Michalis Kontopodis
University of Leeds, School of Education, Faculty Member
- The University of Sheffield, School of Education, Faculty Memberadd
- Marginalization, Neoliberalism, Educational Psychology, Children's Play, cultural differences in child development, Activity Theory, and 51 moreCultural Psychology, Critical Pedagogy, Educational Research, Digital Media, Vygotsky, Education, Ethnography, Latin American Studies, Social Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Digital Media & Learning, School Psychology, Actor-Network-Theory, School, Radical Democracy, Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory, Memory and materiality, School Ethnography, Psychology, New Media, Creativity, Global Childhoods, Freire and Vygotsky, ISCAR Network, Cultural Historical Activity Theory, Anthropology of Children and Childhood, Critical Psychology, Michel Foucault, Vygotskyan, Cultural Studies, Sociocultural Theory Of Learning, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Anthropology of the Body, Sociocultural Theory, Youth Studies, Sociology of Education, Antiglobalization Social Movements, The Body, Developmental Psychology, Feminist Theory, Marxism, Social Movements, Brazil, Materiality (Anthropology), Pedagogy, STS (Anthropology), Minorities, Socio-cultural theory, Educational Technology, Preschool Education, and Youth Subculturesedit
- Chair in Global Childhood & Youth Studies. Further information in English, Greek, German, French, Portuguese and Russian: http://mkontopodis.wordpress.com/edit
Global Youth in Digital Trajectories explores the most recent developments regarding youth and media in a global perspective. Representing an innovative contribution to virtual research methods, this book presents research carried out in... more
Global Youth in Digital Trajectories explores the most recent developments regarding youth and media in a global perspective. Representing an innovative contribution to virtual research methods, this book presents research carried out in areas as diverse as Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Russia, and India. The volume examines which new anthropological, and cultural-historical conditions and changes arise in connection with the widespread presence of digital media in the lives of the networked teens. Indeed, it is highlighted that the differentiation between an offline world and an online world is inapplicable to the lives of most young people.
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My book “Neoliberalism, Pedagogy and Human Development” (Kontopodis, 2012) has provoked much discussion in this frame – and occasionally even confusion – among students, friends and valued colleagues since it was first published as a... more
My book “Neoliberalism, Pedagogy and Human Development” (Kontopodis, 2012) has provoked much discussion in this frame – and occasionally even confusion – among students, friends and valued colleagues since it was first published as a hardcover edition in 2012. The book builds on process philosophy and post-structuralism, as well as on Vygotsky’s psychological theory and differentiates between two discrete modes of human development: (a) development of concrete skills (potential development) and (b) development of new societal relations (virtual development, which is at the same time individual and collective)...
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In most Western developed countries, adult life is increasingly organized on the basis of short-term work contracts and reduced social security funds. In this context it seems that producing efficient job-seekers and employees becomes the... more
In most Western developed countries, adult life is increasingly organized on the basis of short-term work contracts and reduced social security funds. In this context it seems that producing efficient job-seekers and employees becomes the main aim of educational programs for the next generation. Through case studies of young people from urban and countryside marginalized populations in Germany, USA and Brazil, this book investigates emerging educational practices and takes a critical stance towards what can be seen as neoliberal educational politics. It investigates how mediating devices such as CVs, school reports, school files, photos and narratives shape the ways in which those marginalized students reflect about their past as well as imagine their future. By building on process philosophy and time theory, post-structuralism, as well as on Vygotsky's psychological theory, the analysis differentiates between two discrete modes of human development: development of concrete skills (potential development) and development of new societal relations (virtual development, which is at the same time individual and collective). The book outlines an innovative relational account of learning and human development which can prove of particular importance for the education of marginalized students in today's globalized world.
