Urban Ethnography

"Aux frontières de l’achevé, de l’établi, de l’ordonné, du centre et du dominant, se trouvent le précaire, l’instable, le désordre, la périphérie et le dominé : une relation dynamique voire conflictuelle existe entre ces deux réalités, qui est celle du faire-ville."

Table des matières:

Avant-propos
Introduction. De l’ethnographie des marges à l’anthropologie de la ville

Première partie. La ville des anthropologues
Chapitre 1. La ville comme hologramme
Chapitre 2. Les savoirs urbains de l’anthropologie
Chapitre 3. Les situations élémentaires de la vie urbaine

Deuxième partie. La ville à l’œuvre
Chapitre 4. Ce qui rend la ville familière
Chapitre 5. Lieux, non-lieux, hors-lieux
Chapitre 6. Brouillons de ville

Troisième partie. La ville en mouvements
Chapitre 7. La culture des villes, ou l’habit d’Arlequin
Chapitre 8. Imaginaire et politique des marges
Chapitre 9. Occupations, invasions, installations : l’agir urbain

Conclusion. Du « droit à la ville » au « faire-ville »

The article considers the character of social relationships in an urban high-rise settlements. It analyses the influence of time and physical space on the  level of inter-human relationships. A section of the largest settlement in Slovakia,  Bratislava-Petržalka, is the locality for author´s empirical qualitative research. Here  he identifies  social groups and opportunities; he analyses the influence of time and  physical space on the level and quality of inter-human contacts. He shows how  established contacts can contribute to raising of social capital and quality of life in  locality.

Key words: social networks, urban high-rise settlements, social capital

Society in the town of Nitra in the conditions of the new state regime after 1918: ethnological possibilities for studying the dynamic of urban memory

The author of this chapter reconstructs the situation in the town of Nitra after the change of political regime after 1918 on the basis of historical literature and archive sources, and at more than half a century’s distance seeks its reflection in the recollections of the town’s inhabitants.
The analysis is centred on the installation of the new regime and its impact on the national affiliation of the population (Slovak and Hungarian nationality and language), the economic characteristics of the town, social life, and the structure of the population in terms of property and social group. Each on the three sources of information analysed (historical literature, archive documents and material from the recollections of Nitra’s oldest citizens) represents a different angle of view and a different degree of source effectiveness for ethnological study of the social relationships of the town. All three give disparate descriptions of the consequences of regime change and life in Nitra. A clear account of “how it really was” after 1918 was not the goal of the study. The aim was to reveal and draw attention to the content and characteristics of the individual images of the town.
In historical literature dealing with the town’s past, at a greater or lesser distance in time from the period observed, the approach and selection of facts are subjected to more or less deliberate manipulation. The information gained by study of the archives of the town council and municipality in the 1918–1945 period is primarily marked by its chronological order and absence of subsequent selection or evaluation of the information retained. These archives transmit detailed and concrete data without specifying the circumstances and create a wide local context in which the everyday life of the town is conducted.
The recollections of the oldest inhabitants of Nitra are individually and subjectively framed pictures, which undergo conscious or unconscious selection and evaluation at the moment of testimony. One can, however, deduce from them direct and entirely pragmatic motivations for the actions of individuals and groups which the other sources either do not contain or give in a distorted form. The content, structure and form of recollections reveal an opinion of the social world which surrounds the individual. The search for the incidence of facts of this or that kind from the past, and perception of the form they assume in the inhabitants’ recollections, is at the same time an examination of their significance in the life of the town. The author therefore considers it not only an access route to examining the dynamic of memory, but also as one of the possibilities of acquiring knowledge of the social relationships in towns.

Contribution to the Interactive Virtual Exhibition 'Threatened Orders', organized by the Collaborative Research project 'Threatened Orders - Societies Under Stress', and nominated for the 'Grimme Online Award'

You can visualize and interact with the piece (and with the whole virtual exhibition) here:
https://threatened-orders.com/cases/a-failed-social-housing-project-in-murcia/

Il seguente lavoro si prefigge di studiare la relazione tra due concetti che possiamo definire due facce della stessa medaglia. I concetti sociologici analizzati sono: Local Identity e Non-places.
Partendo dall'analisi dei singoli concetti il lavoro si è articolato attraverso temi e sfumature che potessero arricchire l’argomento; sviluppando in seguito questi temi non semplicemente come esposizione teorica – concettuale, ma in relazione pratica attraverso l’osservazione della Città di Urbino, capoluogo di provincia insieme alla Città di Pesaro.

