Session at the 16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe

We want to discuss the role that urban anthropologies in the Portuguese and Spanish languages have developed in their countries and regions, and with other focus of external anthropological production, and to what extent have negotiated against the mainstream of Anglo-Saxon hegemony in urban studies


For a long time, cities and urban life have been subjects of anthropological reflection. However, only half a century ago the label 'urban anthropology' began to get recognition in the USA and almost simultaneously in Brazil. Problematizing the condition of human life in an increasingly urbanized world through ethnographic gaze continues to challenge anthropologists who recognize themselves in this field of approach which, pragmatically, continues to be termed as 'urban anthropology'. With a strongly Anglo-Saxon "mainstream" tradition, different "urban anthropologies" have developed in different languages and particularly powerfully in Portuguese and Spanish ones. These two languages, that bind Southern Europe and Latin America, have testified a broad and complex colonial, postcolonial and migratory history.

We basically want to discuss the way Brazilian, Portuguese, Mexican, Spanish urban anthropologies, among many others, have developed in their countries and regions, among themselves and with other focus of external anthropological production.

We ask to what extent the national specificities have been negotiated against the mainstream of Anglo-Saxon hegemony in urban studies. Papers based on concrete research, critical development, free and personal reflections are welcome.

We encourage focus on concepts, methodologies, models of analysis and comparison, narrative strategies, remarkable forums and reference that works / authors have in their production and / or the role that urban anthropologies in the Portuguese and Spanish languages play - both in terms of their communication and 'internal' impact, and in terms of 'external' impact and internationalization.

Convenors:

  • Graça Cordeiro (ISCTE-IUL)
  • Heitor Frúgoli Junior (FFLCH/USP)
  • Joan Josep Pujadas (Universitat Rovira I Virgili)