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- Convenors:
-
Marijana Belaj
(University of Zagreb)
Tomislav Oroz (University of Zadar)
- Stream:
- Workshops, films and posters
- Location:
- Foyer
Short Abstract:
This general poster session invites students and scholars to present their research results centered on the congress theme of "Utopias, Realities, Heritages: Ethnographies for the 21st century" , its theoretical implications and practical consequences in visually appealing and conclusive posters.
Long Abstract:
Contributors of posters should be present at the posters's display (at times to be announced) in order to give further information and to receive feedback in discussions with colleagues.
It is strongly suggested to keep the word count as low as 1000 words to achieve best readability. The focus should lie on the visualisation of the presented work and its results. The posters should be no larger than A2.
Accepted papers:
Valentina Gulin Zrnic (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research)
Paper short abstract:
The presentation is focused on the research topic of urban "wilderness" and negotiate its possible definitions, research potentials and transdisciplinarity. Case studies arise from an academic-artistic project in Zagreb.
Paper long abstract:
The poster theme arises from collaboration of an ethnologist (Valentina Gulin Zrnic) and an artist (Tonka Malekovic) in search for urban "wilderness" topics in Zagreb. The re/search has opened up new visions on the city by looking through the magnifier on the very street level, looking over the construction fences or up in the air. It ranges from the perception of "wild" plants in the city to various "wild" (illegal) urban practices and leads us to discuss the term itself as well as spaces and activities that illustrate the complexity of "wilderness" from everyday life, discursive, social and cultural, political and legislative perspectives.
The poster presentation will be an opportunity to present the research topic on urban "wilderness", to discuss the term as well as to negotiate its possible definitions and research potentials. Moreover, it will question transdisciplinarity using topics that connect urban issues and nature. It will also question advantages of academic-artistic projects in terms of fostering academic imagination and finding new ways for presenting scientific results.
Nadine Wagener-Böck (Kiel University)
Paper short abstract:
Based on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork this poster illustrates the utopian visions of humanity and good life negotiated and put on display by a German relief organization specialized in doing good with donated clothes national and in South-Eastern Europe.
Paper long abstract:
Since 2014 an increasing demand for wearable clothes exists for those who live in war zones and for those who could escape. In Germany public discourse mobilizes people and German refugee shelters face quantities of old clothes hardly to handle. The new willingness to make donations complements the traditional collections of second-hand clothes organized by aid agencies, which have long been criticized for an ongoing economization. This is a good example for ideas and practices of doing good, but also for the close connections between faith-based humanitarianism and the donation of clothes. After all, most charity projects are initiated by communities of faith.
The poster will present findings from ongoing ethnographic research on the infrastructure and ethics characterizing the work of a German relief organization specialized in donated clothes, second-hand and remnants. It will question the utopian visions narrated and put on display, and in doing so give insight into the interrelation of materials, values and visions of humanity. Basically, the rather small non-profit organization is associated with Protestant Church and cooperates with parishes and NGOs in Germany, Eastern Europe resp. South-Eastern Europe. Possessing the infrastructure for clothes sorting, stockpiling and distribution, similar to freight forwarding and logistics companies, she promotes herself as humanitarian and sustainable. Given that both are sites of articulating and negotiating moralities, the entanglement of a 'green utopia' and humanitarian activity will receive attention.
Tihana Rubic (University of Zagreb) Željka Petrović Osmak (Ethnographic Museum)
Paper short abstract:
The poster presents empirical ethnographic accounts, main research questions and theoretical framework of the ethnological and cultural anthropological research aiming at comprehensive understanding of practices, representations and discourses pertaining to "active aging" in an urban environment.
Paper long abstract:
This poster presentation focuses on practices, representations and discourses pertaining to "active aging" in the Croatian capital, Zagreb. Our interest in the topic emerges from our initial ethnographic insights on aging, and from a wide range of theoretical and empirical findings (on "active aging", retirement, demographic change and family life) in various disciplines such as social work, sociology, law, urban anthropology, social gerontology, etc. Ethnology and cultural anthropology, the disciplines from which the authors both emerge, engage with the elderly as well. However, the elderly are often (implicitly) constructed and perceived as "perfect" informants for/in an ethnographic data gathering, whose legitimacy profoundly relies on the fact of their age. They themselves are far less often the very focus of research. In this presentation we first critically address this issue. Secondly, we contrast the multiple and complex discourses of "active aging" (as one of the core elements of health care policies for the elderly, and of the contemporary sociocultural constructs and standards of "quality of life") with the (elderly) individual experiences of aging.
Thomas DuBois (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Paper short abstract:
Public folklorists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison partner with artists and educators of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians to help repatriate intangible cultural heritage lost or destroyed in the process of colonization.