E. Colombo, G. Navarini, Confini dentro la città. Antropologia della Stazione Centrale di Milano, Edizioni Angelo Guerini e Associati, Milano, 1999, 186p. Ci sono almeno due ragioni per leggere la bella ricerca etnografica di Colombo e Navarini, e sono le due ragioni che abitualmente fanno di un libro un contributo maggiore nel dibattito scientifico: "Confini dentro la città" offre riflessioni innovative sia sul piano dell'analisi dei fenomeni sociali (e precisamente sulla ricerca di esperienze di liminalità) sia sul piano metodologico (la possibilità di applicare un metodo tradizionalmente olistico ad un luogo di confine caratterizzato dalla polisemia). La riflessione è articolata intorno ad alcuni verbi, a cui corrispondono singoli capitoli: affacciarsi, transitare, stazionare, comprare, controllare, aiutare ed andare oltre. Sono azioni che gli autori hanno osservato nei dettagli, per ricostruire il "groviglio" di interazioni della Stazione e fornirci delle mappe intelligibili. Volendo riassumere le indicazioni concettuali più innovative, gli undici capitoli che compongono questo libro meriterebbero di essere commentati ad uno ad uno, cosa impossibile in poche righe; mi limiterò, perciò, solo ad alcuni spunti che emergono dal testo e che attengono alla rilevanza dei nessi fra lo spazio e le azioni degli individui. In primo luogo, il filo conduttore di questa ricerca è l'idea che all'omogeneità territoriale della Stazione corrisponda uno spazio sociale altamente differenziato, costituito da una molteplicità di microterritori fra loro interdipendenti, esito di relazioni e conflitti che si generano temporaneamente fra differenti 'tribù'. I due ricercatori hanno trascorso due interi anni, di notte, nella Stazione Centrale di Milano, per osservare le modalità con cui le differenti 'tribù' (la Polfer, i City Angel, i senza fissa dimora, i tossicodipendenti, i vari gruppi di volontariato ed i viaggiatori) costruiscono confini differenziando e pluralizzando lo spazio. La Stazione Centrale viene considerata come un'"area naturale" nel senso di Park, non tanto perché garantisce omogeneità ed integrazione al suo interno, ma semmai perché "si popola di persone che usano lo spazio in modo diverso da come è stato originariamente progettato, attuando meccanismi alternativi di costruzione sociale dello spazio". La Stazione come luogo di confine è caratterizzata da tre principi che determinano la costruzione dei confini interni: (a) il principio idraulico, per cui ciascuna zona non viene mai abbandonata definitivamente ma è occupata da chi è stato costretto a lasciare altri territori; (b) il principio interstiziale, per cui ogni tribù preferisce frequentare le soglie, i bordi, i margini; (c) il principio del richiamo, che rimanda alla rilevanza della dimensione rituale nella vita quotidiana nella Stazione. I tre principi che regolano gli spostamenti e l'occupazione degli spazi della Stazione permettono agli autori di introdurre la rilevanza della dimensione temporale, diacronica, per rendere conto sia dei significati simbolici che permettono la strutturazione dello spazio, sia della precarietà e reversibilità delle alleanze stipulate fra le differenti tribù. Una seconda ambizione di quest'opera è quella di riproporre il tema del limen al cuore della vita metropolitana. La produzione di soglie che riguardano il tempo ed il corpo delle persone è legata a dei luoghi, alla costruzione di luoghi in cui il senso stesso dell'esperienza della liminalità (della sospensione, della possibilità dell'attesa) è dato dall'abilità di essere "tra". Sono cinque le forme di produzione di confini connesse alla ricerca di luoghi: la reinvenzione della notte, dell'alterità, della comunicazione interpersonale, della temporalità e della frontiera spaziale. La Stazione Centrale di Milano è un esempio di compresenza di queste cinque forme di istituzione di confini in uno stesso luogo. Anzi, Colombo e Navarini si spingono ancora più avanti, precisando che il compito della sociologia urbana non può essere solo quello di descrivere come venga inventato e sperimentato il limen nelle città contemporanee (come in alcuni testi di quella che Turner chiama "sociologia decorativa" ) ma, semmai, è quello di dare conto della ambivalenza dei processi di ricostruzione dei confini, laddove se a qualcuno è concessa l'esperienza della frontiera, al tempo stesso altri sono obbligati all'esperienza del confino, dello scarto e dell'esclusione. Nelle situazioni di confine, infatti, lo spazio tende ad essere trasformato producendo sia situazioni di ricerca di liminalità (rottura, riflessione) sia condizioni di liminalità, dove il liminale viene trasformato in marginale. Un ultimo aspetto, per concludere: il testo di Colombo e Navarini ha cominciato a colmare un vuoto di riflessione nella sociologia urbana italiana sui dilemmi etici e metodologici dell'etnografia urbana. In estrema sintesi, il punto cruciale è relativo al fatto che i luoghi di confine richiedono che i ricercatori sappiano analizzare le differenze "senza ridurle al loro valore medio" e, ugualmente, di dare conto della fluidità e temporaneità dei processi. Perciò la descrizione e la scrittura etnografica non possono strutturarsi solo intorno al concetto di polisemia, ma anche a quelli di intertestualità e di pastiche. La stessa scelta di condurre tutta la ricerca in coppia, di diventare in qualche maniera una tribù fra le altre della Stazione, va in questa direzione. In questo senso assume importanza lo stile riflessivo nella ricerca, uno stile capace di "fare i conti" con la domanda di aiuto che nei luoghi di confine emerge complicando e allo stesso tempo arricchendo la pratica etnografica, obbligando gli osservatori a mostrare un interesse concreto per il luogo ed i suoi abitanti. Così tematizzata, l'etnografia è un metodo rilevante per parlare degli "scarti istituzionali", quelle esperienze, spesso invisibili, che nascono negli interstizi fra differenti istituzioni.