Research Interests: Education, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Youth Studies, Teacher Education, and 10 moreCritical Pedagogy, Critical Psychology, Race and Ethnicity, Anthropology of Children and Childhood, Gender, Michel Foucault, Vygotsky, Reflective Teaching, Marginality, and English As a Second Language (ESL)
"Historical anthropology is a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of the French historical school of Annales and the Anglo-Saxon cultural anthropology. Cultural-historical psychology is a school of... more
"Historical anthropology is a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of the French historical school of Annales and the Anglo-Saxon cultural anthropology. Cultural-historical psychology is a school of thought which emerged in the context of the Soviet revolution and deeply affected the disciplines of psychology and education in the 20th century. This book draws on these two schools to advance current scholarship in child and youth development and education. It also enters in dialogue with other relational approaches and suggests alternatives to mainstream western developmental theories and educational practices.
This book emphasizes communication and semiotic processes as well as the use of artifacts, pictures and technologies in education and childhood development, placing a special focus on active subjectivity, historicity and performativity. Within this theoretical framework, contributors from Europe and the U.S. highlight the dynamic and creative aspects of school, family and community practices and the dramatic aspects of child development in our changing educational institutions. They also use a series of original empirical studies to introduce different research methodologies and complement theoretical analyses in an attempt to find innovative ways to translate cultural-historical and historical anthropological theory and research into a thorough understanding of emerging phenomena in school and after-school education of ethnic minorities, gender-sensitive education, and educational and family policy. Divided into two main parts, “Culture, History and Child Development”, and “Gender, Performativity and Educational Practice”, this book is useful for anyone in the fields of cultural-historical research, educational science, educational and developmental psychology, psychological anthropology, and childhood and youth studies."
This book emphasizes communication and semiotic processes as well as the use of artifacts, pictures and technologies in education and childhood development, placing a special focus on active subjectivity, historicity and performativity. Within this theoretical framework, contributors from Europe and the U.S. highlight the dynamic and creative aspects of school, family and community practices and the dramatic aspects of child development in our changing educational institutions. They also use a series of original empirical studies to introduce different research methodologies and complement theoretical analyses in an attempt to find innovative ways to translate cultural-historical and historical anthropological theory and research into a thorough understanding of emerging phenomena in school and after-school education of ethnic minorities, gender-sensitive education, and educational and family policy. Divided into two main parts, “Culture, History and Child Development”, and “Gender, Performativity and Educational Practice”, this book is useful for anyone in the fields of cultural-historical research, educational science, educational and developmental psychology, psychological anthropology, and childhood and youth studies."
Research Interests: Historical Anthropology, Education, Teacher Education, Ethnography, Critical Psychology, and 8 moreCultural Psychology, Anthropology of Children and Childhood, Activity Theory, Vygotsky, Professional Development, New Social Studies of Childhood, Children's Play, and cultural differences in child development
This book is the result of a long movement of ideas and practices between Brazil and Germany. It brings together different research methodologies (discourse analysis, case studies, cross-cultural comparison, and action and... more
This book is the result of a long movement of ideas and practices between Brazil and Germany. It brings together different research methodologies (discourse analysis, case studies, cross-cultural comparison, and action and practice-research) and studies innovative theoretical approaches and childhood-related practices that question present power relations and open up new ways of dealing with emerging phenomena in the fields of school and educational policy as well as in home-rearing, therapeutic, and community practices. A series of critical case-studies and examples of radically innovative educational, media and therapeutic practices and community-based interventions are presented, all of which demonstrate the transformative powers of collective subjectivities in the making of the history of childhood and youth and of society in general. The studies presented in this volume also illustrate the role cultural-historical and qualitative childhood research may play in this “making of history”. With an introduction by M. Kontopodis and chapters by: I. Behnken, M. Benites, F. Camerini, M. Damiani, B. Fichtner, F. Liberali, A. Lopes, M. Mascia, I. S. Soares, H. Winkler, and W. Wörster
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Seit Michel Foucault werden mit »Technologien des Selbst« Praktiken bezeichnet, mit denen die Menschen derart auf sich und ihre Lebensumstände einwirken, dass ihre Leben gewissen ästhetischen Vorstellungen zu entsprechen beginnen. Der... more
Seit Michel Foucault werden mit »Technologien des Selbst« Praktiken bezeichnet, mit denen die Menschen derart auf sich und ihre Lebensumstände einwirken, dass ihre Leben gewissen ästhetischen Vorstellungen zu entsprechen beginnen. Der Band beschäftigt sich mit diesen Transformationsprozessen und untersucht, wie in bestimmten Alltagspraxen Selbstkonzepte und damit assoziierte Praktiken immer wieder neu konfiguriert, in neue Beziehungen gesetzt und verändert werden. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit widmen die ethnographischen Beiträge dabei der Rolle von Körper und Technologie.
