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Short abstract:

An interactive workshop co-created and organised by Marieke Meesters, Maya Lane, Clemens Driessen, Sandra Calkins, Jae Fisher and Rebeca Ibáñez Martín.

Abstract:

Multispecies gezelligheid’ is an interactive workshop that encourages participants to speculate on diverse ways to do multispecies (ethnographic) research, as ethical STS scholars thematizing the mundane, but also as environmentally engaged scholars interested in fostering more expansive forms of conviviality.‘Gezellig’ (adjective) or ‘gezelligheid’ (noun) in Dutch refer to a cozy, homely and convivial atmosphere- imagine a comfy sociable situation, sharing conversations over snacks with loved ones under soft lighting. In the Netherlands, people care a great deal about their relationships, lives and everyday situations being gezellig. However, ‘gezelligheid’ can also have a dark side – an expectation of conformity and the imperative of blending into Dutch society that can marginalize and exclude forms of otherness. This workshop unpacks what it means to orient sociality towards multispecies gezelligheid, questioning how we can create a ‘gezellig’ space for a range of critters, whilst interrogating the normative horizons of gezellig. What does it imply to extrapolate a normative category derived from human sociality into multispecies ethnographies? Can this specifically Dutch notion be generative for STS research? How may this form of sociomaterial atmospheric relationality resonate with prominent cultural notions that gained theoretical impetus, such as buen vivir? Thinking regeneratively, the workshop focuses on creating gezelligheid for critters crucial for decomposing plant and animal materials, like earthworms and springtails. In creating multispecies gezelligheid, we intend to spark conversation on our positionality as scholars in relation to critters, share spaces of gezelligheid, and explore how various forms of multispecies gezelligheid are perhaps not always compatible.