This paper focuses on the urban graffiti painted with a political message by different
movements of the Italian political radicalism in the cities of Rome, Florence, Massa,
Carrara, Verona and Udine. For the purpose of this article, during the period from June
2011 to June 2012, a total of 165 graffiti have been photographed, of which 83 painted by
neo-fascist groups, 72 by extreme left groups and 10 by anarchist groups. These three
macro communities, made of different subgroups, emerged as the most active in expressing
their antagonism towards the parliamentary parties with their graffiti that combine semantic
(words) and semiotic (images) elements. An analysis of the collected graffiti’s language
form, meaning and context allows for the identification of the variety of styles of
communication adopted by the different political antagonisms and the different contents of
their communication through graffiti as well as the key elements of their political identities.
Key words: political radicalism, graffiti, linguistics

Fuori casa. Antropologia degli sfratti a Milano […] offre un importante contributo antropologico all’analisi critica della complessa interazione tra forme di esclusione sociale, logiche del profitto urbano e politiche abitative. Esplora la centralità dei margini a partire dal fenomeno degli sfratti e della sua articolazione nella città di Milano secondo due traiettorie principali. Da un lato interpreta quel vasto apparato sociale, politico ed economico che produce profitto dalle periferie e dai margini urbani, dotandoli di un’ambigua e inattesa centralità politica ed economica. Dall’altro promuove una riflessione antropologica che si concentra sulle nuove forme di cittadinanza all’interno di più ampi processi di costruzione della marginalità urbana. Entrambe le declinazioni si basa- no sulla produzione sociale e antropopoietica di una specifica categoria di soggetti: i senza casa. In questo senso, il testo si focalizza sul tentativo di rendere problematica la costruzione di questa forma di umanità (dalla Prefazione di Roberto Malighetti)

