scholarly journals Peripheral vision as anthropological critique

Focaal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (71) ◽  
pp. 29-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cris Shore ◽  
Susanna Trnka
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Peripheral Vision ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
Neoliberal Reforms ◽  
Field Of Vision ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Anthropological Critique ◽  
Blind Spots

In the context of rapid neoliberal reform, both anthropology as a discipline and the social and cultural phenomena it studies are undergoing profound changes. In this article we develop June Nash's concept of “peripheral vision” to show how peripheries, and the politics of “peripheralization”, can illuminate processes of neoliberalization and the implications that this has for anthropological knowledge production. We argue that anthropology is uniquely situated to examine the conceptual blind spots produced by capitalism. By recasting “peripheral vision” as an analytic concept and methodological tool, we show how cultivating our ethnographic sensibilities to identify and hone in on events and processes that lie beyond our immediate field of vision can provide a useful antidote to the seductive fantasies of contemporary capitalism. In doing so, we also suggest how this approach can help counter some of the increasing strictures on knowledge production and narrowing of the research imagination that neoliberal reforms impose.

Fluid Multilingual Practices among Youth in Cameroon and Mozambique

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torun Reite ◽  
Francis Badiang Oloko ◽  
Manuel Armando Guissemo
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
The South ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
The Social

Inspired by recent epistemological and ontological debates aimed at unsettling and reshaping conceptions of language, this essay discusses how mainstream sociolinguistics offers notions meaningful for studying contexts of the South. Based on empirical studies of youth in two African cities, Yaoundé in Cameroon and Maputo in Mozambique, the essay engages with “fluid modernity” and “enregisterment” to unravel the role that fluid multilingual practices play in the social lives of urban youth. The empirically grounded theoretical discussion shows how recent epistemologies and ontologies offer inroads to more pluriversal knowledge production. The essay foregrounds: i) the role of language in the sociopolitical battles of control over resources, and ii) speakers’ reflexivity and metapragmatic awareness of register formations of fluid multilingual practices. Moreover, it shows how bundles of localized meanings construct belongings and counterhegemonic discourses, as well as demonstrating speakers’ differential valuations and perceptions of boundaries and transgressions across social space.

Social marketing hackers

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria M. Raciti
Keyword(s):  
Social Marketing ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Marketing Professional ◽  
The Social ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
The Many ◽  
Behaviour Changes ◽  
Social Causes ◽  
Blind Spots

Purpose Social marketing has come of age. Today, the study is a legitimate discipline with a wealth of empirical evidence that manifestly demonstrates the ability to bring about behaviour changes for the greater good. As social marketers, the study is rapidly expanding the horizons, with a growing interest in the labyrinth of systems that influence the chosen social causes. The study has become brave and bold, but is the study now running the risk of romanticising the work and ourselves? It is time to recalibrate, to take stock and to address the elephants in the social marketing room. Design/methodology/approach Expanding on my Change 2020 Driving Systems Change panel presentation, this study is a provocation, a think piece, centred around two observed phenomena. Findings The first phenomenon observed is the many identities of the contemporary social marketer – hackers, change agents, heroes, political power brokers and master puppeteers. The second phenomenon observed is the accelerated interest in systems thinking for which the author propose three preconditions are needed – an awareness of the system(s); an acknowledgement that this study is a part of the system(s) and the need to decolonise social marketing. Originality/value This paper poses challenging questions but offers no solutions as to how social marketers should, could or do square up the blind spots, make peace with the paradoxes or unblinking the views. Not only would it be naïve to proffer solutions but it would also stifle the growth of you, the reader, in your journey to becoming an integrated person and woke social marketing professional.

scholarly journals Transnational Co-production of Knowledge: The Standardisation of Typhoon Warning Codes in the Far East, 1900–1939

Minerva ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aitor Anduaga
Keyword(s):  
Force Field ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Far East ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Far East ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transnational Cooperation ◽  
Far Eastern

AbstractThe why and the how of knowledge production are examined in the case of the transnational cooperation between the directors of observatories in the Far East who drew up unified typhoon-warning codes in the period 1900–1939. The why is prompted by the socioeconomic interests of the local chambers of commerce and international telegraphic companies, although this urge has the favourable wind of Far Eastern meteorologists’ ideology of voluntarist internationalism. The how entails the persistent pursuit of consensus (on ends rather than means) in international meetings where non-binding resolutions on codes and procedures are adopted. The outcome is the co-production of standardised knowledge, that is, the development of a series of processes and practices that co-produce both knowledge and ideas about the social order in a force field characterised by negotiations and power struggles.