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The aim of this paper is to explore how secondary school students' agency evolves over time across offline and online spaces. We focus on five Facebook groups of teachers and students interacting online in various ways over a period of... more
The aim of this paper is to explore how secondary school students' agency evolves over time across offline and online spaces. We focus on five Facebook groups of teachers and students interacting online in various ways over a period of eighteen months. Combining a variety of innovative analytical techniques and procedures (descriptive statistics, network analysis and discursive analysis) we analyze students' online posts and interactions in a culturalhistorical activity theoretical frame. The findings suggest that students' agency can evolve from individual agency to collaborative agency by using Facebook groups under certain conditions, which teachers play a key role in establishing.
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This study explores the use of Facebook for educational purposes, as a collaborative online space for enabling communication among teachers from different schools. The article describes how a group of 43 teachers on Facebook, from various... more
This study explores the use of Facebook for educational purposes, as a collaborative online space for enabling communication among teachers from different schools. The article describes how a group of 43 teachers on Facebook, from various schools in the southeast region of Brazil used a group on Facebook as a collaborative space for communicating among each other. On the group, these teachers shared experiences about the use of digital technologies in their secondary education classes. This study is based on Cultural Historical Activity Theory, considering the group on Facebook as a tool for mediating communication. The objective of this study is to explore why and how teachers collaborated with each other on Facebook, and to study how communication among them evolved in the process. We examined the posts on that group from 2012 to 2014, and two questionnaires responded online by the teachers in June 2012 and in December 2013. Our findings suggest that teachers tend to critically collaborate in smaller groups and that further online communication evolved outside the group of teachers, with the creation of smaller groups on Facebook inside their schools.
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Schütz-Foerste, G. M., de Vasconcellos Ramos, V., Kontopodis, M., & Foerste, E. (2015). “Sem Terrinha”: Mediações na formação identitária da criança do Movimento Sem Terra. In E. Foerste, V. Côco, G. M. Schütz-Foerste, B. Fichtner, & I.... more
Schütz-Foerste, G. M., de Vasconcellos Ramos, V., Kontopodis, M., & Foerste, E. (2015). “Sem Terrinha”: Mediações na formação identitária da criança do Movimento Sem Terra. In E. Foerste, V. Côco, G. M. Schütz-Foerste, B. Fichtner, & I. Behnken (Eds.), Educação do campo e infâncias (pp. 63-80). Curitiba: Editora CRV.
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In the following introduction to the edited volume Children, Development and Education the reader is introduced to two schools of thought: historical anthropology–a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of... more
In the following introduction to the edited volume Children, Development and Education the reader is introduced to two schools of thought: historical anthropology–a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of the French historical school of Annales and the Anglo-Saxon cultural anthropology–and cultural-historical psychology–a school of thought which emerged in the context of the Soviet revolution and deeply affected the discipline of psychology in the twentieth century. Four significant and interrelated ...
