Methodologies Workshop
About 55 applications were received from 18 countries across the Global south for the open call announced for the early career scholars’ Training Workshop titled “Doing Mobile Ethnography: Learning from the Other ‘Other’,” which took place at the Tongji University in Shanghai between 13-14 May 2024. 16 scholars attended the programme to receive feedback on their in process papers and methodological reflections from four invited mentors whose scholarship has been in the field of Global South.
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Scholars presented their papers in four sessions, and received feedback on their papers which may be developed further into substantial works. A booklet of abstracts along with the background of each participant is attached that will give a brief introduction to the diversity of subjects discussed during the two days of the workshop.
open call / Methodologies Workshop
Doing Mobile Ethnography
Learning from the Other ‘Other’
Early-career Scholars’ Training Workshop
in Urban Methodology
Shanghai, 2024
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The ‘Youth on the Move: Performing Urban Space in the Global South’ (YOTM) research initiative invites applications for an Early-career Scholars’ Training Workshop to be held in Tongji University, Shanghai, during May 2024. We invite young scholars across the Global South to reflect on their ethnographical experiences and methodologies in the shifting southern urban contexts.
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How does one conduct ethnography in/across the rapidly shifting South urban spaces? How can the mobile youth within the Southern urbanisation be seen/heard? How can one learn from the Southern ‘other’ from a comparative perspective? What are the practices and mediums of South-South collaboration from below? This methodology workshop titled “Doing Mobile Ethnography – Learning from the Other ‘Other’” collectively explores Southern young scholar’s challenges, experiences, and reflections in doing field-based research within other Southern urban contexts beyond their home country.
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During this workshop, young scholars will be working together with a set of senior scholars in urban studies on their proposed papers. The workshop considers mobile research with youth and marginal communities as open-ended collaboration in / beyond the field—not only between the interlocutor(s) and the researcher(s) but also among Southern scholars. Learning from the “Other ‘Other’” indicates mutual references within the Souths, rather than solely relying on ‘the West’ as the source of references or theories. It also means collaborative research, teaching modalities, art exhibitions, and other forms of knowledge production and transmission. In coming together, they may strengthen networks amongst the different intellectual traditions of the Asian and African continents.
This two-day methodologies workshop will be held at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. Under the Urban Studies Foundation, YOTM will provide limited fully funded scholarships for earlier career scholars from Africa and Asia. Through such collective thinking and discussion, we aim to contribute to a special issue in the leading journals in urban studies. The workshop is part of an enlarging Asia-Africa scholarly network with subsequent events in the near future.
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See bibliography below.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Please fill in the Google Form and send the following documents for application:
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CV in English (max. 2 pages)
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A detailed-abstract (500 words) or full paper (if ready) that responds to the call's main focus. The selected participants are expected to submit a draft paper (no less than 3000 words) at least two weeks before the workshop date.
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A motivation statement based on the outline provided below (max. 2 pages)
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Briefly introduce yourself, your academic/disciplinary background, and why/how did you start to engage with the “other” Southern context for your previous/current research? Please also introduce the theme and research question(s) of your past/current research project.
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Why do you want to participate in the workshop and how would you benefit from it?
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What specific methodological perspectives, experiences, and challenges would you bring into the discussion during the workshop?
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Please provide the name and full contact details (including email addresses) of two academic referees who know you well, and specify your link to them.
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Indicate if you need to apply for the scholarship.
ELIGIBILITY
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The workshop invites earlier career scholars from the Global South, who have already conducted fieldwork in another Southern context.
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Early career scholars include: final year PhD students; Postdocs and lecturers who have obtained their PhD in no more than 5 years.
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The language of the workshop will be English.
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MENTORS
Prof. Loraine Kennedy, CNRS Research Director, Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH), EHESS, Paris, France
Prof. Tatiana Thieme, UCL Geography, UK
Prof. Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Norway
Prof. Oussouby Sacko, President of Center for Africa-Asia Contemporary Studies (CAACCS), Professor, Kyoto Seika University, Japan
KEY DATES
Submission Deadline: 15 March 2024
Announcement of Outcomes: 20 March 2024
Dates of Workshop: 13-14 May 2024
LOCATION
Tongji University, Shanghai
For correspondence and queries, contact asiaafricayouth@googlegroups.com
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BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES
Barber, Karin. 1987. “Popular Arts in Africa.” African Studies Review 30 (3): 1–78.
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Coetzee, Carli. 2019 “Ethical?! Collaboration?! Keywords for Our Contradictory Times.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 31.3: 257-264.
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Collyer, Fran M. 2018.“Global Patterns in the Publishing of Academic Knowledge: Global North, Global South.” Current Sociology 66.1: 56-73.
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Demeter, M. 2020. Academic Knowledge Production and the Global South: Questioning Inequality and Under-representation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Bhan, Gautam. 2019 "Notes on a Southern urban practice." Environment and Urbanization 31, no. 2: 639-654.
Hagat, Alexis, and Lize Mogel. 2007. Introduction to An Atlas of Radical Cartography. 6–11. Los Angeles: Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press.
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Ingold, Tim. 2000. “To Journey Along a Way of Life: Maps, Wayfinding and Navigation.” In The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill, edited by Tim Ingold, 219–242. London: Routledge.
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Jung, Hyunjoo. 2014. “Let Their Voices Be Seen: Exploring Mental Mapping as a Feminist Visual Methodology for the Study of Migrant Women .” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38 (3): 985–1002.
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Min Tang & Viviana d’Auria. 2023. “Popular cartography: collaboratively mapping the territorial practices of/with the urban margin in Mumbai,” City, 27:3-4, 321-346.
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Streule, Monika. 2020. “Doing Mobile Ethnography: Grounded, Situated and Comparative .” Urban Studies 57 (2): 421–438.
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Rose, Gillian. 1997. “Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivities and Other Tactics .” Progress in Human Geography 21 (3): 305–320.
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Robinson, J. 2022. Comparative urbanism: Tactics for global urban studies. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
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Thieme, Tatiana, Michele Lancione, and Elisabetta Rosa. 2017. “The City and its Margins: Ethnographic Challenges Across Makeshift Urbanism: Introduction .” City 21 (2): 127–134.
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Wood, Denis. 2006. “Map Art .” Cartographic Perspectives 53: 5–14.
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Yaneva, Albena. 2022. “The Method of Architectural Anthropology: Six Suggestions.” In Architectural Anthropology. Exploring Lived Space, edited by Marie Stender, Claud Bech-Danielsen, and Aina Landsverk Hagen, 13–30. London & New York: Routledge.
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Zheng, W., Cheng, Y., & Coetzee, C. 2021. “Thinking China from Africa: Encounter with the Other Other.” Journal of African Cultural Studies, 33.2: 119-129.