Paper long abstract:
In the USA, the 19th century saw on the one hand extensive collection and documentation of American indigenous cultures and on the other hand systematic destruction of these cultures through processes of genocide and coerced assimilation. In the 21st century, American folklorists are working to repatriate material artifacts as well as intangible cultural heritage through partnerships between universities and tribal organizations. This poster describes one such partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. So far, the partnership has involved traditions connected with birchbark canoes, winter sports, and winter lodge construction. Activities include the documentation of current traditions, efforts to extend knowledge and interest in traditions among younger members of the tribe, and the development of online presentations that share the projects with a wider public and that can be used in tribal classrooms. The partnership provides an interesting model for a research program based on notions of equality and mutual interest between universities and tribal reservations, in which indigenous communities directly shape and direct the research undertaken by their university partners. The poster demonstrates some of the benefits and challenges of such work and the importance of ongoing extensive communication as a key to project success.
Sukanya Krishnamurthy (Eindhoven University of Technology) Thijs van Tetering (Eindhoven University of Technology) Daniek Reijnders (Eindhoven University of Technology) Joost van Gorkom (Eindhoven University of Technology)
Paper short abstract:
To respond to the serious socio-economic challenges the city of Helen and region of Parkstad is facing, the authors of this paper dissect the morphology of the city to discern the causes of its current predicaments, dynamism and its future potentials.
Paper long abstract:
Historically the river Rhine and the Meuse have acted not just as frontiers of separation between Germany to the east with Belgium and the Netherlands to the west, but form a delta that is a melting pot of oral and architectural histories, cultures, people, and ways of life. The region of Parkstad and the city of Heerlen, belongs to this border geography characterised by a strong mining history, and an entrepreneurial past. Today, like many of its contemporaries shaped through mining and industrialisation, the region faces economic and structural difficulties, a shrinking population, and is looking to reshape itself within the knowledge economy.
To respond to the serious socio-economic challenges the city and region, the authors of this paper dissect the socio-spatial morphology of the city to discern its current predicaments, dynamism, and its future potentials. By looking at the city and region as a mosaic of borders and languages, uniqueness of geography, industrial and mining activity, religion and people, the paper explores the inherent qualities of place, the analytical relevance needed to address shrinkage contextually.
With economic developments being one of the key drivers of effective planning, the authors through this paper put forward planning and design ideas that can improve urban aesthetics and social cohesion of a shrinking city. The authors envision that shifts in traditional planning tools through small incremental changes such as urban agriculture and co-creative initiatives of re-use are needed to examine the new realities and challenges facing the city of Heerlen.
Dalia Senvaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University)
Paper short abstract:
The presentation will deal with the question of inventors/creators of “traditional” Lithuanian holidays. Different attitudes of these inventors toward the past and use of the past in creating and/or (re-)constructing of traditions connected with the annual holidays will be analyzed.
Paper long abstract:
The presentation will deal with the question of inventors/creators of "traditional" Lithuanian holidays. Different attitudes of these inventors (19th-the beginning of 21st c.) toward the past and use of the past (as well as corresponding ideological motivation) in creating and/or (re-)constructing of traditions connected with the annual holidays will be analyzed. Relation of those inventions with processes of actualization, nationalization and inheritage of particular annual holidays in Lithuania during different historical periods will be talked over as well. Impact of religion, dominant and resistant political ideology, mass-media, commerce, functions of different official cultural and public organizations on different levels (museums, scientific and educational institutions, folk ensembles, etc.), specific public groups and individuals in Lithuanian society in the context will be discussed.
Alina Kaczmarek-Subramanian (The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology PAS)
Paper short abstract:
The poster will illustrate the first fieldwork results of the research on Konkani people in Kochi, India, where the notion of caste, ethnicity and postcolonialism interlay. The ethnographer has to meet the challenge of encountering different identity constructs, which the poster attempts to present.
Paper long abstract:
Konkani people migrated to Kochi in the sixteenth century, fleeing Goa from the Portuguese missionary politics. Kochi, was divided into Fort Cochin, which belonged to the changing colonial authorities, and Mattancherry, which was under the jurisdiction of the Raja. In Mattancherry the Konkani and many other groups of different origins settled, driven by their trading professions. The state of Kerala is a unique place in India due to its composition of religious groups, where only half of the population is Hindu. A significant percentage of Muslims and Christians is particularly apparent in the living space occupied by the Konkani. Religious groups are diverse not only in terms of religion and that is why I intend to focus on contemporary changes of castes towards the ethnicization.
I aim to present strategies of maintaining group identity by Konkani castes in a multi-religious environment of groups of various origins, in the postcolonial context. I am going to draw on the relationship between belonging to a caste and attachment to an ethnic origin and sustaining its heritage. I intend to contest the notion of caste as rooted in British colonial ideology and show my research on what is the group identity of people having their roots in the Konkan region - if its interpretation can be limited to the categories of caste, widely-held and simplifying the Kochi phenomenon, or rather it is also an ethnic phenomenon.