This work is an ethnography of Rede CAMMPI, a network of neighborhood associations from Itapagipe Peninsula (Salvador, Brazil). Rede CAMMPI is approached to ethnographically discuss the interactions between a social movement and the state. In this work I move beyond dichotomous understandings of the state and social movements — that usually counterpose contestation and institutionalization of collective action — in order to highlight dilemmas, tensions and ambiguities faced by the actors involved in complex interactions with the public sector. The research draws on data produced through extended fieldwork in collaboration with neighborhood leaders, social educators and residents of Itapagipe Peninsula. I followed Rede CAMMPI through its daily work, participating to public events, negotiations with state departments, governmental agencies and NGOs, in order to understand the ways in which slum residents engage in spatial contestations with the state. The ethnography has shown the following: a) past squatting activities and struggles for housing in Itapagipe peninsula shape contemporary politics of space in many ways. Among these, the clashes between squatters and the state resulted in the proliferation of institutional relations. These relations were necessary to turn squatters into legitimate citizens. Institutional bundles were constituted from a specific contested space (Alagados), under claims for citizenship. Such assemblages, entangle state departments, neighborhood organizations, international agencies, churches, political parties and citizens; b) Claims for citizenship as inclusion in state policies, play a role in the tentative of people to claim for rights, pursuing an entanglement with the state, as well as they account for a reverse movement: the state’s pursuit of holding roots in the daily life of lived space. c) Both these engagements have consequences in the production of space: they shape the political processes hereby analysed. They comprehend the arising of institutional bundles from spatial contestations, the established organizations’ efforts to maintain a spatial connection with neighbourhood dwellers and the creation of new collectives.
Keywords: Citizenship, Social Movements, Rede CAMMPI, Alagados, Politics of space

Taking readers to a working-class, predominantly Armenian suburb in northeast Beirut called Bourj Hammoud, Nucho conducts extensive interviews and observations in medical clinics, social service centers, shops, banking coops, and municipal offices. She explores how group and individual access to services depends on making claims to membership in the dominant sectarian community, and she examines how sectarianism is not just tied to ethnoreligious identity, but also class, gender, and geography. Life in Bourj Hammoud makes visible a broader pattern in which the relationships that develop while procuring basic needs become a way for people to see themselves as part of the greater public.

https://www.waveland.com/browse.php?t=196&r=s|urban%20life
https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=9D5FDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA444&lpg=PA444&dq=%22berna+yazici%22&source=bl&ots=9oXGUhcnqg&sig=LhH71ChFYkJekU0Q3NcOzyewHwc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRweeqldrYAhUNhaYKHSkcDto4ChDoAQhdMAg#v=onepage&q=%22berna%20yazici%22&f=false

Urban ethnographers must understand that while we look at things using close-up lenses, most policy-makers, on the other hand, employ wide-angle lens to describe what is going on at that very same street level. In this chapter, the authors attempt to provide a contrast between those views in the context of the radically changed public perception of the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. When the authors began their sociological research (and social activism) in the late twentieth century, the neighborhoods in which they were active suffered from the spread of middle-class (white) flight and urban blight. Today, in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the fortunes of these same areas have been reversed, but longer-term residents face new ‘problems’ in the form of gentrification and displacement. It is suggested here that a view from the street can provide a better sociological understanding of the bigger picture.

Summary:
The textile folk culture in Slovakia has its own roots, development and traditions. Nevertheless, it is connected
with the European cultural heritage and it has used the motives that have remained unchanged for many
centuries. The interconnections and links to the Christian symbolism and iconography are evident. There are
influences of historic styles which were brought about via pattern books. Some Renaissance ornamental elements
were adapted to individual regional styles. And even though the textile folk culture was influenced by weaving, it preserved its purity and richness of decorative performance. This culture contained an extremely well developed range of local and regional forms and it preserved many original elements till the middle of the 20th century.

This paper considers Michel de Certeau’s account of “everyday practices” as a means of escaping the totalising forces of social governance and ideological apparatuses, which he believes are deficient of the necessary spatial orientation to daily activity, and thus unable to comprehend the full complexity of lived experience, particularly in regards to the life of a city. The extent to which resistance is possible will be evaluated in light of the totalising threat of computerised surveilliance and digital architecture, where they are considered to overdetermine and stratify public space. As such, a “rhetorical of walking” will be assessed for its potential in revealing the everyday stories and spaces that are unseen from ‘above’. Particular reference is made to the potential impact and uses of nascent digital cartographic tools in shaping encounters at street level in the contemporary city.