scholarly journals The Social Life of the “Forever Chemical”

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-163
Author(s):  
Daniel Renfrew ◽  
Thomas W. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Toxic Event ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

This article examines the social life of PFAS contamination (a class of several thousand synthetic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and maps the growing research in the social sciences on the unique conundrums and complex travels of the “forever chemical.” We explore social, political, and cultural dimensions of PFAS toxicity, especially how PFAS move from unseen sites into individual bodies and into the public eye in late industrial contexts; how toxicity is comprehended, experienced, and imagined; the factors shaping regulatory action and ignorance; and how PFAS have been the subject of competing forms of knowledge production. Lastly, we highlight how people mobilize collectively, or become demobilized, in response to PFAS pollution/ toxicity. We argue that PFAS exposure experiences, perceptions, and responses move dynamically through a “toxicity continuum” spanning invisibility, suffering, resignation, and refusal. We off er the concept of the “toxic event” as a way to make sense of the contexts and conditions by which otherwise invisible pollution/toxicity turns into public, mass-mediated, and political episodes. We ground our review in our ongoing multisited ethnographic research on the PFAS exposure experience.

scholarly journals THE CONSTRUCTION OF ALTERNATIVE FACTS: DARK PARTICIPATION AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION IN THE QANON CONSPIRACY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Clyde Partin ◽  
Alice Emily Marwick
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Social Web ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Symmetry Principle ◽  
The Social ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Tools And Techniques ◽  
Trump Administration

QAnon is a right-wing conspiracy theory based on a series of posts (“Drops”) made to the imageboard 8chan by “Q”, an anonymous poster who claims to be a Trump administration insider and encourages their followers (“Bakers”) to conduct research to interpret and find hidden truths (“Bread”) behind current events. In this paper, we argue that QAnon Bakers adopt a “scientistic self” by producing and maintaining specific facts and theories that enable the conspiracy’s social and political cohesion over time. Rather than dismissing Q researchers’ conclusions out of hand, we adopt science studies’ symmetry principle to consider the tools and techniques of Baking. We argue that the institutional character of Baking distinguishes QAnon from other online conspiracy communities, which primarily rely on anecdotal evidence or sow doubt in scientific consensuses. Q, by contrast, research is intended to produce certainty through the systematic construction of alternative facts. In making this argument, we share and build upon other scholars’ critiques of participatory media. Indeed, we conclude that it is precisely the participatory affordances of the social web that have made QAnon so potent.

scholarly journals SOBRE ESTRATÉGIAS E DISPOSITIVOS NORMATIVOS EM FOUCAULT: CONSIDERAÇÕES DE MÉTODO - DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5216/rfd%20ufg.v40i2.44128

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Jean François Y Deluchey
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Second Moment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

Resumo: Neste artigo, busco refletir as potencialidades e dificuldades metodológicas relativas ao uso do “dispositivo” como ferramenta de investigação nas ciências sociais e sociais aplicadas. Sugiro pensar a relação entre dispositivos normativos e sujeitos de direito, a partir da analítica do poder de Michel Foucault, para quem o poder existe como feixe de relações dissimétricas coordenadas por estratégias que impactam os sujeitos em suas dimensões inter e intraindividuais. Para tanto, o uso do dispositivo – em especial no caso do dispositivo normativo – apresenta-se como importante ferramenta metodológica, na medida em que funciona como grade de análise das relações de poder, de identificação das estratégias e de seus efeitos nos sujeitos. Nas conclusões, observo que a identificação da estratégia de um dispositivo deve perpassar pela análise da lógica das relações que o compõem, para, em um segundo momento, ver de que forma e em que medida esta estratégia impacta as formas de vida dos atores que compõem o nosso campo de estudo.Abstract: In this article, I try to interrogate the potentialities and methodological difficulties related to the use of the "dispositive" as a tool for research in the social sciences and applied social. I suggest to think the relation between normative dispositives and subjects to law from the Michel Foucault´s analytics of power, philosopher for whom the power exists as a beam of dissymmetrical relations coordinated by strategies that impact the subjects in their dimensions inter and intraindividuals. The use of the dispositives – especially of the normative ones - presents itself as an important methodological tool, to the extent that works as analytic framework of power relations, identification of strategies and their effects on the subjects. Finally, I observe that the identification of a dispositive strategy should pass by analysis of the logic of relations that compose it, for, in a second moment, see how and to what extent this strategy impacts the ways of life of the actors that compose our field of study. 

