ISP - Workshops

Solstrand hotell (Os), 19-20. September 2016

Monday 19th of September

11:00-11:15 Welcome

11:15–11:45 Edvard Hviding (University of Bergen). Denaturalizing difference: Questions and perspectives pursued

11:45–12:00 Synnøve Bendixsen (University of Bergen). Project outcome: Looking back

12:10–12:30 Discussion

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30–15:00 Book editor’s corner

Tone Bringa (UiB): 1) Engaged Anthropology (with Synnøve Bendixsen); and 2) Eurasian Borderlands (with Hege Toje)

Mary Bente Bringslid (UiB): Egalitarianism in Scandinavia: Historical and Contemporary Approaches (with Synnøve Bendixsen and Halvard Vike)

Halvard Vike (UiO): Politics and Bureaucracy in the Norwegian Welfare State: Anthropological Perspectives

Synnøve Bendixsen (UiB): Critical Anthropological Engagements in Human Alterity and Difference (with Bjørn Bertelsen)

Iselin Å. Strønen (UiB): Decades of Change: The social life of economic inequalities in contemporary Latin America (with Margit Ystanes)

15:00–15:15 Break

15:15-16:30 Olaf Smedal (University of Bergen). Normal control: Some reminders about the present
                    Anette Fagertun (Bergen University College). Denaturalizing dispossession: Dimensions of shifting labor regimes in emergent economies

16:00-16.30 Discussion

16.30–16.45 Break

16.45–17.15 Don Kalb (Central European University). Re-naturalizing unevenness, inequality and dispossession: The making of a Right Wing Visegrad bloc within the EU

19:30 Dinner at Solstrand

Tuesday 20th of September

09:15–10:00 Kathinka Frøystad (University of Oslo). Denaturalizing religious difference: With Sisyphos in the field
                    Christine M. Jacobsen (University of Bergen). The (in)egalitarian dynamics of ‘gender equality’ in contemporary Norway

10:00–10:30 Discussion

10:30–11:00 Break

11:00–12:00 Ingjerd Höem (University of Oslo). On the arbitrary nature of things, followed by discussion

12:00-13:00 Lunch

13:00–15:00 Forward visions. Group work, followed by plenum discussion

15:00 Final words

15:30 Leaving

Historical and Anthropological Perspectives

ISP-workshop, Bergen, 24 - 25 November 2015

Place: Department of Social Anthropology, Social Sciences Faculty, Fosswinckelsgt. 6

Organizers and conveners: Synnøve Bendixsen, Mary-Bente Bringslid and Halvard Vike

Workshop description

Egalitarianism and equality have long been viewed as fundamental values in the Nordic societies. Equality has become a Nordic label that presumes a particular kind of ethos – the passion for Equality (Graubard 1986 in Vike 2013: 182). Yet, the notions of egalitarianism and equality have several analytical dimensions with theoretical implications that are understudied.

In this workshop we will historicize and discuss aspect of the Nordic egalitarianism. Our approach towards the notion is broad: as a history of ideas, political values, social practice and a naturalized frame of lifeworld. The spatial understanding of ‘egalitarianism in the North’ can both signify explicit political values and appear as the foundation of a more general source of social, cultural and political legitimation.

Tuesday 24 November

Place: Seminar room BT building, 8th floor

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee

11.00 - 11.20 Introduction

Session 1: Egalitarianism as a ‘keeper of equality’ at a social level

11.20 – 11.50 Thomas Hylland Eriksen (University of Oslo), Equality and fairness: Some comparative perspectives

11.50 – 12.10 Lena Näre (University of Helsinki), From egalitarianism to neoliberalism: The case of paid household work in Finland

10 min break

12.20 – 12.50 Discussion

12.50 – 13.20 Lunch

Session 2: The tradition of equality/egalitarianism as a European inheritance deriving from the time of enlightenment

13.20 – 13.50 Bo Stråth (University of Helsinki), The Cultural Construction of Equality in Norden

13.50 - 14.10 Jan Eivind Myhre (University of Oslo), The sources of Norwegian Egalitarianism – Norway in the 19th century