Berlin gilt als Stadt im ewigen Wandel und das Lebensgefühl im »Neuen Berlin« nach der Wende verkörpert niemand so gut wie die Underground-Szene. Diese Szene schweift im Stadtraum umher und funktioniert seine Leerstände zu »locations« um. Sie inszeniert sich als Subkultur und verweigert jegliche Kategorisierung. Die Autorin hat in intensiven Feldforschungen diese Szene aufgespürt und untersucht. Sie betritt damit Neuland in der Erforschung der Großstadt. Ihre Studie zeigt, wie durch Szenen eine spezifisch urbane Kultur entsteht und das Imaginäre der Stadt geformt wird.

Nel settembre del 1969, ai margini del convegno annuale dell'associazione americana di sociologia, venne organizzato un dibattito tra due celebri sociologi, Herbert Blumer e Everett Hughes [Lofland Lyn 1980]. In quell'occasione si assisteva alla prima uscita pubblica di un gruppo, cui fa riferimento Sheldon Messinger nella citazione iniziale, quello dei cosiddetti "Chicago Irregulars". Si tratta di un insieme di giovani studenti e studiosi capeggiati oltre che da Messinger, da Sherry Cavan, John Irwin, John Lofland, Lyn Lofland e Jacqueline Wiseman. Alla base del gruppo si trovava la richiesta di riconoscimento di una filiazione intellettuale e il diritto al recupero dell'eredità della cosiddetta "Scuola di Chicago", in un periodo particolarmente movimentato nell'etnografia americana, la fine degli anni Sessanta, che culminerà nella fondazione delle principali riviste del settore 3 . La necessità del recupero della tradizione di Chicago negli anni Sessanta, visto alla luce del favore che sembra riscuotere ancora oggi, stupisce. Nei manuali di sociologia a disposizione attualmente questa tradizione è spesso valorizzata e viene associata agli studi urbani, a quelli sulla devianza, sull'integrazione delle minoranze e soprattutto ai metodi di ricerca qualitativi, in particolare alla ricerca etnografica. Al tempo stesso, la maggior parte dei lavori di storia del pensiero sociologico che negli ultimi anni hanno ricostruito le visissitudini del mondo dei chicagoans concorda nel mettere in discussione la visione trionfale che ha identificato la ricerca etnografica con quella condotta sotto la supervisione di Park e colleghi. Cosa accadeva dunque a Chicago, tra gli anni Venti e Cinquanta? Per quale ragione, quella che attualmente viene riconosciuta nei manuali come una delle tradizioni sociologiche americane più influenti, negli anni Sessanta sembrava aver bisogno di essere "tenuta in vita"? E soprattutto, in cosa consiste la "tradizione" cui fa riferimento Messinger? Questi interrogativi emergono chiaramente non appena si rivolge l'attenzione ad un ramo specifico degli studi qualitativi americani, l'etnografia urbana, di cui questo paper vuole offrire una ricognizione storica. Una delle ragioni all'origine di questo lavoro è appunto la scoperta di un vuoto relativamente ampio tra la vasta offerta di etnografie urbane a partire dalla metà del secolo scorso e la cornice che dovrebbe contenerle. In sintesi, non si trovano "storie" dell'etnografia urbana, così come non sono disponibili sufficienti lavori teorici che diano spessore a un'etichetta che, ciononostante, circola, tanto nell'offerta didattica (soprattutto negli Stati Uniti) quanto nei lavori pubblicati.

