Contribution short abstract:

As “at home” anthropologists, Romanian ethnologists were offered the public role of reconnecting their peers with almost forgotten cultural ethnic roots and as facilitators able to encourage people to discover their local oral culture.

Contribution long abstract:

Scholars of national ethnology are quite active in the Romanian public space, especially as speakers invited by media outlets to offer descriptions and explanations of holiday rituals and symbols, or to describe and support specific data of the national cultural heritage. Given the importance of the Romanian folklore as a mandatory ingredient of the ethnic imaginary and self-representation of Romanians, it is expected for ethnology to act as a science devoted to the public good and for ethnologists to step out of their academic ivory tower and to frequently disseminate their findings to the general audience. Moreover, ethnologists are often in competition with digital influencers attractively displaying spectacular “ethnological” interpretations thus serving the need of a certain part of the Romanian public for an exciting bygone ethnic ancestry.

Besides fulfilling the requested mission of a healer of cultural amnesia, decoding superstitions, ritual behavior and costumes about which both performers and the public seldom claim to have lost original meanings, ethnologists have sometimes the unintended but meaningful mission of reminding people of their direct connection with family and community memory and cultural local codes. This specific social role of ethnologists stretches out of their primary scholarly duty turned towards cultural archeology and the folklore archive and reaffirms the relevance of their discipline for providing contemporary interpretations and enhancing individual and community self-discovery.

Contribution short abstract:

My contribution shall reflect upon my two decades long engagement in the public debates and applied ethnological/anthropological research in Slovakia, dealing especially with effects of transformations in economy and politics.

Contribution long abstract:

This contribution shall deal with the production of ethnological/anthropological knowledge by an experienced etnographer. I will discuss my own role as an engaged publicist in the leading Slovak press, in particular with regard to the question of social critique and what has been its characteristics vis-a-vis what has been known as Western leftism. I will also share my experiences in applied research, particularly with the theme of illicit or informal economy on the EU eastern border and what influences this research had on public policy. I will then dicsuss the influence/the lack of it with regard to another of my public policy research, dealing with radical populism and fascism and the issue of Roma integration. The major argument is that we need to be more political as etnographers in order to make our knowledge hearn.

Contribution short abstract:

The crises of the pandemic and the war in Ukrainia challenged the German school system in multiple ways. Based on recent experiences as a teacher for young Ukrainian High School students, I argue for an open mind among anthropologists to share our knowledge in education beyond the academic field.

Contribution long abstract:

Social and cultural anthropologists have a number of skills in communication based on their field work studies and experiences outside their homely environment. I believe that we can therefore contribute to a number of social tasks and issues outside our academic field – such as media, education or cultural events. Yet, anthropologists often feel ashamed when they quit university and later on work in "social" jobs, though we are somehow predestined to do so.

In the light of the general lack of teachers in Germany, I was employed in November 2022 within days to take over a so-called "Welcome-Class" in a High School in Berlin. Since then I am charged with the mission to teach German to 15 Ukrainians aged 16-18 years. We do have fun, yet we cannot avoid that the situation in their home country is floating through the classroom. It seems that my anthropological background is of help in managing the situation, when it comes to tensions, displacement activities, restlessness and disturbances.

In the presentation at SIEF I will sketch our setting and give some thoughts to the usefulness of anthropological knowledge in a conventional school system.

Contribution short abstract:

The presentation will contribute to the discussion of how to attract the attention of policy-makers and what to offer them beyond ethnographic case studies. 

Contribution long abstract:

The presenters are ethnologists/cultural anthropologists working at research institutes in Slovenia and Croatia and also engaged in teaching at the university level. They focus on research of urban public spaces and urban futures. Drawing from the presenters' experience in two Slovenian and two Croatian cities, the presentation will discuss ethnological interventions that attracted the attention of city administrations. They include students' research of urban public spaces, workshops on urban futures using creative methods, and studies on climate-related bottom-up activities. The presentation will contribute to the discussion of how to attract the attention of policy-makers and what to offer them beyond ethnographic case studies. 

Contribution short abstract:

International relations and ethnology have been in dialogue since the establishment of both academic disciplines. Their relationship is far however from peaceful coexistence. This speech aims at discussing focal problems related to bringing anthropology into IR theory and practice - and vice versa.

Contribution long abstract:

Ethnology and international relations (IR), two disciplines which are possibly the most distant from each other and stand at the two poles of micro and macro perspectives, nevertheless have much in common. It must be admitted however, that in IR mainstream scholarship, the need to reach for ethnological knowledge, with its micro-perspective, often stereotyped as dealing exclusively with exotic tribes or local knowledge was marginalised for years.

The shock of 9/11 caused many IR scholars and politicians to turn - again - to anthropology. The shock resulting from the violation of the status quo, reinforced by the events of the so-called Arab Spring a decade later, the need to update and nuance the knowledge about the 'Other' (but also of what constitutes 'we') and the related gradual delegitimisation of the essentialising and homogenising use of categories such as 'Islam', 'West' 'Asian cultures', 'Arabs', the need to explain the reasons for the existence of different rationalities, as well as the reflection on the processes of 'difference production' by discourses of power, have forced IR researchers to take an interest in micro-perspectives, in the study of culture and in the output of a science that had reflection on the 'Other', on 'difference' and on 'culture' in its blood - cultural anthropology. The aim of this contribution is to discuss contemporary entanglements of IR and ethnology, also in the public discourse, including the example of the author's participant observation/observant participation in the arena of UNESCO intangible heritage convention.