scholarly journals Medical technologies and the social strategies of two surgical instrument makers in Denmark and Sweden, 1870–1900

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 101-117
Author(s):  
Kristin Halverson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Surgical Instrument ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Academic Interest ◽  
Medical Technologies ◽  
Instrument Maker ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technical Professions

Technical professions were important agents in medicine and its knowledge production in the nineteenth century. This paper will look more closely at two examples of the social strategies used by Danish surgical instrument maker Camillus Nyrop and his Swedish colleague, Max Stille respectively. Although the work of these two instrument makers attracted attention both within their respective countries as well as internationally, and they were regular fixtures in medical circles, their contributions have merited little academic interest thus far. By examining the social strategies used by nineteenth century technicians, in this case surgical instrument makers, we might better understand the interrelationships between technical professions and physicians in the knowledge production of modern medicine and the interplay between medicine and commerce.

Relocalising academic literacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-55
Author(s):  
Nana Clemensen ◽  
Lars Holm
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
International Study ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Anthropology Of Education ◽  
Study Programme ◽  
The Social ◽  
Institutional Contexts

Abstract This article contributes to the continuing discussion about academic literacy in international higher education. Approaching international study programmes as temporary educational contact zones, marked by a broad diversity in students’ educational and discursive experiences, we examine the negotiation and relocalisation of academic literacy among students of the international master’s programme, Anthropology of Education and Globalisation (AEG), University of Aarhus, Denmark. The article draws on an understanding of academic literacy as a local practice situated in the social and institutional contexts in which it appears. Based on qualitative interviews with eleven AEG-students, we analyse students’ individual experiences of, and perspectives on, the academic literacy practices of this study programme. Our findings reveal contradictory understandings of internationalism and indicate a learning potential for students in allowing a more linguistically and discursively diverse dialogue on knowledge production in academia.

From crisis to the everyday: Shouldn't we all be writing economies?

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110680
Author(s):  
Priti Narayan ◽  
Emily Rosenman
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Public Economic ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Embodied Experiences ◽  
Ways Of Thinking

This commentary explores the politics of writing about the economy in a culture, society, and discipline that tends to prioritize masculinist (and white) theories and definitions of economy over embodied experiences of people living their everyday lives. Inspired by Timothy Mitchell's problematization of the economy as an object of analysis, we press further on the seemingly singular unit of “the” economy and who is allowed to define it as such. We are animated by questions of who is considered an expert on the economy and how, or by whom, crises in the economy are recognized. Drawing from our own writing experiences during the pandemic and from social movements we research, we argue for alternate ways of thinking about experiences of and expertise on the economy. In reckoning with how social movements speak to power in a bid to transform economies, we consider the role of economic geography in the economy of writing and knowledge production surrounding “the economy” itself. We make the case for a more public economic geography grounded in the social and economic embeddedness of knowledge production, the material consequences of who gets to define what is economically “important,” and the potential for this expertise to be located anywhere.

Disidentification

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Elizabeth Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Subject Formation ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Disciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
The Social

Deriving from José Esteban Muñoz’s foundational 1999 text Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics, disidentification is a theoretical heuristic and performative practice that is an essential framework for thinking through, and living in, intersecting sites of marginality and oppression. In particular, disidentification is a heuristic that provides critical scholars with a framework for theorizing the relationships between subject formation, ideology, politics, and power while also offering people from marginalized communities a way to navigate intersecting forms of oppression and enact agency. Scholars use disidentification to refer to performances that minoritarian subjects engage in to survive within inhospitable spaces, while nevertheless working to subvert them. Thus, as both a theoretical framework and a performative practice, disidentification is an antiracist tool that can be utilized to theorize and respond to normative power structures including Communication Studies’ modes of disciplinary knowledge production. Indeed, the discipline of Communication Studies is diverse, but in spite of this, what coheres this expansive body of scholarship is an investment in understanding how communication produces, scaffolds, organizes, and potentially revises our world. Disidentification, by foregrounding identities and experiences of difference, offers Communication Studies researchers a way to consider how one’s life can be understood in relation to others, within the social structures that govern daily life, and within the ideological commitments that organize our experiences.

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