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Much recent scholarship in the field of sociology of childhood has analyzed the disciplinary and regu- latory strategies for governing children's bodies in the name of “health” and “life” in North/Western Europe, North America, and... more
Much recent scholarship in the field of sociology of childhood has analyzed the disciplinary and regu- latory strategies for governing children's bodies in the name of “health” and “life” in North/Western Europe, North America, and Australia. These analyses problematize how formal and informal pedagogies are shaped by biomedical knowledge, popular media images, and neoliberal agendas in ways not always for the benefit of the children in question. Little research, however, has explored the body pedagogies developed within grass-roots movements concerned with children's health and well-being; furthermore, little research has explored these topics outside the North American or European space. Following a comparative ethnographic approach, I explore the differences in how and why children eat fruit and vegetables in a) public kindergartens and b) allotment gardens in Berlin, Germany, as well as in c) Landless Workers' settlements in Espírito Santo, Brazil. The qualitative analysis reveals that bio- pedagogical concerns often intermingle with ecological as well as broader societal issues, depending on the concrete context in question. This, in turn, poses new questions concerning our understandings of “biopower” and “biopolitics.”
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The EJPE special issue "Educational Settings as Interwoven Socio-Material Orderings" contributes to the advancement of context-oriented approaches to education, learning and development by combining thick descriptions and theory-dense... more
The EJPE special issue "Educational Settings as Interwoven Socio-Material Orderings" contributes to the advancement of context-oriented approaches to education, learning and development by combining thick descriptions and theory-dense analyses of concrete and eventually interrelated socio-material arrangements in and across a variety of educational and developmental contexts. We explore below two issues that seem to be central across the relevant literature as well as across the contributions by the authors of the special issue: (a) the notion of “individual” as a relevant unit of analysis and (b) the notion of “socio-material orderings” as another relevant analytical frame. The notions “individual” and “socio-material ordering” encompass all research participants and arrangements, including therefore the researchers and their everyday settings. The last part of our paper discusses the epistemological and methodological implications of this proposition. Cf. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 31(1), http://dx.doi.org/1007/s10212-015-0269-2
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This article elaborates on different modes of reflecting and on the significance of these differences for educational and educational-psychological practice. It contrasts exemplary materials from two research projects at schools where... more
This article elaborates on different modes of reflecting and on the significance of these differences for educational and educational-psychological practice. It contrasts exemplary materials from two research projects at schools where students share experiences of social exclusion, poor performance in mainstream educational settings, economic challenges, and family-related problems. These materials stem from my own ethnographic research that took place at an experimental vocational school in Germany in 2004 and 2005, and an a posteriori analysis of a school project that took place at the Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California from 1994 to 1998. Echoing Foucault as well as Vygotsky, the article demonstrates how diaries and narrations by young women written in different educational contexts promoted different forms of communication between teachers and students as well as qualitatively distinct modes of reflection. The analysis advances received scholarship by differentiating between introspection about oneself and reflection on the societal relations within which one is positioned. The focus on marginalized populations strengthens the argument by virtue of addressing challenging cases where this second kind of reflection is even more critical to one's development.
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Newer forms of video games open new possibilities for bodily action and the development of imagination. In the chapter at hand these newer forms of video games are explored through two case studies of media sporting activities with the... more
Newer forms of video games open new possibilities for bodily action and the development of imagination. In the chapter at hand these newer forms of video games are explored through two case studies of media sporting activities with the game console “Nintendo Wii”, in which the game is handled by corporal movements. The socio-technical links between the body and the image of the body are explored as unfamiliar actualizations of the world. The performative use of new media enables the actor-actant to recognize or misrecognize his/her own abilities, since the media changes radically one’s world- and self- views. In order to deal with these basic assumptions a symmetrical anthropology of “human” and “things” is proposed and as a consequence the concept of technography as way of field research is introduced. The examples of two young contenders playing the Wii-Sports game “boxing” and a 40-year old man playing bowling reveal the interconnectedness between player and avatar, body and image of the body as well as between image and imagination.
