ETHNOGRAPHY

Course title: Feeling the cities. Collaborative Ethnographies and Artistic Practices in Urban Anthropology.

"During the day my city is the son of a dreamer. My city is a gaunt old man who lives in a rented room in a dirty street. My city is very strange. It's tired and nervous. I can't say what my city is. My city is a kiss from the feverish lips of people tired of others. My city is a murmur of voices coming out of an abyss". Thus in 1925, the year of publication of the fundamental volume "The City" by Robert Park on Chicago, the American writer Shwerwood Anderson in "Dark Laughter" expressed his feeling of the city: the disorientation, but also the incomprehensible beauty of this new form of physical and social space that is the city. Two years later Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" was released in Europe. Already in the second half of the 19th century, from the nascent debate on the new symbolic systems, hierarchies of power, ideologies and aesthetics, from which the city is produced and which in turn contributes to reproducing, many authors, including Balzac, Baudelaire , Dickens, Zola, have tried to capture the most minute but extremely expressive features of urban space: newsstands, street lamps, advertising pillars (like the legendary Morris columns in Paris), kiosks, manholes, fountains, urban micro-architectures that have their own story and tell it, defining the features of each city. In 1908, Georg Simmel stated that the nature of urban places is such that a street, a car park, a square are not spatial structures with a social meaning, but are social facts formed in space; hence the sense of rooting and belonging to an urban landscape, which is produced through orientation on the territory thanks to multiple spatial reference points connoted with emotional value, of daily micro-stories represented in the places. However, there is also an urban anomie, accompanied by phenomena of progressive discomfort: the immense suburbs that delimit cities without actually drawing real borders. Historical circumstances and structural reasons have given us anonymous cities without quality, characterized only by large numbers, where the only possible and paradoxically true experience is disorientation. For some years, for the first time in the history of humanity, the urban population has exceeded the rural population. Humans have become a predominantly urban species. This evolution has transformed the face of cities, whose space, increasingly expanded, often escapes any planning. Terms such as: postmetropolis, global city, gentrification, sprawl, regeneration, gated communities, city region, have become common to describe the contemporary city.
This course presents the main theoretical junctions of the birth and development of contemporary urban anthropology, focusing above all on the relationship between the study of the urban phenomenon and the crisis of classical ethnographic representations. With an approach based on the phenomenology of the lived body and the anthropology of the senses and emotions - as indicated by the verb "feel" used in the title - the course focuses on new forms of ethnography "of" the city (not just "in" the city) , which today favor the dialogue between anthropology and artistic practices, including literature, visual arts, performance, which are deeply intertwined with ethnographic practice, innervating and enriching it; in a conception according to which art is no longer just a phenomenon relating to aesthetic perception, but is also a form of bodily knowledge of the world, like ethnography, and above all - like ethnography - it is a mode of social action.

Knowledge and understanding: in-depth critical knowledge of the main authors, theories and methods of contemporary urban anthropology; in their historical development and their interconnections.
Application skills: ability to concretely apply the main contemporary approaches to the ethnographic analysis of the city. Ability to effectively communicate cultural anthropology with the arts, in particular literature and the visual arts.
Ability to autonomously rework and communicate what has been learned: ability to clearly and analytically expose case studies in the field of urban anthropology, critically highlighting relevant aspects and limitations on a methodological and theoretical level; know how to develop and propose one's own ethnographic research hypotheses in this sector of studies.

Given the specialized nature of the teaching, it is essential to possess solid basic knowledge of cultural and social anthropology and the history of anthropology. Non-ACEL students, i.e. students enrolled in other Master's degree courses who have never taken any anthropological science exams, are asked to contact the teacher personally during office hours or during lessons.

- Birth and historical development of urban anthropology.
- The Chicago School (Park).
- The concept of cultural ecology. Urban areas.
- Urbanism as a "way of life" (Wirth).
- Notes on the development of the postcolonial city.
- The Manchester School (Gluckman): situational analysis and the case study method.
- From balance to conflict.
- Brief notes on network analysis (Hannerz).
- Brief notes on the interactional approach (Leeds).
- Ethnographic and theoretical limits of classical approaches.
- Anthropology faced with urban complexity: the crisis of ethnographic representation.
- The revolutionary contribution of Walter Benjamin's work.
- Decentralization of the gaze and the fragment method.
- Notes on the phenomenology of the lived body (Böhme, Schmitz, Ram, Jackson).
- The affective turn in contemporary social sciences: sensoriality and emotions (Lutz, Wikan, Rosaldo, Classen, Howes, Pink).
- New relationships between ethnography and the arts: the multiplicity of languages.
- "Artistic ethnography": collaborative practices and ethnographic experimentations (Anthony Luvera, Brad Butler, Karen Mizra, Kate Hennessy and Jennifer Deger).
- First experiments in participatory ethnography in urban anthropology. Examples.
- The heteroglossia of the ethnographic text: Benjamin today in front of the city.
- Urban poverty: homelessness and unhomeliness.
- Henri Lefebvre and the concept of "right to the city".

During the course some seminar lessons will take place with guests. The course includes a practical exercise on the territory, which the students will have to carry out, dividing themselves into groups, in some indicated urban areas, working on different methods of ethnographic representation (e.g.: soundscape, sketch, photography, diary, fieldnotes, poetry). In the last two lessons of the course, the results of the exercises will be discussed in the classroom.

Mandatory texts for all students:

1) Vicari Haddock S., (a cura di), "Questioni urbane. Caratteri e problemi della città contemporanea", Il Mulino, 2013.
2) Casagrande O., Lincopi C., "Performing The Jumbled City", Manchester Univ. Press, 2022.
3) Schneider A., Wright C., "Between Art and Anthropology. Contemporary Ethnographic Practice", Bloomsbury, 2010.

