Doing mobile ethnography: Grounded, situated and comparative

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Streule
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Situated Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Urban Territories ◽  
Complementary Set ◽  
Urban Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Mapping

This paper explores and discusses the experimental, critical and self-reflective use of differing methods in urban studies. In the context of frequent calls to investigate urban processes in a planetary and comparative perspective, the empirical groundedness of research is among the particularly complex challenges urban scholars are confronted with. The key question is: how can qualitative-empirical methods, such as ethnography or qualitative mapping, be adapted to explore contemporary urban conditions? This paper seeks to contribute to current debates by introducing a specific methodological design of a mobile ethnography that enables an analysis of large and heterogeneous urban territories, in three main ways: first, by offering a theoretically informed and empirically grounded transductive research design; second, by proposing a complementary set of cartographic, historiographic and comparative methods of which mobile ethnography is a part; and third, by suggesting post- and decolonial methodological perspectives, both conceptually by engaging with Latin American urbanisms, as well as empirically by furthering collaborative ways of knowledge production. To conclude, the paper stresses the need to continually develop new inventive methods for comparative urban research, for two main reasons: (1) to enable scholars to question established geographical representations and parochial imaginaries of urban space, and (2) to problematise methodological and theoretical dogmas with situated knowledge. By suggesting different representations of the urban, the paper thus emphasises how important it is to transductively entangle empirical and theoretical conceptualisations to further decentre and pluralize urban knowledge production.

scholarly journals “Not all spaces are territories”: creating other possible urban worlds in and from Latin America – an interview with Raúl Zibechi

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Streule ◽  
Anke Schwarz
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Frantz Fanon ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Urban Territories ◽  
Urban Futures ◽  
English Speaking

Abstract. In light of his most prominent book “Territories in Resistance” (Zibechi, 2008), we conducted an interview with the researcher, journalist, and activist Raúl Zibechi. A well-known Uruguayan columnist with various Latin American newspapers, Zibechi was introduced to an English-speaking audience when translations of two of his books were published in 2010 and 2012 (Zibechi, 2010, 2012a). Combining activism and research, he has been working with social movements throughout Latin America since the 1980s. Socioterritorial movements, the key concept around which much of Zibechi's work revolves, are of particular interest for our theme issue “Contested Urban Territories: Decolonized Perspectives”. Our interview revisits Zibechi's idea of the emergence of new or other subjects through socioterritorial practices, and in consequence, of socioterritorial movements as harbingers of possible urban futures. In this context, the interview also explores links to the writings of Carlos Walter Porto Gonçalves on “territory”, Henri Lefebvre on “space”, and Frantz Fanon on “zones of being and non-being”. We understand a conversation along these lines as a contribution to the ongoing debate on a decolonialization of knowledge and knowledge production in the field of urban studies.

scholarly journals Urban Phenomena in São Paulo’s Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Appropriating Local Spatio-Temporalities

Tempo Social ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69
Author(s):  
Sebastian Dorsch
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Relational Analysis ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

The article seeks to investigate urban phenomena in São Paulo’s 19th and 20th centuries by utilizing Henri Lefebvre’s concept of appropriation. Thus I focus on the relations between urban space(s) and its inhabitants, and the analysis of the city – usually perceived as space – becomes a spatio-temporal and relational analysis regarding dynamic practices, conflicts, etc. understood as urban phenomena. How did the inhabitants appropriate São Paulo? May we state special forms by comparing it to other Latin American cities of former times? How did the migrants arriving at the end of 19th century change old forms of living in the city? I conclude with remarks and critics on the potential of using the concept of appropriation in urban studies.

scholarly journals Introduction to the special issue “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives”

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Anke Schwarz ◽  
Monika Streule
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
American Association ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Territories

Abstract. This paper serves as an introduction to the “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives” special issue. The idea for this issue emerged during our reflections on a socioterritorial perspective, preeminent in the current Latin American analysis of contemporary urban struggles (Schwarz and Streule, 2016). It aims to contribute to these ongoing debates about a specific understanding of urban territories from a postcolonial and decolonized perspective by combining contributions from two paper sessions we organized at the 2017 meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Boston with additional papers by scholars who could not participate in the conference. All seven contributions tackle the question of what a relational and dynamic conceptualization of territory may contribute to current debates in the urban studies field. Put more precisely, to which extent are socioterritorial approaches of value for a further decentering and pluralizing of urban theory? What is their significance to research on urban social movements? And, finally, how does such a socioterritorial perspective nurture and complement an analysis of the social production of space? The present special issue invites the reader to get familiar with new concepts and engage in a critical reflection on the conditions of knowledge production in urban geography and beyond.

