The world, now defined across the globe as “urban”, is indeed an anthropological subject in the broadest sense. This spring school, entitled “The challenges of ethnography”, aims to demonstrate the place, role and challenges of such an approach in the field of urban studies. The aim is to understand what makes the city a major anthropological phenomenon, namely the production of urbanities.
Three axes will form the approach developed during this spring school: an analysis of ethnographic methods, the importance of comparison and, finally, on writing. We will begin by examining urban studies through the lens of the ethnographic method. How do current urban contexts lead us to reconsider the very notion of “fieldwork” and critically re-evaluate the methodologies implied? Moreover, ethnography raises questions in relation to the researchers’ role, the way he/she creates and/or shares knowledge. Ethnography also addresses the conditions of urban knowledge production, the so-called savoir urbain, the questioning of “situated knowledge” and how the fieldwork experience can provide a unique perspective. We will then argue for comparison, which alone allows us to understand urban worlds both in their particularity and universality: this is obviously not related to a long- outdated division; comparing does not imply judging certain cities against other urban areas. Numerous new and micro-scale ethnographies, conducted “here” and “there”, have clearly demonstrated the heuristic qualities of the ethnographic approach, embedded in a comparative perspective for constructing a renewed conceptual framework. The contribution of ethnography to understanding the ways in which “worlds are made”, at the center and on the outskirts of contemporary cities, is well established.
Thinking about ethnography reflects also on its “writing” in relation to the experience of the “field”: many researchers are experimenting with “alternative forms of writing” – images and sounds in particular. We will examine the extent to which these new forms of storytelling can also be used in urban studies. How can these forms of narrative production challenge hegemonic narratives? Multiplying voices and perspectives seems to be not only characteristic of these new writings, but also the necessary condition for a shared anthropology, anthropologie en partage.
|By combining lectures and workshops, we seek to stimulate reflection on the city, starting from a unique urban environment, the one in Athens, and rooting it in a comparative perspective, in the Balkan region and more broadly. The aim will be to examine different approaches to the urban environment, its “writing” and its restitution. This approach will enable participants to design collaborative projects based on ethnography, choosing the narrative form they feel most appropriate for restituting the urban environments studied, as well as their proper experience.

Main interest subjects

• History of urban anthropology in the Balkans
• Athens through the eyes of ethnographers
• Comparative perspectives in urban anthropology
• Pathways and attachments in the city
• Alternative writings of the city
• Working with images: photography

Organizing and scientific committee

• Aliki ANGELIDOU Panteion University, Athens, Greece
• Sophie CHEVALIER Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
• Gilles DE RAPPER École française d’Athènes, Greece
• Emmanuelle LALLEMENT Université de Paris VIII, FrancΕ
• Irini MICHA National Technical University of Athens, Greece
• Iris POLYZOU National Technical University of Athens, Greece
• Nikos SOULIOTIS (EKKE, Athens, Greece)
• Stavros SPYRELIS EKKE, Athens, Greece
• Gwendoline TORTERAT Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France

Course requirements

The spring school will involve from 10 to 15 students enrolling (a) to the last year of their under-graduate studies, (b) in post-graduate and master studies and (3) PhD candidates in the fields of anthropology, sociology and geography.

The working language of the Spring School is English.

Courses and workshops will take place at Panteion University, the École française d’Athènes and EKKE.

Participants must commit themselves for the whole duration of the Spring School. It is expected that they attend all the courses, workshops and sessions selected and actively participate in discussion with workshop convenors, colleagues and presenters. Additional events, including cultural visits, group bonding sessions, art presentations might be scheduled during the week. At the end of the Spring School, students will present their project in relation to their research and the workshops they have attended. The presentations will be discussed by lecturers and other students.

Costs

No fees are required from the participants. The organizing team will provide accommodation from March 29 to April 4 and a number of lunches. Any cost of visits will also be covered. Travel to and from Athens is not covered by the organizers. We actively encourage you to ask a reimbursement for your travel expenses from your university.

Application

The application comprises the following five (5) documents in pdf format, which will be directly uploaded to the plateforme Missions before the 5^th of December (12:00 Greek time):

• recommendation letter
• letter of motivation (max 2 page)
• Curriculum Vitae (max 2 page)
• brief presentation of the PhD project (max 1 page)
• title and short description of the foreseen presentation during the seminar (max 1 page) Mode d’emploi de la plateforme Missions (in French).

Contact: dir.moderne@efa.gr

The selection of the participants will be announced by the 17^th of December.