Workshop, May 9, 2025, Marburg University
Many forms of suffering are not caused by direct, physical, and intentional force, but they are nevertheless brought onto specific people in violent ways. That is, their origins, their persistence, the way they are created, upheld, ignored, prolonged and legitimated can be understood as inherently violent. Exclusion from basic needs, discriminatory social arrangements, inequalities that create unnecessary misery, displacement of people, loss of habitats, expulsion from homes and extinction of entire species, and loss of material and cultural values are not necessarily caused by conscious agents in deliberate acts of observable violence. They happen slowly, over time, are unrecognizable due to their normalization, out of sight, ignored by outsiders and institutions, embedded in the taken-for-granted, or hidden behind walls of hegemonic meaning.
Addressing these problems as forms of violence is complicated both conceptually and politically. Conceptually, scholars have proposed terms like structural violence and slow violence, but these are difficult to operationalize: it is not easy to identify thresholds or indicators for when a phenomenon is violent as opposed to merely problematic or tragic (think of the term “externalities”). Politically, such discussions are often met with suspicion. The accusation of conspiracy looms large, and the evidence is usually contested, let alone the solution.
One promising approach to addressing these issues is to obtain a deep understanding of and collaboration with the struggles of the oppressed. They can make visible the forms of violence that others have been failing to see (slow violence). They can counter the charge of unnecessary abstraction and conspiracy (structural violence). And they can be a reservoir of alternative views, to formulate emancipatory politics that are not designed for but by those who have experienced violence. Ethnography lends itself to this task. Unlike other social science methodologies, the strength of ethnographers is to go beyond the analysis of official narratives by immersing themselves in the lifeworlds of their subjects to understand what phenomena mean to the people who have to live (in) them. This means that, rather than being an abstraction, emotions, hopes and despair are experienced in the first person.
In this workshop, we will therefore focus particularly on ethnographic perspectives. However, ethnography has limitations in terms of its aim to not only to describe but also to transform the violent effects that evoke the very emotions that ethnography is so good at capturing. Moreover, there is a particular methodological challenge in reconstructing concrete, lived experiences that are necessarily specific in space and time, and in reconstructing violent structures that are accumulated over time and increasingly globalized.
In this workshop, we bring together scholars who approach the question of violence from a methodological perspective. We are particularly interested in ethnographic explorations of structural, slow or other forms of violence that defy simple models of direct, physical force. Part of the workshop will be a public lecture by Prof. Tania Li who will be a TRACE Fellow at Philipps University Marburg. The rest of the day will be dedicated to presentations by a selected group of scholars who will share their thoughts on the above questions. We explicitly welcome works in progress, unfinished business, and provocations. If you would like to contribute, please send us abstracts of up to 250 words by February 15 to ethnografie@dvpw.de. We will select contributions by the end of February. Papers, drafts and sketches will then be circulated to all participants by May 2.
The workshop is jointly organized by the Center for the Transformation of Political Violence (TRaCe) and the DVWP Working Group on Ethnographic Methods in Political Science. It is hosted by the Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg. If you have questions, please contact the local organizers, Felix Anderl, Johanna Kocks (Center for Conflict Studies) and Julia Leser (CRC Dynamics of Security).
Workshop, February 27, 2025, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt/Main (PRIF)
Ethnographic fieldwork is in the focus of many methodological discussions. From the perks and challenges of “going native” to methods of auto- and team-based ethnography, as well as multi-sited and multi-species ethnography, there exists a broad spectrum of fieldwork approaches, and thus no shortage of guidebooks and methodological advice for how to act “in the field”. But what happens afterwards?
This one-day workshop addresses this question and offers various approaches of what to do after ethnographic data collection. Many PhD students (but also experienced scholars) struggle during this important phase of their research projects, often lacking a clear idea of how to order, categorize, and interpret their own data. While it is clear that some sort of filtering and/or ‘coding’ is the next step, it is not so clear what this means in concrete terms; especially in view of the fact that ethnographic research material often is abundant and quite diverse: observation protocols, recorded interviews, or notes from informal talks easily pile up to mountains of data that intimidate rather than inspire researchers.
In this workshop, participants exchange knowledge on what to do with fieldwork data. After inputs based on concluded fieldwork projects, participants work in groups with a peer-to-peer approach. Participants are asked to bring some of their own fieldwork data. This could be a snippet from an interview, field notes, early writing attempts, coding schemes or other fragments at various stages of or before completion. We target PhD students and ERCs who have already undertaken some ethnographic fieldwork and are looking for ways to collectively think through their post-fieldwork phase.
