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- Convenors:
-
Danielle Kuijten
(Imagine IC)
Janna oud Ammerveld (Amsterdam University of the Arts, Meertens Instituut (KNAW))
Hester Dibbits (Reinwardt Academy for Cultural Heritage)
Sophie Elpers (Meertens Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
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- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
This panel and roundtable explore how ethnography conducted within and with cultural institutions can contribute to developing spaces for imagining new perspectives that allow for diversity and plurality.
Long Abstract:
Based on an increased awareness of old hegemonies of inclusion and exclusion, established cultural institutions, such as museums, archives and libraries are rethinking their practices. While new initiatives are questioning these paradigms from the ground up, other institutions still have to find their ways towards change. These transitions are taking place in diverse contexts, from the superdiverse metropolis to post-industrial rural areas, where new stories, so far underrepresented in the authoritative cultural space, are in need to be told.
Often, to facilitate these transitions, diverse methodologies, for instance artistic interventions, are employed and external partners are consulted. It seems that academics working with ethnographic methods are rarely invited into these spaces to offer their unique methods.
We want to explore how ethnography conducted within and with cultural institutions can contribute to developing spaces for imagining new perspectives that allow for diversity and plurality. What are the preconditions and risks of stepping into and working in these institutional spaces? How to create a safe collaborative space to study institutional practices? How can academics and professionals trained in working with ethnographic methods help institutions to change in order to become enablers of more prosperous futures?
We look forward to receiving papers that present concrete cases from the field as well as papers that focus on theoretical, practical, and ethical considerations. The panel will be followed by a round table where we like to discuss more generally the opportunities, challenges, and limitations of ethnography in contributing to cultural institutions in transition.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper Short Abstract:
This paper deals with the problems and assets of auto-ethnography, based on the case of a Dutch heritage and research institution in the past.
Paper Abstract:
This paper addresses a real case from the past, in which a Dutch heritage and research institution was forced into a rapid, existential transition. The institution became threatened in its goals due to the unexpected misuse of a former auto-ethnography of the same institution. In the end the outcome of that process proved to be a blessing, bringing the institution in a much stronger position. As it happened, 25 years ago. The caveats and the advantages of the (ab)use of such a form of ethnography will be discussed.
Paper Short Abstract:
In the 2030s the 'library of the future' will arise in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam Zuidoost. This presentation will discuss the value of observations made during ethnographic fieldwork in the transition to this 'Next' library, focusing on themes of future-making and (re)imagining libraries.
Paper Abstract:
In the early 2030s a brand new library building will arise in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam Zuidoost: OBA Next. This new addition to the Amsterdam public library family will consist of 8000m2 and has to be a place that attracts people from all of over Amsterdam, and caters to the needs of the neighbourhood (OBA Next, 2023). OBA Next (Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam/Public Library Amsterdam), or ‘the library of the future’ is currently being developed through a set of different future-making practices (Wenzel et al., 2020). One of these is a think tank with people working or volunteering for the library. Throughout 2024 the thinktank got introduced to the concept of ‘Next’, the innovative thinking that lies behind it, and invited to deliberate what a library of the future is to them. As part of my postdoc research in the project ‘Imaginations in Transitions’ I followed the journey of the OBA Next think tank, using ethnographical methods in an organisational setting (Gaggiotti et al., 2017). In this presentation I will reflect on some of the questions and connected observations central to this project; what futures are imagined in the OBA Next think tank? How is OBA Next imagined in the existing social ecosystem of Zuidoost? How is the library (re)imagined in the think tank? And to conclude, what does this mean for the development of the library of the future? Last, I will share the (potential) value of my research work for the further development of OBA Next.
Paper Short Abstract:
Ethnographic action research helped Amsterdam’s Employment Services to foster transformational learning. Social workers developed creative methods to enhance client interactions and simultaneously revealed ways to embed them in the organization and envision more inclusive employment services.
Paper Abstract:
In this presentation, we illustrate how ethnographic action research supports the Work, Participation & Income (WPI) department at the City of Amsterdam in transformational learning processes. In collaboration with a cultural organization and a knowledge institute, WPI initiated a project that began with a period during which a group of social workers expressed their need for creative methods. They sought less linguistic and less digital tools to use during client conversations to improve their interactions. Over the next nine months, they developed creative methods, gradually integrating them into their practice.