Encounters Across Borders. Modernist Ideas and Professional Practices in the 1970s Romania

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-420
Author(s):  
Mara Mărginean
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Third World ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Flows ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Urban Policies ◽  
European Culture

Building on several international professional meetings of architects organized in Romania or abroad, this article details how various modernist principles, traditionally subsumed to Western European culture, were gradually reinterpreted as an object of policy and professional knowledge on urban space in the second and third world countries. The article analyses the dialogue between Romanian architects and their foreign colleagues. It highlights how these conversations adjusted the hierarchies and power relations between states and hegemonic centres of knowledge production. In this sense, it contributes to the recent research on the means by which the "trans- nationalization of expertise" "transformed various (semi)peripheral states into new centres of knowledge and thus outlines a new analytical space where domestic actions of the Romanian state in the area of urban policies are to be analysed not as isolated practices of a totalitarian regime, but as expressions of the entanglements between industrialization models, knowledge flows and models of territoriality that were not only globally relevant, but they also often received specific regional, national and local forms.

scholarly journals Grand Challenges, Feminist Answers

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 263178772110203
Author(s):  
Yvonne Benschop
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Situated Knowledge ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Feminist Organization

Feminist organization theories develop knowledge about how organizations and processes of organizing shape and are shaped by gender, in intersection with race, class and other forms of social inequality. The politics of knowledge within management and organization studies tend to marginalize and silence feminist theorizing on organizations, and so the field misses out on the interdisciplinary, sophisticated conceptualizations and reflexive modes of situated knowledge production provided by feminist work. To highlight the contributions of feminist organization theories, I discuss the feminist answers to three of the grand challenges that contemporary organizations face: inequality, technology and climate change. These answers entail a systematic critique of dominant capitalist and patriarchal forms of organizing that perpetuate complex intersectional inequalities. Importantly, feminist theorizing goes beyond mere critique, offering alternative value systems and unorthodox approaches to organizational change, and providing the radically different ways of knowing that are necessary to tackle the grand challenges. The paper develops an aspirational ideal by sketching the contours of how we can organize for intersectional equality, develop emancipatory technologies and enact a feminist ethics of care for the human and the natural world.

scholarly journals Analysis of Urban Transformation Through the Use of Expanded Research Tools

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110383
Author(s):  
Ana Elena Builes-Vélez ◽  
Lina María Suárez Velásquez ◽  
Leonardo Correa Velásquez ◽  
Diana Carolina Gutiérrez Aristizábal
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Design Development ◽  
New Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Cities ◽  
Research Tools

In recent years, urban design development has been an important topic in Latin American cities such as Medellín due to the transformation of their urban spaces, along with the new methods used to evaluate the social, morphological, and, in some cases, economic impacts that have been brought about by the urban development projects. When inquiring about the development process and impact of urban studies, and the inhabitants’ relation to a transformed space, it is important to establish the context within which images, drawings, and photographs are analyzed, using graphical approaches triangulated with other research methods to define comparative criteria. In this article, we reflect on the expanded use of various research tools for the analysis of urban transformation, taking with reference the experience lived by a group of researchers in two Latin American cities. From this, it is intended to understand how they work and how they allow us to understand the urban transformation of these cities, the data obtained, and the vision of the researchers.

Colonial Ideologies, Narratives, and Popular Perceptions of Ethno-racial Otherness in the Dynamics of Urban Exclusion: Debates and Evidence from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 48-66
Author(s):  
Javier Ruiz-Tagle ◽  
Carolina Aguilera
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Residential Segregation ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Indigenous Social Movements ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Impact

Although ethnic differentiations began with colonialism, racism was not widely addressed in Latin American social sciences until recently, since class perspectives were predominant. Within this, studies on residential segregation and urban exclusion have ignored race and ethnicity, with the exceptions of Brazil and Colombia. However, these issues have recently become crucial because of the adoption of multiculturalism, the impact of postcolonialism and postmodernism, the emergence of black and indigenous social movements, changes in state policy, and new trends in migration. A review of debates and evidence from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina shows that persistent colonial ideologies, narratives, and popular perceptions of ethno-racial denial sustain various kinds of urban exclusion in the region. The evidence calls for a new research agenda to decolonize urban studies that adopts a critical perspective on the coloniality of power. Aunque las diferenciaciones étnicas comenzaron con el colonialismo, el racismo no se abordó ampliamente en las ciencias sociales latinoamericanas hasta hace poco, ya que predominaban las perspectivas de clase. Los estudios sobre la segregación residencial y la exclusión urbana han ignorado la raza y el origen étnico, con excepción de Brasil y Colombia. Sin embargo, estas cuestiones se han vuelto cruciales recientemente debido a la adopción del multiculturalismo, el impacto del poscolonialismo y el posmodernismo, la aparición de movimientos sociales negros e indígenas, los cambios en la política estatal y nuevas tendencias en la migración. Una revisión de los debates y evidencia en México, Colombia, Chile y Argentina muestra que las ideologías coloniales persistentes, las narrativas y las percepciones populares de la negación etnoracial sostienen varios tipos de exclusión urbana en la región. La evidencia exige una nueva agenda de investigación para descolonizar los estudios urbanos y adoptar una perspectiva crítica sobre la colonialidad del poder.