Below is a list of in-depth texts that are not mandatory for the exam divided into three subsections. Other bibliographical information will be provided with a handout at the end of each lesson.

Classic volumes, very large and demanding:
- Harvey D., "L'esperienza urbana. Metropoli e trasformazioni sociali", Il Saggiatore, 1998, (344 pp.).
- Jacobs J., "Vita e morte delle grandi città. Saggio sulle metropoli americane", Einaudi, 2009, (420 pp.).
- Hannerz U., "Esplorare la città", Il Mulino, 1992, (510 pp.).
- Wacquant L., "I reietti delle città. Ghetto, periferia, stato", Eliopoli, 2016, (372 pp.).
- Lynch K., "L'immagine della città", Marsilio, 2016, (200 pp.).
- Low S., "Theorizing The City", Rutgers Univ. Press, 1999, (450 pp.).

Collections of essays and contemporary research:
- Desmond M., "Sfrattati. Miseria e profitti nelle città americane", La Nave di Theseo, 2018 (Premio Pulitzer).
- Danesi F., Frusca M., "Politiche della città. Rigenerare, abitare, convivere", Mimesis, 2021.
- Simonicca A., Vertucci B., "Street Art. Fra antropologia urbana e attività artistica", Cisu, 2021.
- Ciaravolo M., "Libertà, gabbie, vie d'uscita. Letteratura scandinava della modernità e della città: 1866-1898", Edizioni Ca'Foscari, 2022.
- Haidar M., "Città e memoria. Beirut, Berlino, Sarajevo", Bruno Mondadori, 2016.
- D'Orsi L., Rimoldi L., "Etnografie delle smart city", Ledizioni, 2022.
- Allovio S., "Antropologi in città", Unicopli, 2011.
- Basile D., "Le vie sbagliate. Giovani e vita di strada nella Torino della grande migrazione interna", Unicopli, 2014.
- Scarpelli F., Romano A., "Voci della città. L'interpretazione dei territori urbani", Carocci, 2011.
- Guidicini P., Pieretti G., "L'urbano, le povertà. Quale walfare. Possibili strategie di lotta alle povertà urbane", FrancoAngeli, 2000.
- Kern L., "La città femminista", ed. Treccani Libri, 2019.
- Secchi B., "La città dei ricchi e la città dei poveri", Laterza, 2013.

Basic essays on the relationship between ethnography, arts, sensoriality and affectivity:
- Sansi R., "Art, Anthropology and the Gift", Routledge, 2015.
- Schneider A., Wright C., "Contemporary Art and Anthropology", Routledge, 2006.
- Schneider A., Wright C., "Anthropology and Art Practice", Bloomsbury, 2013.
- Serafini P., "Performance Action. The Politics of Art Activism", Routledge, 2018.
- Perricone R., "Etnografie e arte", ed. Museo Pasqualino, 2021 (saggi da concordare).
- Simonicca A., "Sull'estetico etnografico", Cisu, 2019.
- Clifford J., "I frutti puri impazziscono. Etnografia, letteratura e arti nel XX secolo", Bollati Boringhieri, 1993.
- Howes D., Classen C., "Ways of Sensing. Understanding the Senses in Society", Routledge, ...
- Classen C., "Worlds of Sense. Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures", Routledge, 1993.
- Le Breton D., "Il sapore del mondo. Per un'antropologia dei sensi", Cortina, 2006.
- Lutz C., "The Anthropology of Emotions", in "Annual Review of Anthrop.", 15, 1986.
- Lutz C., "Emotion, Thought and Estrangement: Emotion as a Cultural Category", in "Cutlural Anthropology", 1986, 1, n.3.
- Wikan U., "Beyond the Words: The Power of Resonance", Univ. of Chicago Press, 2013.
- Pussetti C., (a cura di), "Emozioni", monografico dell'"Annuario di Antropologia" di U. Fabietti, Meltemi, n.6, 2005.
- Borgna, "Le intermittenze del cuore", Feltrinelli, 2003.

Each answer is evaluated in thirtieths and the final grade is formed starting from the overall average. The final grade is not obtained by strictly applying the arithmetic mean, but is based on the overall critical evaluation of the paper. The evaluation criteria are: 1. relevance of the contents to the question asked; 2. ability to critically elaborate the concepts presented; 3. clarity of exposition; 4. propriety of language; 5. specific references to works and authors covered during the course and in the textbooks. In particular, the gradation of scores, with respect to the evaluation of the 5 criteria indicated, is divided as follows: scores in the 18-22 range sufficient; scores in the 23-26 range fair; scores in the 27-30 range good or excellent; honors are awarded if the exam according to the five criteria indicated is evaluated as excellent. With only 1 answer out of 4 the exam is not passed regardless of the grade assigned to the answer.
Registration on the course Moodle is mandatory.

written

Lectures in Italian with the use of Power Point and classroom discussion, with practical exercises in the area.

Italian

In order to apply for Master's thesis in Social Anthropology SP, the following requirements are essential:
It is possible to bring the program from the previous academic year 2023-24 exclusively for the exam sessions of the current academic year 2024-25 by agreement with the teacher.

1. have passed the examination of Social Anthropology SP, with a positive outcome.
2. have passed the examination of Ethnography SP, with a positive outcome.
3. discussion of a short preliminary research project.
4. the degree thesis must be written in Italian.

Erasmus students are required to speak correctly in Italian. The exam for Erasmus students must be in Italian.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Climate change and energy" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development