R e v i s t a C o l o m b i a n a R e v i s t a C o l o m b i a n a R e v i s t a C o l o m b i a n a R e v i s t a C o l o m b i a n a R e v i s t a C o l o m b i a n a d e A n t r o p o l o g í a d e A n t r o p o l o g í a d e A n t r o p o l o g í a d e A n t r o p o l o g í a d e A n t r o p o l o g í a Volumen 39, enero-diciembre 2003, pp. 41-70 FISONOMÍAS DE LO PÚBLICO Y LO PRIVADO EN BOGOTÁ: identidad y percepción en espacios urbanos MARÍA TERESA SALCEDO INVESTIGADORA DEL INSTITUTO COLOMBIANO DE ANTROPOLOGÍA E HISTORIA msalcedo@mincultura.gov.co Resumen E L ARTÍCULO ELABORA LA RELACIÓN ENTRE PRÁCTICAS DE PERCEPCIÓN SENSORIAL,

The city is a social laboratory. Exploring its cultural diversity and social inequality entails getting acquainted with people and listening to their stories. This reader is the first compilation of contemporary 'classics' in urban anthropology, including experimental and artistic approaches to street life. It delivers a basic understanding of urban culture.

Raisa, a twenty-two-year-old Emirati woman, was standing with her husband and friends at the valet of a popular fi ve-star hotel in Jumeirah. It was 11 p.m., and they were waiting for their cars after having had dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants. The hotel was frequented both by Emiratis and wealthy residents and tourists, but today-only in the valet area-it was different. Raisa noticed that they were surrounded by Westerners dressed in their evening wear, while she and her friends stood out in their abayas. Raisa said it was the fi rst time she had felt odd in her own country. Raisa and her friends were no strangers to socializing in spaces where they encountered people of different nationalities. Their favorite restaurants were at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), where a minority of Emiratis and a much larger group of Westerners, Arabs, South Asians, and other elites went to socialize, dine, and/or drink at upscale places such as Zuma or BOCA. The restaurants in posh hotels and DIFC differed from the ones found in shopping malls or on the city's streets because they served alcohol, had a larger Western clientele, and were signifi cantly more exclusive. Many of these restaurants became like lounges in the evening, playing the loud music one might fi nd at a bar or nightclub. Because DIFC is known for its nightlife, some women also go there in evening wear, as they would to the hotel in Jumeirah where Raisa found them. In these spaces, Raisa and

Black Nationalism represents one of the most heavily understudied ideologies within the history of urban America. The impact of Black Nationalism has still yet to be gauged. African Americans incurred great frustrations during the 1960s because of the government's lack of responsiveness to problems such as unemployment, overcrowded housing, and police brutality. Today, these ills still exist. Black Nationalists groups have emerged responding to these conditions across the country as the 21st century begins. This project examines the significance of the legacy and tradition of the mostly urban phenomena. Freedom movements of today are all creations of Black Nationalists from the old guard and those who survived government repression during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Since the historical 1995 Million Man March, these organizations have managed to command the media's attention. The effect of President Obama's election has yielded mixed results in the original goals and aspirations of Black Nationalists. Black Nationalist effect on hyper-incarceration is suggested as one of many topics for further research.

Described by locals as Singapore’s ‘Little Thailand’, the Golden Mile Complex is known as an ethnic enclave for Thai persons. The environment of the Golden Mile Complex is described as a liminoid space, or a ‘space out of place’, where Thai cultural identity, language and religious beliefs appear to be dominant, while simultaneously suspending the everyday realities of the wider Singaporean society that surrounds it. Despite being viewed as a cultural sanctuary for many Thais, the building is also perceived as an ethnic enclosure that tends to isolate those working or living in it because of its association with ‘low-end globalization’. The urban marginality of the Golden Mile Complex and its Thai community, therefore, reflects a broader ongoing and ambivalent social-cultural divide between Singaporeans and large numbers of foreign workers, who form part of a transnational ‘precariat’ and face substantial challenges to their economic and social security.