scholarly journals Muralismo libertário: comunicação e educação emancipadora

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (25) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Marilda Lopes Pinheiro Queluz ◽  
Gilson Leandro Queluz
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Cultural Formation ◽  
Image Production ◽  
Authoritarian Communication ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
American Cities

RESUMO Este trabalho pretende, através do exemplo do muralismo libertário latino-americano, problematizar as relações entre educação e emancipação. É nossa compreensão que as práticas de ação direta pertinentes ao muralismo libertário, são processos constituintes de uma comunicação igualitária em franca antítese e resistência a um modo de comunicação autoritário característico da sociedade capitalista e de sua indústria cultural.  Analisaremos algumas obras dos coletivos muralistas anarquistas contemporâneos nas cidades latino-americanas, demonstrando sua orientação temática, suas estratégias de produção e representação imagética, e sua concepção explícita de uma formação cultural ampliada. Consideramos que o muralismo libertário, ao se apropriar do espaço urbano como meio de comunicação, ao ressignificar nos muros os demarcadores das desigualdades sociais, procura constituir uma cultura da resistência, materializando os fundamentos de um modo de comunicação igualitário.   Palavras-chave: Muralismo Latino-americano. Muralismo Libertário. Educação e Emancipação.   ABSTRACT The following paper aims to problematize the relationship between education and emancipation through the example of Latin American libertarian muralism. It is the authors’ understanding that the practices concerning the libertarian muralism belong to an egalitarian communication, which is openly against an authoritarian communication peculiar to the capitalist society and its culture industry. The authors will analyze some studies of the contemporary anarchist collective muralists in Latin American cities, demonstrating their thematic orientation, their strategies of image production and representation, and their explicit conception of a broad cultural formation. In addition, the authors consider that libertarian muralism, by using urban space as a means of communication, and re-defining the main aspects of social inequalities, seeks to establish a culture of resistance, materializing the foundations of an egalitarian way of communication.   Keywords: Latin American Muralism. Libertarian Muralism. Education and Emancipation.

scholarly journals URBAN STUDIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THEORIES OF VISUAL PRACTICES

2017 ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
A. M. Tormakhova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
The City

One of the leading trends in contemporary cultural studies is the appealto the field of visual. Thepurpose of the article is to investigate the range of problems associated withthe existence, functioning of various visual practices in the urban space and the disclosure of the specifics of communication carried out through their intermediation. In urban space, there are many forms, such as monumental architecture, urban sculpture, outdoor illumination, landscape art, street art, graffiti and others. These artifacts are the subject of cultural research within different disciplines - aesthetics, cultural studies, design, and art. It may be noted that in recentdecades, significant development gets such a direction as Urban Studies, in which the focus of research serves the city. The methodology of the study includes an appeal to an interdisciplinary approach that relies on the achievements of practical cultural studies, Urban studies,and aesthetics theory by Ukrainian and Western authors. Scientific novelty consists in analyzing the connection ofactual visual practices presented in the urban space and forming of Internet activity, which facilitates the mutual influence of these spheres one on another. The author noted that urban space is gradually becoming not only interactive, but also fully assuming the characteristics of WEB 2.0, which means active rethinking and transforming the environment, urban residents involvement in decision-making that becomes a norm of everyday life. City is a kind of text that reflects changing tastes, politicaland economic factors in visualform. Town and city public spaces play an important role in shaping the interaction within society. One of the pressing problems of practical cultural studies in general and urban areas in particular, should be integrated into organization of the urban environment and design the image of the city. The practical significance lies in the fact that the results of the research can beused in developing the urban sphere in particular and in actualizing the issue of organizing the urban environment and constructing the image of the city.

Zwischen Naturgeschichte, Statistik und Gesellschaftsroman. Soziographische Wissensordnungen im Kontext einer europäischen Publizistik im 19. Jahrhundert

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-162
Author(s):  
Christiane Schwab
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Scientific Terminology ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Periodical Publishing

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the rise of market-oriented periodical publishing correlated with an increasing desire to inspect the modernizing societies. The journalistic pursuit of examining the social world is in a unique way reflected in countless periodical contributions that, especially from the 1830s onwards, depicted social types and behaviours, new professions and technologies, institutions, and cultural routines. By analysing how these “sociographic sketches” proceeded to document and to interpret the manifold manifestations of the social world, this article discusses the interrelationships between epistemic and political shifts, new forms of medialization and the systematization of social research. It thereby focuses on three main areas: the creative appropriation of narratives and motifs of moralistic essayism, the uses of description and contextualization as modes of knowledge, and the adaptation of empirical methods and a scientific terminology. To consider nineteenth-century sociographic journalism as a format between entertainment, art, and science provokes us to narrate intermedial, transnational and interdisciplinary tales of the history of social knowledge production.

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