This workshop is co-organized by the Research Center Transformations of Political Violence (TRACE) and the DVPW Working Group Ethnographic Methods in Political Science. It will take place at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) on December 05, 10am-6pm. Afterwards there will be a voluntary and self-paid dinner.
Please register until September 15 by sending an email to ethnografie@dvpw.de (first come first serve).
New publication in the journal Public Anthropologist
The Forum: Critical Ethnography, co-edited by Eva Johais and Julia Leser, has just been published in the journal Public Anthropologist, Vol. 6, 2024.
Abstract: Ethnography is and has always been a political practice. Yet, the relationship between ethnography and critique is ambivalent and has been subject to change. This forum explores multiple modes of critical ethnography. Bringing together a range of theoretical lenses and methodological approaches from different disciplines, the forum's contributions focus on the potential and usefulness of ethnography for critique, including ethnography's potential to challenge established concepts, to stimulate critical writing, to explore the hidden and entrenched workings of power and domination, to 'study up' powerful institutions, and to amplify marginalised voices and inspire meaningful change.
With contributions by Katarina Kušic, Kristin Eggeling, André Weißenfels, Andreas Streinzer and Ryan Davey, Johanna Kocks and Felix Anderl, Lena Merkle, Julia Leser, and Anna Leander.
Contents:
Forum: Critical Ethnography – Introduction
Eva Johais & Julia Leser
Who and What Does Critical Ethnography Serve?
Katarina Kušic
Writing Critical Ethnography
Kristin Anabel Eggeling
The Superstructure Counts! Why We Need Ethnography in Order to Understand and Critique Capitalism
André Weißenfels
Queer Marxian Modalities of Critique in Anthropology: Generations, Approaches, Ends
Andreas Streinzer & Ryan Davey
Critical Ethnography’s Sense of Direction: Imagining Social Justice in Sacrifice Zones of Capital
Johanna Kocks & Felix Anderl
Ethnographic Research beyond the Field: A Critical Introspection towards Multifaceted Approaches to Ethnography
Lena Merkle
Ethnography as Weapon
Julia Leser
Doubly Destabilizing Definitions by Doing Ethnographic “Concept Work”
Anna Leander
Workshop, April 11–12, 2024, University of Tübingen
More than other social science methodologies, ethnography is dependent on relationships that researchers establish during fieldwork. These relations are enriching, but also exhausting and hard to conceptualize. In this workshop, we aim to reflect on the political, moral, and affective dimensions of ethnographic research relations. It is common to encounter power imbalances within our fieldwork. But as power is not a fixed state, questions arise: What constitutes power during and after field research? What does it entail to navigate power relations across diverse fields of ethnographic study? And how do we handle research in fields where we may be hesitant to give voice and representation? Zooming-out of the field begs further questions: to what extent is our research complicit in, and how can it potentially contest prevailing societal power structures? With power comes responsibility. From a relational perspective, responsibility can be understood as a practice of answering, that can be rehearsed: our responsibility towards the climate crisis, global injustice or structural racism. Yet, it is far from clear how this translates into ethnographic practice. Furthermore it is tricky to respond responsibly when doing research with morally problematic groups. The third dimension of ethnographic relations that we seek to explore is inseparable from the domain of politics and morality. Our feelings are politically and morally shaped. Emotions such as fear, sympathy, anger, and shame may seem solely personal, but when understood as affective dynamics within the spheres of power and morality, they are societal forces as well. What can we learn from what we feel during our research? And how might feelings serve as valuable tools for reflecting on our research relationships?
This workshop is an invitation to reflect upon our interactions and relations as ethnographic researchers in terms of power, responsibility and affect. Its overarching objective is to foster an awareness of the intricacies and challenges intrinsic to ethnographic inquiry. As such, we welcome participation from both early-stage and experienced researchers across all domains of political ethnography.
The workshop will take place in Tübingen on April 11–12, 2024 (in person). Please note that travel, accommodation, and dinner need to be covered by the participants.
Please register at ethnografie@dvpw.de until March 10, 2024.
Der Workshop wird organisiert vom DVPW-Arbeitskreis Ethnografische Methoden in der Politikwissenschaft in Kooperation mit der Junior Professur Riccarda Flemmer. Gefördert im Rahmen der Exzellenzstrategie von Bund und Ländern.