Arguing against the previous research’s presumption that the subcultural
constitutes a single set of meaning, this article addresses the simple
question of what constitutes the subcultural? What does it mean when we
address an object, practice, identity, or meaning structure as subcultural?
Through outlining three dominant strands in regards to how subcultural
difference has been defined, the author argues that the previous
research on subcultural theory has been preoccupied with a definition
of subcultures as being a response to external structural problems, with
the result that both the “sub” and the “cultural” become dependent
variables. Drawing from his work on punks in Sweden and Indonesia the
author argues that although differing, the different strands in regards to
subcultural difference can nevertheless be combined into a refinement
of subcultural theory that moves beyond style to how objects, actions,
and identities are communicated, interpreted, and acted upon. Such a
refinement, the author argues, provides for an analysis of plurality within
the subcultural in relation to multiple structures of meaning. An increased
focus on the prefix sub and its relation to the root cultural allows for a
discussion of how the subcultural is symbolically extended and more so,
how this involves both conflict and alternative interpretations.

This article uses an ethnographic methodology grounded in a
transversal understanding of both black feminism and hip
hop politics. Using ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews
with eight black identified ‘‘third culture’’ women in
Dubai, UAE, and featuring three of those interviews, I argue
that hip hop provides an important point of encounter to
negotiate local to local connections in ways that undermine
the national boundaries erected by states and reinforced
through racializing practices that are often expressed through
the cultural logics of capitalist heteropatriarchy. These reciprocal
interviews offer insights into commonalities and
differences among black women in very different parts of the
world, whose identities are shaped, in part, by their involvement
in hip hop culture.
Keywords: Arab women hip hop artists, cultural resistance, Dubai UAE, global
hip hop, transversal politics

This dissertation investigates cabdriving as a form of spatial work, involved in the production and reproduction of social space through three interrelated products: physical movement from place to place; the experience of movement, of connection made between places; and the articulation of these places, movements, and experiences with visions of society and the social. The particular forms of knowledge involved in this work, and the politics in which taxicabs are imbricated, are explored through fieldwork conducted in two very different cities: Mexico City and San Francisco, California. The political context of cabdriving knowledge changes as new technologies are introduced into the cab to reframe the relationship between the interior of the cab (where passengers and drivers interact) and the exteriors (urban and informational spaces) through which it passes.

In Mexico City, interviews with libre, base, and sitio cabdrivers about their knowledge and work strategies revealed three aspects of cabdriving as a rhythmanalytical practice  1) the points of confluence, or the geographic mode of intersection or confluence by which drivers link up with passengers; 2) the temporal and monetary patterns of constraint the occupation puts on drivers; and 3) the sense of the city which emerges, as this is described by drivers. Each form of taxicab has different patterns of movement, and different spatial and technological means of establishing contact with customers, which results in differing experiences and strategies elaborated by drivers.

In San Francisco, interviews were conducted with taxi, limousine, and “ridesharing” drivers on the impact of smartphone-enabled “e-hailing” technology. The term allegorithm (the productive co-deployment of a socially relevant allegorical script and a software-mediated algorithm) is borrowed from gaming studies to describe how interfaces reframe the cab-riding experience. Of particular interest is the emergene of “ridesharing,” or the overcab (a cab-riding experience which is superior to the experience of riding in a cab). The effectiveness of the overcab’s reframing project depends on the acceptance and performance by participants of the “overcab” narrative. There are indications that the transcendence of the overcab is fragile, and that cracks are developing in the experiences of both drivers and passengers, due to continuing tensions which the overcab has failed to resolve, or which have been introduced as part of its regulating mechanism.

Resumen Este artículo propone una metodología híbrida e interdisciplinaria para entender la experiencia de la movilidad en la ciudad de Santiago de Chile, desde un punto de vista fenomenológico. Esta metodología corresponde al "seguimiento" de las prácticas de movilidad, que consiste en acompañar a los viajeros en sus desplazamientos y ocupaciones cotidianas por un periodo de tiempo. De esta manera, se intenta capturar las formas en que la movilidad es experimentada hoy en las ciudades por sus habitantes. En una primera sección, se entrega una descripción de las diversas maneras en que los métodos móviles han evolucionado; luego se explica el enfoque etnográfico de seguimiento adoptado para esta investigación, y se concluye con una descripción y análisis de un caso de estudio. Palabras clave: movilidad urbana, seguimiento, etnografía, Santiago de chile. Abstract This article proposes a hybrid and interdisciplinary methodology to understand the experience of mobility in the city of Santiago de Chile, from a phenomenological point of view. This methodology is the "shadowing" of mobility practices, which consists of accompanying the travelers in their everyday journeys and occupations for a period of time. Thus, an attempt to capture the ways in which mobility in cities is experienced by its inhabitants is carried out. In the first section, a description of the different ways in which mobile methods have evolved is presented; secondly, the ethnographic approach adopted in this research is explained, and finally, the article concludes with the description and analysis of a case of study.