However, the involved cultural anthropologist and action researcher observed that practicing these methods among themselves inspired the social workers to reimagine their work beyond just creative methods. This practice revealed the interplay between layers of methodological innovation, organizational change, and societal developments in their field. These insights now help WPI reflect on ways to embed the creative methods into the multi-method approach already used by social workers and connect them to parallel innovations within the department.
Inspired by the literature on ethnographic action research, the researchers argue that iterative cycles of observation, reflection, planning, and action fostered transformational learning at WPI. Taking the time to build trusting relationships with the social workers and to deeply understand their work enabled collaborative learning across the interrelated layers. From this perspective, the creative methods unintentionally started to facilitate ideas of how employment services could transition toward more inclusive futures. The researchers will be collaborating on further developments through the first half of 2025.
Paper Short Abstract:
The paper consists of a thematic and a methodological part. The data material stems from long-term participant observation, sensory anthropology, and in-depth interviews with patrons (aged 15-88) in public libraries and group interviews and co-creative methods in a university library in Oslo
Paper Abstract:
This paper consists of one thematic and one methodological part. Thematically, I will discuss the following questions:
- What is a library, and what is inalienable about the library?
- Are Norwegian libraries being rebranded against the will of the public, and who is the library public?
- Libraries for the future: enter diversity and plurality, exit mixed-use space?
The discussion builds on data material from long-term participant observation, sensory anthropology, and in-depth students’ photo diaries, maps, and drawings in a university library in Oslo, Norway. People familiar with library research will know that these methods are rare in library science, which mainly rely on surveys, structured or semi-structured interviews (often with stakeholders rather than patrons), policy document analyses, and (non-participant) observation. The remainder of the paper will therefore analyse methodological contributions from explorative, sensory, participatory, and co-creative methods in the investigation of library experience and space.
I am a social anthropologist who, besides long-term fieldworks in libraries, have done ethnographic studies on reading groups, performance poetry and postcolonial changes in urban Europe. I presently teach social science methods and academic writing to social work students who come to the classroom with one or two feet in practice and professional fields and inspire me to discover new connections between academia and practice. My 12 months of library fieldwork will soon result in a monograph preliminary titled The people’s library. An ethnography from Oslo East and West.
Paper Short Abstract:
The paper dives into my own reflections and discussions with colleagues at my workplace, BRLF wherein I try to focus on the social-cultural impact of the development institution and my role so far as member of the knowledge management and research vertical.
Paper Abstract:
BRLF or Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation is a unique institution as it builds up civil society engagement and community enhancement through development projects for the livelihood and social enhancement of marginal tribal households. One of the mandates of our organization is build up climate resilient and sustainable livelihoods in the central tribal belt of India. In my role as researcher for the organization I shall be discussing through my own ethnographic engagement about the impact of the development projects in the lives of benefiting tribal communities. In the paper I shall also discuss the challenges for the local governing structure and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and how these were overcome often resorting to culturally relevant means through which the beneficiaries are brought into the planning and discussion process of the project. Finally I shall tie these themes together with a discussion around how development and development processes which are foreign concepts are imported into the local vocabulary and symbolic ambit of the tribal communities who become or have become beneficiaries of such projects. The paper therefore aims to locate BRLF as a space which has the potential to reframe the social and cultural space of tribal India and therefore provide an alternative understanding of tribal india, one that isn't marred by the debates of indigenity vs colonialism as so often happens when it comes to the tribal question.
Paper Short Abstract:
This paper shares examples of museum exhibitions in which visitors can use (auto-)ethnographic methods to engage with the exhibitions’ contents. By analyzing those examples, the effects on museums and the role of academics trained in working with those methods will be discussed.
