Print

Print


Dear All,

We would like to invite you to submit a paper to our panel at SIEF 2015 in
Zagreb, Croatia (21st - 25th June),  entitled ‘Human, all too human:
locating humanity in humanitarianism, charity, human rights activism in
Eastern Europe’
<http://www.nomadit.co.uk/sief/sief2015/panels.php5?PanelID=3475>

*Summary*

We invite contributors to trace ethnographically the notions of
humanity/humanness, and the moral registers they entail, in
humanitarianism, charity, or human rights activism, to locate the zones of
encounters, contests or mediation between them across different
scales/contexts in Eastern Europe.


*Abstract*

This panel explores the political positionings and uses of the concepts of
'humanity' and 'humanness' in Eastern Europe. These concepts have
proliferated over the past quarter of century since the disintegration of
the socialist ecumene across the region with the rise of the humanitarian
agendas. Yet only little has been ethnographically researched about how
'humanity' is defined and used on different scales in Eastern European
contexts. Humanity/humanness constitute a part of an everyday routine and
vernacular forms of moral imagination (e.g. merhamet, or čovjekoljublje in
BiH). They can also be located in the vocabularies and practices of the
international humanitarian aid 'industry', and in the attempts to push the
state to adopt human rights laws. The mushroomed humanitarian workers,
volunteers in religious charities, human rights activists, and a wide array
of other actors engaged in doing the good often claim that fellow-humans
constitute the 'target' of their activities rather than categorical targets
such as refugees, religious groups, citizens. Yet such claims are not
innocent. The (seemingly apolitical) concept of humanity can be seen as a
'site of governance' where different ideas about humanity 'find concrete
expression in the governing work that operationalizes those ideas to
produce order, prosperity, and security' (Ticktin and Feldman 2010). In
this panel we invite contributors to trace ethnographically the multiple
notions of humanity/humanness, and the moral registers they entail, in
order to locate the zones of encounters, contests or mediation between them
across different scales and contexts in Eastern Europe.

Deadline to submit an abstract: 14th January, 2015
<http://www.nomadit.co.uk/sief/sief2015/panels.php5?PanelID=3475>

*Convenors: *
Carna Brkovic (IAS, Bucharest)
David Henig (University of Kent)

*Discussant:* Don Kalb (CEU)

Very best wishes,

Carna & David

*************************************************************
*           Anthropology-Matters Mailing List
*  http://www.anthropologymatters.com            *
* A postgraduate project comprising online journal,    *
* online discussions, teaching and research resources  *
* and international contacts directory.               *
* To join this list or to look at the archived previous       *
* messages visit:                                             *
* http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML   *
* If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all    *
* those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to:   *
*        [log in to unmask]                  *
*                                                             *
*       Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new        *
*       CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com        *
*    an international directory of anthropology researchers
*
* To unsubscribe: please log on to jiscmail.ac.uk, and            *
* go to the 'Subscriber's corner' page.                                  *
*
***************************************************************