10 min break

14.20 – 14.40 Lars Gjeldstad (Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Research), Youth and vocational education in the Norwegian welfare society: the ethics of sociality in a mechanical school workshop

14.40 – 15.20 Discussion

10 min break

15.30 – 16.00 Simone Abram (Durham University), Likhet is not Equality. Discussing Norway in English and Norwegian

16.00 - 16.30 Discussion
 

Wednesday 25 November

Place: Seminar room, NB: 9th floor

Session 3: The role of egalitarianism for resistance and social mobilization

9.15 - 9.45 Halvard Vike (University of Oslo), Egalitarianism, mobilization, and resistance

9.45 - 10.05 Christian Lo (Nordland Research Institute), Normative hierarchy and pragmatic egalitarianism in municipal policy development

10 min break

10.15 - 10.35 Camilla Hoffmann Merrild (Aarhus University), Social differences in health as a challenge to the Danish “classless” welfare state

10.35 – 10.55 Marry-Anne Karlsen (University of Bergen), Irregular migrants and the Norwegian welfare state

10.55 - 12.00 Discussion

12.00 - 13.00 Lunch

Session 4: Nordic egalitarianism as a resource for migrants?

13.00 – 13.30 Karen Fog Olwig (University of Copenhagen), Migration as adventure: Panhuman qualities and the search for social recognition

13.30 – 13.50 Discussion

13.50 – 15.00 Final discussion, way forward

with Sylvia Yanagisako

We had a half-day ISP-workshop with Professor Sylvia Yanagisako on Wednesday 10th of June 2015.

This workshop was dedicated to ISP oriented work on the de/naturalization term. Sylvia Yanagisako’s edited work (with Carol Delaney) “Naturalizing Power” (1995, Routledge) has been an inspirational source for the ISP-project.

We invited anyone who wishes to discuss a draft article where this concept is in focus. The questions at hand included:  How have you developed this concept in your own research, and what new perspectives has it provided you with? Thematically the workshop therefore had a relatively wide scope. It was intended as an informal meeting where we will have the opportunity to further discuss the ISP theme with Sylvia Yanagisako.

The seminar included both those who will present their work, and people without papers. Papers were circulated in advanced for Sylvia Yanagisako to be able to prepare her comments.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Venue: Faculty of Social Science 9th floor, Fosswinckelsgate 6, 5008 Bergen

10:00 –10:15 Welcome

10:15 - 11:00 Kathinka Frøystad, Denaturalizing naturalization:  Conceptual reflections and a new look at caste

11:00 – 11:10 Short break

11:10 – 11:55 Astrid Blystad and Haldis Haukanes, The social life of global texts. Naturalization and de-naturalization of “gender equality” and “motherhood” in development interventions in Ethiopia

11:55 - 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 13:45 Anette Fagertun, Waves of dispossession: Land conversions and the disposable workforce in Bali

13:45 – 14:00 Coffee break

14:00-14:45 Christine M. Jacobsen, ‘Migrant illegality’; Controlling and Navigating Borders in the City of Marseille

Short break

14:50 – 15:35 Synnøve Bendixsen, Manifestations of control: Irregular migrants and the social construction of boundaries and borders

De- and re-naturalizing boundaries

Workshop, 19 - 20 January 2015, Bergen

A brief review of the anthropological literature for the last two decades will show that uses of the concept of ontology have increased dramatically. While this radically increased interest in ontology is itself interesting, the premise of the so-called ‘ontological turn’ seems to indicate a re-emphasis of the discipline’s concern with alterity beyond simply being a matter of ‘culture’ or ‘epistemology’. Put in another way, ontological difference is between worlds rather than epistemological worldviews. Previously being the domain of particularly phenomenological, ritual or philosophical anthropological analyses, the notion of ontology has now become central to several anthropological debates concerning, for instance, the nature of perspective or material and human agencies. Arguably, this relatively recent so-called “ontological turn” – informed by analyses of people like Marilyn Strathern, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Anne Marie Mol, Bruno Latour, Karen Barad, Martin Holbraad, Morten Pedersen, Isabelle Stengers and Michael Scott, to name a few – reintroduces an anthropology where difference is accentuated and analytically explored (if not empirically represented) as bounded.