Workshop, May 25–26, 2023, Erfurt University
This workshop is an invitation to reflect on the ambivalent roles that ethnography plays in the context of powerful epistemologies. Ethnography’s complicity in the conception and maintenance of the colonial project has been a central concern to ethnographers ever since the first critical debates on anthropology’s disciplinary history emerged in the first decades of decolonisation. Considering the popularity that ethnographic methods have come to enjoy across the social sciences, the discourse around ethnography’s legacy as colonial practice has remained of critical importance. In this context, the asymmetric power relations involved in ethnographic research as well as the ethnographers’ own entanglements with hegemonic epistemologies have emerged as critical points of ethical and methodological reflection. Thereby, the positionality of both experts and expertise, the dominance of Euro- Western ontology and epistemology, and the intersectionality of epistemic exclusion and invisibility have been increasingly problematised. While ethnography’s contribution to the construction and maintenance of epistemic hierarchies is at the forefront of ongoing debates, attention has also been devoted to the critical potential of ethnographic methods and the role it could play in challenging dominant modes of knowledge production.
Considering this ambiguity, this workshop, on the one hand, creates a space for introspective engagement with our own knowledge production and its relationship to power. On the other, we want to probe ethnography as a vector for change and explore its potential contribution to the dismantlement of knowledge barriers and boundaries. Our hands-on reflections are complemented by inputs from scholars working with ethnographic methods and/or postcolonial theory that problematise the relationship between knowledge and knowledge carrier in the context of different knowledge practices and explore both challenges and opportunities for ethnographic research. We want to explore the following questions:
1. How do we cope with the challenge of interrogating our own powerful knowledge production?
2. How can ethnography be used for critiquing disciplinary conventions and methods of knowledge production?
3. What are the specific challenges of ethnographic studies of powerful epistemologies?
The workshop is co-organized by the DVPW working group Ethnografische Methoden in der Politikwissenschaft and the C2PO (Center for Political Practices and Orders), Erfurt University. It will take place in Erfurt on May 25/26, 2023 (in person). Please note that travel, accommodation, and dinner need to be covered by the participants.
Please register at ethnografie@dvpw.de until May 4, 2023.
Workshop, November 3–4, 2022, Marburg University
A central concern of political ethnography lies in the relationship between ethnographic research practice and modes of critical and normative politics. Notions of critique in political ethnography can relate to the decisions of what and whom we research, how we understand and represent our objects of research, and how we navigate questions of reflexivity and positionality in our research process. Furthermore, ethnographic research can have the potential to address forms of social injustice and inequalities and develop forms of ‘grounded critique’ that aim at contributing to changing these conditions toward greater equity and equality. We dedicate this workshop to the critical potential of political ethnography and want to dive deeper into the above aspects in a collaborative manner.
The workshop is co-organized by the DVPW working group “Ethnografische Methoden in der Politikwissenschaft” and the Center for Conflict Studies at Philipps-University, Marburg. It will take place in Marburg on November 3/4, 2022. Please note that travel, accommodation, and dinner need to be covered by the participants.
Please register at ethnografie@dvpw.de until October 12, 2022.
Call for Contributions
A central concern of political ethnography lies in the relationship between ethnographic research practice and modes of critical and normative politics. Notions of critique in political ethnography can relate to the decisions of what and whom we research, how we understand and represent our objects of research, and how we navigate questions of reflexivity and positionality in our research process. Furthermore, ethnographic research can have the potential – and ethnographic researchers often take on the task of political and ethical responsibility – to address forms of social injustice and inequalities and develop forms of ‘grounded critique’ that aim at contributing to changing these conditions toward greater equity and equality. We dedicate this workshop to the critical potential of political ethnography, and call for short abstracts and ideas for contributions that address and explore one (or more) of the following questions:
• What kind of critique can ethnographic approaches promote, and what kind of critique (e.g., feminist and decolonial forms of critique, Marxist traditions, Critical Theory…) can inform ethnographic research?
• What forms/modes can ethnographic critique take?
• Which critical objectives are at odds with ethnography?
• What is the relationship between scholarship and activism in critical practice?
• What are specific dilemmas of ethnographic critique?
Beyond these questions, we are curious to receive contributions on other dimensions of the topic. Please send us your ideas and, if possible, a short abstract (250 words) until August 21, 2022 to ethnografie@dvpw.de. If your contribution is selected, we will ask for a short paper (around 5 pages) to be circulated by October 27.
Workshop, June 21–22, 2022, Frankfurt/Main
In this workshop, we will address the political dimensions of and in ethnographic writing: How can we deal with different political concepts and definitions that inform our ethnographic writing? How can we address the challenges that are often part of interdisciplinary collaborations, in particular when it concerns the writing process? And how can we think about the politics of textwork and publishing ethnographic research? The workshop starts on Monday, June 20, 2022, at 6 pm, with a keynote address by Anna Leander (Geneva Graduate Institute) on “Destabilizing Definitions: The Challenge of Doing Ethnographic Concept Work in International Relations”. On Tuesday, June 21, 2022, the workshop will offer a rich program that builds on the keynote and our ongoing engagement with ethnographic writing. We will discuss the promise of ethnographic writing, but also address practical problems of writing-up and publishing. We will work collectively on strategies from observation to publication, and we will discuss the changing publishing landscape for ethnographers in political science.
