Call for papers: Dossier «Uncertain Futures» in Tsantsa, the journal of the Swiss Ethnological Society 22/2017
Dossier Guest Editors:
Valerie Hänsch (Chair of Anthropology, University of Bayreuth) Lena Kroeker (Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, University of Bayreuth), Silke Oldenburg (Seminar of Social Anthropology, University of Basel)
Uncertain situations are an unavoidable part of social life. Societies, however, differ in their ways of perceiving situations with an uncertain outcome and in how they respond to them considering the (material and immaterial) tools at hand. When dealing with uncertainties, actors try to change the situation itself, to shape their life, and to secure their future. Therefore, responses entail either individual solutions or collective approaches. Furthermore, social institutions, such as authorities, may be involved in dealing with the problem. Thereby, preferences of certain ways of dealing with uncertainty differ culturally.
In contrast to risky or threatening situations, uncertain situations are characterised by difficulties to assess and anticipate them due to 'non-knowledge' and/or the inability to produce the necessary knowledge. Risk, by definition, is based on calculations of damage and occurrence probabilities and, thus, on figures which are not available in uncertain situations. Due to the inability to assess uncertain situations and what would be adequate responses, they are imbued with strong emotions and can rarely be dealt with based on purpose-rational calculations.
The topic of "Uncertainty" has inspired a vivid debate among anthropologists in the recent years. Various situations have been described, for instance responses to (natural) disasters (Macamo und Neubert 2012; Oliver-Smith 1986), displacement/migration (Colson 1971; Hänsch 2012; Jackson 2013), hunger crisis (Spittler 1989), diseases, especially HIV/AIDS (Whyte 1997; Haram und Yamba 2009; Jenkins et al. 2005; Kroeker 2015), as well as growing up and living in war and conflict zones (Vigh 2006; Christiansen et al. 2006; Oldenburg 2014; Lubkemann 2008). While these situations are not basically unknown, their impact on life during and after the uncertain situation definitively is.
Visions of the future play a pivotal role in dealing with uncertainties. The future may, on the one hand, be perceived as exciting, open and full of daydreams, or, on the other hand, be plagued by worries and fear. Both perceptions result from current and past interpretations of culturally embedded everyday lives.
Time, being an abstract topic, can hardly be studied in anthropology without making reference to empirical works. Responses to uncertainty are a particularly eligible field for studying the dimensions of time. Dimensions of time unfold in relation to imaginations. Immediate visions of the future may, thereby, differ from long term aspirations and from those visions which will affect future generations or after (earthly) life. Therefore, this multiplicity of imaginations points at a multiplicity of notions of time, which may even exist concomitantly. Hence, we speak of competing visions of the future and, thus, of futures in the plural.
Expectations and preparations which are meant to realise desirable developments and to prevent undesirable ones can tell a lot about conceptualisations of the future. However, so far, the future has hardly ever been explicitly analysed in ethnographic studies even though uncertain situations have been described in plenitude. For this dossier we therefore seek contributions, which connect dealings with uncertainty with a temporal perspective on future(s). We are particularly looking forward to empirical examples (contemporary or historical) as well as theoretical discussions on uncertainty and future(s).
The following questions guide our interest:
1) Which temporalities influence assumptions on how the future can be shaped and influenced: Do these visions and practices derive from present and past experiences and/or are they aiming at an immediate, mid-term or distant future? How at all is time and in particular the future perceived, debated, and experienced under the conditions of uncertainty?
2) Which formal, informal, institutional and individual strategies, tactics and visions exist or evolve when trying to control uncertain situations? And how is knowledge produced? How do people juggle eventualities, contingencies, risks, and chances? What do investments into future lives tell us about conceptualizations of the future which may differ from “western” perceptions of time?
3) How does the engagement with uncertainties change imaginations about the future or provoke radical departures and alternative ways of life?
4) Regarding different historical and biographical experiences: Are there differences between generations of how futures are imagined?
General guideline
Languages: German, French and English
Please send us your abstract of the proposed paper by 31st January 2016: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Abstracts: max. 500 words
Articles: Length of the text: 40’000 characters (incl. spaces and bibliography). Contributions are peer-reviewed by the editorial commission and external peer-reviewers. For more information and guidelines, please visit the Tsantsa website: http://www.tsantsa.ch/en/
Contributions: Once the article is accepted, it must be supplemented by
• a short (max. 500 characters) summary,
• a brief biographical note, institutional affiliation and full correspondence address (including phone number and e-mail), in English,
• 4-6 significant key-words.
Timeline
End February 2016: Notification of accepted papers
30. June 2016: Deadline for the submission of articles
15. September 2016: Review feedback to the authors
1. November 2016: Submission of final articles
May 2017: Publication Tsantsa 22 (online open access 2018)
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