Call for Papers

III Latin-American Anthropology Congress (ALA 2012)

November 5 -9, 2012, Santiago - Chile

Symposium N° 40: Spaces, Subjectivities and Urban Research Methodology

Session: Ethnographic Interventions. Innovative Urban Research Practices

Ethnography makes possible the study of ways in inhabiting daily life in a city in a way that can be avoided by quantitative and macro studies. From this perspective, the way the city is experienced may be explored while observing all its complexity of conflicts and places of identity while at the same time unveiling daily life as the space of construction of senses.

Early on, urban research used ethnographic methods, from the Chicago School to current research in Latin American neighbourhoods; reading the city ‘from below’ – from the perspective of their inhabitants - has been a contribution to the comprehension of the contemporary urbanization processes.

This symposium aims at sharing experiences, uses and innovative explorations in the ethnographic practice. The emergence of new questions, and as a result, new research objects, demands seeking ethnographic uses that make access different levels of the social experience possible, linked to sensitive mediations including visual and sound, searching for non-written ethnographic representation forms, reflexively situating the position of the ethnographer and taking on such practices from multidisciplinary exercises.

Possible themes:

-          Innovative use of ethnographic methods to capture current urban phenomena

-          Mobile methods and ethnography

-          Phenomenological approaches to urban studies

-          Visual methods of research, analysis and representation

-          Soundscapes in contemporary cities

-          Performance anthropology for urban studies

-          Embodied ethnographies in the city

Please submit a short abstract (300 words) including paper title, five (5) keywords, name of presenter (s) with a brief bio containing academic degree, affiliation, main publications, email contact. Papers will be accepted once the organisers approve the proposal and the information is published on the Congress’ website. The presenter will receive an acceptance letter from the Congress Organising Committee.  

Assistance certificate will only be provided for those effectively attending the Congress.

We welcome submissions from all disciplines and geographic locations. Submissions can be in either Spanish or English.

Kindly send your proposals or queries to Paola Jirón [log in to unmask] or Veronica Tapia [log in to unmask] by July 26, 2012.

Session organisers:

Paola Jirón, Instituto de la Vivienda (INVI) de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo (FAU), Universidad de Chile [log in to unmask]    

Verónica Tapia, Universidad de Barcelona [log in to unmask]

Congress information:

www.facso.uchile.cl/antropologia/ala2012