The workshop is co-organized by the DVPW Themengruppe “Ethnografische Methoden in der Politikwissenschaft” and the Research Department “Global Junctions” at Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) and will take place in Frankfurt (Main) on June 20/21, 2022.
Please note that travel, accommodation and meals need to be covered by the participants. Please register at ethnografie@dvpw.de until June 12, 2022.
Am 23. April um 14.00 Uhr organisieren wir einen Kurz-Workshop zum Thema ethnographisches Schreiben. Dvora Yanow wird uns mit einem Vortrag in den Gegenstand einführen wird. Anschließend gibt es Zeit und Raum zur Diskussion, vor Allem aber auch der Abfrage spezifischer Bedürfnisse in unserer Gruppe.
Aufbauend auf diesen Workshop werden wir dann immer am letzten Freitag im Monat ein Online-Schreibgruppentreffen anbieten.
Das Ziel hierbei ist es, dass wir gemeinsam etwa eine bis eineinhalb Stunden an einem ganz konkreten Problem des ethnographischen Schreibens arbeiten, das aus unserer Gruppe selbst kommt. Wenn ihr ethnographische Texte schreibt, seid ihr also dazu aufgefordert, euch zu beteiligen. Das kann eine Frage sein („wie gehe ich mit X um?“), oder ein paar Seiten der dichten Beschreibung, die an anderen ausprobiert wird, oder aber eine Textstelle, an der ihr gerade nicht weiterkommt. Gemeinsam werden wir dann anhand der Beispiele über ethnographisches Schreiben sprechen und dabei hoffentlich den jeweils vorstellenden Mitgliedern beim Lösen ihrer Fragen und Probleme helfen. Wir stellen uns das ganz informell vor. Das heißt: keine langen Papiere (max. 5 Seiten), keine Präsentationen, sondern ein lockeres Gespräch, bei dem wir uns gegenseitig unterstützen und voneinander lernen.
Bitte meldet euch für die Schreibgruppe hier an: ethnografie@dvpw.de
Workshop, 4.–5. Oktober 2019, Universität Leipzig
Politikwissenschaftler:innen, die darüber nachdenken, einen ethnografischen Ansatz in ihrer Forschung zu verfolgen, sind häufig einer doppelten Unsicherheit ausgesetzt. Auf der einen Seite steht die Befürchtung, ethnografische Methoden nicht richtig anzuwenden. Denn die Lehrpläne der Politikwissenschaft decken ethnografische Methoden bisher selten ab. Andererseits sorgen sich gerade junge Kolleg:innen darum, sich für ethnografische Methoden in der Politikwissenschaft rechtfertigen zu müssen. In diesem Workshop setzen wir daher auf Austausch: Wir bringen Forscher:innen in allen Phasen ihrer Karriere zusammen, um praxisnah zu diskutieren, wie Ethnografie funktioniert und worin der politikwissenschaftliche Beitrag besteht.
Dieser Workshop konzentriert sich auf die Feldforschung als wesentlichem Bestandteil der ethnografischen Politikwissenschaft. Als theoretischen Hintergrund wollen wir daher das Konzept des Feldes diskutieren. Es ist ein entscheidender Ausgangspunkt für die Gestaltung ethnografischer Forschungsprojekte, da diese typischerweise nicht mit einer konkreten Forschungsfrage oder Hypothese beginnen, sondern mit dem Eintauchen „ins Feld“. Der Hauptteil des Workshops konzentriert sich dann auf den Erfahrungsaustausch über Praktiken der Feldforschung. Der Workshop wird daher nicht in einem klassischen Konferenzformat abgehalten, sondern als eine Mischung aus theoretischen Diskussionen auf der Grundlage von Texten, Inputs aus der Feldforschung und kritischer Reflektionen darüber, was es bedeutet, „ins Feld zu gehen“ und welche praktischen und ethischen Fragen dies aufwirft.
Der Workshop lädt Politikwissenschaftler:innen ein, die bereits ethnografisch arbeiten und jene, die darüber nachdenken, das in Zukunft zu tun. Da es nicht um die Präsentation von Forschungsergebnissen geht, werden keine Abstracts zur Anmeldung benötigt. Wir bitten aber diejenigen mit praktischen Erfahrungen in der Feldforschung, uns in der Anmeldung mitzuteilen, ob sie bereit wären, diese in Form eines kleinen Inputs mit der Gruppe zu teilen. Über die Details werden wir uns dann nach der Anmeldung mit euch verständigen.