Paper Abstract:
Ethnographic methods are particularly characterized by their approach based on self-reflection and self-positioning (Clifford and Marcus 2010; Naples and Sachs 2009). Academics use this strength for a differentiated engagement with their objects of research. In addition, self-reflection is fundamental in transition processes, such as the institutional change towards more diversity and plurality, which we can observe in numerous museums now. Hence, the panel’s question on how ethnography within and with cultural institutions can contribute to developing spaces and imagining new perspectives that allow for diversity and plurality is crucial. In my paper, I argue that it is not only academics and professionals who can use ethnographic methods to help cultural institutions such as museums in their transition processes. Depending on the self-definitions of museums, their visitors or communities are an essential part of the institution; In some cases, they are even seen as the vivid body of the museum institution. I will present examples of museum practices that apply (auto-)ethnographic methods to empower museum audiences to engage with the exhibition in a more differentiated way, such as the Holding Emotions display at the London Museum Docklands. Moreover, I will discuss their potential to offer new perspectives and enable democratic change – however small it may be. Along with this, I suggest thinking about how we, as academics and methodological experts, can offer not only our knowledge of content but also our knowledge of methods and how we can improve the accessibility of ‘our’ methods for a wider audience.
Paper Short Abstract:
The contribution reflects on the participatory dynamics within museums that today can represent a cultural presidium in marginal territories, examining two different case studies which underlining the role of ethnography in identifying challenges and good practices.
Paper Abstract:
Within a project aimed at understanding the role that local museums can play in promoting an active sociality through forms of participation in intangible cultural heritage, the intervention retraces the stories of two museums located in the area of Lake Trasimeno.
The first case examines ontogenesis and phylogenesis, as well as the contemporary crisis, of the “Fishing Museum” of San Feliciano (Magione, Perugia), a local museum with fairly conventional characteristics: despite the updating interventions, the contents desired by its creator (a local historian) prevail. Actually, the museum is completely designed for tourist use, with a historical approach that has however excluded reasoning about fishing and those who practice it. An impasse has thus been created which sees, on the one hand, the political-administrative interests, oriented towards carrying out the museum project within initiatives limited to a local level, and on the other, the expectations of the Fishermen's Cooperative, which want to connect it to contemporary fishing and its practices.
The second case reflects on “TrasiMemo. Trasimeno Memory Bank”, a complex project – launched in Paciano (Perugia) thanks to the collaboration between researchers, cultural heritage professionals, artisans, local administrators and stakeholders – which aims to enhance the memories and knowledge of craftsmanship. The general objective (in progress) is to “reactivate”, starting from ethnographic research, important heritage elements for the area, trying to stimulate new professional dynamics that hold together the historically sedimented and contemporary working conditions. Furthermore, the project determines the conditions to build a permanent dialogue between different actors involved.
Paper Short Abstract:
This proposal explores how museums can benefit from ethnographic perspectives and research. Ethnographers excel at understanding diverse perspectives and mediating between groups, making their methods, valuable for enhancing participatory initiatives and developing digital formats in museums.
Paper Abstract:
This contribution proposal explores two central questions: How can museums benefit from ethnographic perspectives? How can ethnographic research be effectively conducted in museum settings?
Ethnographers are adept at immersing themselves in the positions and perspectives of diverse actors, like the concept of ‘deep hanging out’ (Clifford 1998). Their strengths lies in listening deeply and constructing a comprehensive understanding of motives and interests involved, facilitating mediation between different groups within museums. This ethnographic approach is particularly valuable in the development of digital formats, where participatory methods, e.g. co-design, are increasingly common (Kidd 2021). By integrating ethnographic methods, such as participant observation during testing-sessions or workshops, museums can enhance their participatory initiatives.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is a defining feature of museum work, aligning with the long-standing interdisciplinary nature of cultural anthropology in diverse fields (Thanner 2024). It embraces diverse professional approaches and is highly adaptable, making it well-suited for museums. The fieldwork techniques of ethnography, known for their sensitivity and adaptability, can also provide valuable insights into engaging with new audiences as well as existing visitors.
In this contribution, I aim to illustrate the potential of ethnographic research within museum settings. Drawing from my doctoral research, I examine three case studies to explore how employing a range of traditional methods of cultural anthropology, such as participant observation (Macdonald 2002, 2018), alongside digitally adapted techniques like 'walkthroughs' (Amelang 2023), offers insights into the integration of ethnographic approaches in museum contexts.