Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Paolo Grassi
(University of Milano Bicocca)
Anthony Fontes (American University)
Send message to Convenors
- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Resistance
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 22 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
The panel will ethnographically analyze the breaking of spatial rules within dominant forms of territoriality, to explore the co-production of subjects, groups and their wider social environments.
Long Abstract:
The concept of territoriality, developed above all in the context of human geography, essentially corresponds to any spatial manifestation of power. As, among others, David Storey pointed out, territoriality describes how space is claimed, regulated, or controlled, the construction of borders to circumscribe belonging and politics, and consequently determines how inclusion and exclusion mechanisms are activated within such spaces. While in the past scholars have deployed territoriality to focus on controlling social actors - i.e. on territoriality's role in reifying certain devices of power - more recent approaches - see for example the works of Claude Raffestin - explore how territorial power and control are produced through interactions among subjects, groups and their wider social environments. Using such exchanges as a starting point, what happens when dominant forms of territoriality are contested, reinvented, or refused? How can we study the breaking of spatial orders and what are the implications of such transgressions? Rather than merely romanticize deviance, this panel seeks ethnographic approaches that highlight the nuanced motivations for and consequences of breaking spatial rules - acts like prison breaks and informal border crossings, squatting, sabotage and vandalism — to elucidate how trespassing territorial orders affects political possibility, notions of spatial justice, and the flow of power.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 22 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper addresses the issue of spatial transgression and explores ways in which folk festivals can become hubs of political action. Ethnographic fieldwork assesses the cross-border Sardana Festival of Ceret and its symbolic power on public space through a contestable sense of ethnic inclusivity.
Paper long abstract:
The territory of the Pyrenees Orientales, also known as Northern Catalonia, was formerly part of the middle-age Catalan Principality until it was annexed to France in 1659. Since then, the borderland has been considered an example of cultural resistance and safeguarding of Catalan national identity (Pagès, 2010; Hawkey, 2018), as well as a space for Catalan political asylum throughout the Primo de Rivera dictatorship (1923-1930), the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the subsequent Francoist regime (1939-1975). During the second half of the 20th century, cultural activism in the form of associationism allowed to build bridges between Southern and Northern Catalonia. This paper discusses the role of the Sardana Festival of Ceret (1957-) in contesting French power and cultural repression from Spain within the contemporary Catalan movement for independence. From an ethnographic perspective, the festival alters the French flow of power in the public space and displays a set of values based on ethnic moral superiority. The dynamics of the festival as a sardana dance contest, which also welcomes French-ethnic ensembles, create a complex dimension that blurs the boundaries between cultural dissent and entertainment. The study of the festival’s spatiality and narratives unveils an explicit political struggle for the display of Catalan national symbols, which is ultimately an issue of territoriality and belonging. The main aim of this paper is to establish a link between the notion of cross-bordering and folk festivals as sites of political opportunities and public space disruption.
Paper short abstract:
The presentation will historically and ethnographically analyse how Chilean arrieros from northern Patagonia defies the spatial rules of the nation, maintaining cross-border social relationships and practicing alternative forms of territoriality.
Paper long abstract:
Cattle driving is a spatial practice of “travelling-in-dwelling” that has important economical and ritual meanings for Andean peasant’s communities in the Chilean northern Patagonia. It belongs to what is known as gaucho culture. These communities pre-existed the establishment of the border between Argentina and Chile, which was traced in 1902 to regulate the conflicts between the two new-born national states, both interested in expanding their sovereignty. Patagonia was discursively constructed as a wild yet resourceful frontier, where pioneers could contribute to the “manifest destiny” of their nation, bringing civilization as far as Tierra del Fuego. Through this colonization process, the Chilean state imposed a north/south vertical axis that became the hegemonic spatial order of the nation and silenced east/west social relations, historically connecting both sides of the Andes following mountain pathways and rivers’ basins.
The aim of this presentation is to show how cattle drivers, or arrieros, defies the spatial rules of the nation, maintaining cross-border social relationships and practicing alternative forms of territoriality. First, I will trace their genealogy back to the historical figures of the Chilean roto-caminante: wandering horsemen that since colonial times challenged the hacienda order, living off petty crimes, robbery and occasional wage labour. Then I will dig into the ethnographic case of the cattle-driving journey, highlighting the ways it unfolds a deeply territorialized yet flexible cross-border social order, one that is based on ecological micro-practices and at the same time has to mediate with tourism and extractivism in a “post-frontier” context.
Paper short abstract:
I discuss how dominant forms of territoriality are contested by the informal cross-border mobilities of Colombians living at the border, and discuss implications for survival and human rights. I draw on ethnographic work, participatory Minga workshops, mental maps, and biographical interviews.
Paper long abstract:
The cities of Cúcuta and San Antonio are separated by the Simon Bolívar bridge over the Táchira river and only 300 m long. However, the first is in Colombian territory and the second in Venezuelan territory. During decades, the inhabitants of these two cities have woven close ties of friendship, kinship, trade, circulation, habitation and study. A transnational social space connecting the two cities has thus emerged where the political border has little relevance. However, in recent years Maduro's Venezuelan government has exercised its territorial power to prohibit cross-border crossings along the bridge to include or exclude 'desirable' or 'undesirable' populations. In 2005, Colombians living in San Antonio were deported, accused of being paramilitaries threatening the public order in Venezuela. Thousands of Colombian families were violently expelled from their homes and forced to return to Colombia through the Táchira River on foot. Subsequently, the international Simon Bolívar bridge was and is still closed. However, many Colombians informally returned later to San Antonio where they own homes. They sleep there but work, buy, trade, study and receive medical services in Colombia. They cross the trocha daily, an informal path dug into the jungle, and subsequently cross the river on foot to satisfy basic needs in Colombia. This paper discusses how dominant forms of territoriality are contested by the informal cross-border mobilities of Colombians, and discusses implications in terms of survival and human rights. It is based on ethnographic work, participatory Minga workshops, mental maps, and biographical interviews with 30 cross-borders.