This workshop proposes to critically probe the novel ontological turns in contemporary anthropological thought by asking:

• What forms of naturalization, if any, is involved in the conceptual, territorial, temporal, methodological and other forms of representation of (bounded) difference undertaken by various forms of the ontological turn?
• Analytically, the concept of ontology may be read critically as external to or eclipsing the realms of power, differentiation and hierarchization. Consequently, what effect do these turns have for anthropological approaches to inequality in terms of, for instance, gender and class?
• What novel or alternative forms of political analysis or political imagination do the approaches hold in store for political anthropology?
• What impact for anthropological analysis does the multiple, novel configurations of various forms of human and non-human agency have?
• What are the methodological and analytical implications of drawing on various forms of the ontological turns? What are its potentials and shortcomings in relation to your own research?

The two-day workshop will take as a point of departure these questions on the basis of papers that have been circulated in advance. In addition to papers presented from the ISP network we will also invite additional scholars relevant to the workshop theme.

Conveners: Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (UiB) and Synnøve Bendixsen (UiB).

Monday 19 January 2015

Venue: Faculty of Social Science 9th floor, Fosswinckelsgate 6, 5008 Bergen

10.15 – 10.30: Ståle Knudsen (UiB): Welcome

10.30 – 10.45 Bjørn Enge Bertelsen and Synnøve Bendixsen: Introduction

Session 1: 10.45 – 11.55

Chair: Bjørn Enge Bertelsen

10.45 - 11.00 Annelin Eriksen (UiB): Going to Pentecost: Experiments in Anthropological Comparison

11.00 - 11.15 Kathinka Frøystad (UiO): De-naturalizing religious boundaries: preliminary observations from a Kali temple

Discussant: Henrik Vigh (University of Copenhagen)

11.55 – 12.40 Lunch

Session 2: 12.40 – 13.50

Chair: Synnøve Bendixsen

12.40 – 12.55 Cecilie Ødegaard (UiB): Blood, fat and predation in the Andes

12.55 - 13.10 Kari Telle (CMI): ‘False prophets ’: Blasphemy and ontological contests in Indonesian courts

Discussant: Adam Reed (University of St Andrews)

13.50 – 14.00 Coffee break

Session 3: 14.00 – 15.45

Chair: Bjørn

14.00 - 14.15 Signe Howell (UiO): Seeing, being and knowing: the relationality of species in Chewong animistic ontology

14.15 - 14.30 Marianne Lien (UiO): A salmon ceremony as an ethnographic event; The simultaneous performance of capitalism and egalitarianism in West Norwa

Discussant: Edvard Hviding (UiB)

15.45 – 15.55: Break

Session 4: 15.55 – 17.00

Chair: Bjørn

15.55 – 16.10 Olaf Smedal (UiB): What do the rocks say?

16.10 - 16.25 Jon Henrik Ziegler Remme (UiO): Ontology – chronically unstable: Ontological dynamics and the ‘difference within’

Discussant: Adam Reed

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Venue: Litteraturhuset, Østre Skostredet 5-7, 5017 Bergen

Session 5: 09.30 - 10.40

Chair: Synnøve Bendixsen

9.30 - 9.45 Hans Martin Thomassen (NTNU): Reflections on grounded methodology: The ontological turn meets art-talk between 1989-2015

9.45 - 10.00 Lars Gjelstad (UiB): Disrupting Book Smartness: Critical ethnography of schooling and the ‘ontological

Discussant: Henrik Vigh

10.40 - 10.50: Break

Session 6: 10.50 - 12.00

Chair: Bjørn

10.50 - 11.05 Tone Bringa (UiB): TBA

11.05 - 11.20 Hege Toje (UiB): Capturing Sochi. The 2014 Russian Winter Olympic Games as an arena for contestations over past, present and future in the Caucasus

Discussant: Adam Reed

12.00 – 12.45 Lunch

12.45 – 13.30: Summing up and way forward