare practices. Ethnographic data for this study is derived from ongoing anthropological fieldwork conducted from April to August 2023 and February to April 2024.

Paper short abstract:

Traditional Palestinian embroidery (taṭrīz), has evolved post-Nakba and flourished after the Intifada. Today digital platforms globally connects Palestinians, sharing and exchanging embroidery practices. The paper explores taṭrīz's evolution through digital ethnography.

Paper long abstract:

As a form of embroidery typical to the Palestinian villages, taṭrīz was originally an ornament that revealed regional identities through specific patterns and colors; yet its use and characteristics have greatly changed after the Nakba and the first Intifada. After the former, women no longer had time/finances to embroider, as the distinction between festive and everyday clothes disappeared while adjusting to a displaced, refugee condition (Allenby 2002). On the other hand, the first Intifada brought out the rebirth of symbols conveying attachment to the land in a national sense, and taṭrīz flourished again, intertwining traditional patterns with modern contents and colors reminding the Palestinian flag and the map of Palestine with Arabic toponyms (Salamon 2016).

Taṭrīz evolved from a signifier of regional belonging to a national one, allowing the spread and expression of identity consciousness within Palestinian territories and diasporas, linking the creation of embroidery to the resistance and survival of memory (Farah 2013; Saca and Saca 2006). Nowadays, digital platforms facilitate the connection between Palestinians with different diasporic backgrounds (Aouragh 2011), promoting the learning and sharing of embroidered works across different countries (e.g. the project “Taṭrīz and Tea”). The paper aims at discussing this evolution of taṭrīz by highlighting its role in different contexts of Palestinian diaspora, with a focus on a digital ethnography (Pink et al 2016) addressing the practice of taṭrīz in social media and as a medium for social networks.

Paper short abstract:

Exploring both creative process and the embodied experiences that informs their practices, this multicultural and intergenerational project aims to interrogate a reclamation of narrative power to communities often both unheard and negotiated as "other".

Paper long abstract:

ABOUT THE WORK

SHEDDINGSOMETHINGSHEDDING is space where practice meets testimony, as independent artists share their stories of becoming in a reimagining of a salon-style gathering in a digital space.

CONTENT AND CONSIDERATIONS

This community-driven work was conceived in New York City as the COVID-19 pandemic had both arrived and driven the city to its closure in March, 2020. At the time of the first anniversary, independent artists rallied and organized to share their truths, advocate & uplift one another, and share visions for a sustainable, equitable balance in the cultural sector, all while global social solidarity movements call for land-back, fights for social, professional, economic equity. Exploring both creative process and the embodied experiences that informs their practices, this multicultural and intergenerational project aims to encourage curiosity & wonder, and reclamation of narrative power to communities often both unheard and negotiated as "other".

Themes explored in this work include ancestry, prejudice & discrimination, sex, LGBTQ+, anger, violence, trauma, community organizing and advocacy, prejudice & racism, fear, longing, love, solidarity, experience of being in a body, art & creation.

Creative process for the purpose of this work concerns makers of performance, visual, and social practice works, including community advocacy, building, and organizing.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the growing housing crisis in Turkey's southern cities, focusing on Antalya. Taking rental contracts as social relations that reflect broader social dynamics and power structures, it explores the responses of tenants' rights movements to the hyper-commodification of housing.

Paper long abstract:

Since the pandemic, international organizations have increasingly highlighted a 'new phase' in the escalating housing crisis in the Mediterranean region, as evidenced by widespread struggles with mortgages, rents, utilities, and the rising tide of evictions, foreclosures, and homelessness.

This paper focuses on Antalya, a tourism-oriented city in southern Turkey that is emblematic of the hyper-commodification of housing since the early 2000s. Antalya's urban landscape has undergone a drastic transformation due to both economic commodification and socio-political factors, including migration from conflict zones such as Syria, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as recent influxes from earthquake zones in Turkey. The paper explores the narratives of emerging tenants' rights movements in Antalya. These movements, which are driven by the demand for a just housing policy, are navigating within a landscape of highly nationalist sentiments that are colored by anti-immigrant discourses.

Through ethnographic material, the paper evaluates the perspectives of NGOs, migrants, legal experts, real estate agents, local communities, and government agencies, each bringing unique discourses to the housing crisis. A key focus is defining the rental contract as a social relationship and examining how these arrangements reflect and influence broader social dynamics and power structures. In contrast to European cases, Antalya's hyper-commodification is primarily driven by small-scale landlords and investors. This model has complicated the dynamics between landlords and tenants, ranging from violent interactions to compromises. It also has fragmented tenants' mobilization, hindering collective action towards common goals. By examining how different actors redefine the tenancy relationship within a rights discourse, this study aims to identify whether these discourses can coalesce into a new global policy lexicon, potentially promoting a more equitable housing agenda.