Based on an ethnography of the relationship between Greek immigrants from the former Soviet Union and native Greeks in a neighbourhood in Thessaloniki, Greece, this book enquires into the practical deployment of ideologies of national belonging in immigrant-native figurations. Breaking with those theoretical perspectives that either assume the nationalistic standpoint or ignore it as if it did not matter, it aims to uncover, analyse and problematize the hegemonic power of ideologies of national belonging in structuring immigrant-native relations.

This essay is in response to the question "What is 'critical' in critical urban anthropology?" My answer to this question delves into my experience of doing ethnographic research at the ends of Delhi Metro lines, places that I came to see as critical sites of urbanism-ruralism and the intersecting mobilities of the National Capital Region. The "critical" is a method and position that both reveals and interrogates social inequity and power differentials on and through the urban-peri-urban and more rural landscapes.

Luis Alberto Urrea's Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border (1993) provides a harrowing perspective on the struggles of a group of mainly indigenous refugees and migrants who live in one of Tijuana's many colonias—informal settlements with no utilities or public services—where they barely survive by picking trash. Written from notes that Urrea compiled while he was a translator for Baptist missionaries from 1978 to 1982 and then again in the 1990s, Across the Wire is deeply indebted to colonial modes of representation that have characterised Western anthropological knowledge production, and specifically ethnographic writing, from its inception. The memoir cum ethnographic work cum journalistic account aims to call attention to the hardships that refugees in Tijuana face and elicit sympathy for their plight. Yet, despite Urrea's intention to humanise his subjects, Across the Wire depicts them as helpless, in need of outside deliverance, and ultimately inferior to Urrea and his missionary crew, reproducing a white saviour narrative that reifies the myth of white, Western superiority. In the process, Across the Wire unwittingly reveals the pernicious workings of white saviourism and illustrates how it is contingent on an exploitative relationship in which the purported “helper” is the actual beneficiary.

A man begging on the streets of Haridwar | Chandrashekhar Leo Vuppuluri (CC BY-SA 3.0) Beggars are usually ignored on the streets and questions are asked about why they do not work. Many have indeed worked as paid labour and then each for her own reasons has chosen begging as the primary activity. A report and analysis from the field. People usually view begging with a fair amount of moral ambiguity and suspicion. Questions are asked about the long-term implications of a "culture" of living on the dole or by manipulating public sympathy. Beggars are subjected to a spectrum of negative responses from passers-by seeing them as "non-persons" to the state using anti-begging laws to arrest and institutionalise them. A common observation against the poor who beg seems to be: "Why can't they work instead of begging?" Or that there is a huge network of organised criminals behind the beggars. The rhetoric around begging is marked by the objectification of individuals who beg. That is, we see beggars as inanimate objects who need not register in our consciousness. This then allows them to be dehumanised in our minds. As a researcher who has engaged with begging populations both in their community and custodial settings, here I illustrate the unconventional employment histories of beggars and the rationale they provide for the times when they choose begging over other forms of paid labour. Exploring the factors that lead them to this

While previous studies have documented the trials of rural-to-urban migration in post-reform China, little is known of the consequences of urban demolition and attendant uncertainty on migrant mental health. Exploring the affective and subjective dimensions of life lived amidst rubble in a migrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Shanghai, this essay describes and analyzes small-scale practices of endurance through dynamics of time, place, and sociality. We understand these modes of dwelling in a ruined environment as key to what we refer to as the management of subjectivity, producing moments of being that potentially enable to feel and act otherwise. Considering the management of subjectivity in its own rights rather than as mere echoes of postsocialist governmentalities, we sustain a dialogue with recent writing on the production of happy and self-reliant marginalized subjects through the Chinese authorities' turn to “therapeutic governance.”