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This article draws on materials from ethnographic and participatory research on everyday eating practices in Berlin kindergartens. It argues that agency is not always a-priori located in the human subject. Agency can be translated and... more
This article draws on materials from ethnographic and participatory research on everyday eating practices in Berlin kindergartens. It argues that agency is not always a-priori located in the human subject. Agency can be translated and distributed over relational networks that include people and things; it can even be left over to things depending on the constellation in question. A material-semiotic approach is thus outlined that pays attention to micro-configurations and closely explores action – a focus which can further advance psychological theory and methodology.
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The global neoliberalism is marked by a desire to be successful, consume products and services, or even people or intangible property in a non-place, offering an experience of a non-time. Thus,somequestionscanbeasked,for... more
The global neoliberalism is marked by a desire to be successful, consume products and services, or even people or intangible property in a non-place, offering an experience of a non-time. Thus,somequestionscanbeasked,for instance:whatwouldbethealternatives to neo-liberalism and what would be the role of pedagogy in this context? Taking as reference the Movement of Landless Workers (MST in Brazil), this paper analyzes how political memory and identity are involved in imagining coming times that do not follow linearly the past. The empirical material comes from an ethnographic research that has been conducted in the last five years (2007-2012) in Espírito Santo State. The article also examines the central components of landless pedagogy, identity construction in school, solidarity and the sharing of memories about the local past as radical alternatives to global neoliberalism. But how can the political-pedagogical project of the Movement of Landless Workers (MST in Brazil) be carried forward to include all “Others” who suffer due to power relations in Brazil and around the globe? For translations in 4 languages see: http://landlessmov2010.wordpress.com
Research Interests: Social Movements, Latin American Studies, Agroecology, Brazil, Human Rights, International Development, Diversity, Training, Capacity Building, Peacebuilding, Corporate Social Responsibility Youth Leadership, Conflict Resolution, and 5 moreAgroecologia, Political ecology, NGOs, sustainable development, biodiversity, agroecology, amazonia, brazil, global change, environmental actors, protect areas, nature conservation., Landless Workers Movement (MST), Antiglobalization Social Movements, and Latin American feminisms
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The study presented here explores eating as a pedagogical practice by paying attention to arrangements of things such as Christmas cookies, whole-wheat and white bread, frozen chicken, plates, chairs, tables, and freezers. Through a... more
The study presented here explores eating as a pedagogical practice by paying attention to arrangements of things such as Christmas cookies, whole-wheat and white bread, frozen chicken, plates, chairs, tables, and freezers. Through a series of ethnographic research examples from German and Brazilian preschools, it investigates how eating in the kindergarten can be a sensual pleasure, a health risk, an ethnic custom, or a civil right within different local histories. Through specific arrangements of foods and other things, young children are educated to eat with moderation, to change their ethnic dietary habits, or to be “modern citizens”. Pedagogy can thus consist of doing public health, doing ethnic identity, or doing citizenship. Eating is an important way of doing pedagogy in early childhood education and care settings. Die hier vorliegende Studie untersucht Essen als pädagogische Praxis und legt dabei besonderes Augenmerk auf Anordnungen von Dingen wie Weihnachtsplätzchen, Vollkorn- und Weißbrot, tiefgefrorenen Hähnchen, Tellern, Stühlen, Tischen und Gefriergeräten. Durch eine Reihe von ethnographischen Forschungsbeispielen aus deutschen und brasilianischen Kindergärten wird untersucht, wie das Essen im Kindergarten ein sinnliches Vergnügen, ein gesundheitliches Risiko, eine ethnische Ernährungsgewohnheit oder ein Bürgerrecht innerhalb von vielschichtigen lokalen Geschichten sein kann. Die Kinder werden durch Anordnungen von Lebensmitteln und anderen Dingen erzogen, in Maßen zu essen, ihre ethnischen Ernährungsgewohnheiten zu ändern oder „moderne Bürger/-innen“ zu sein. Je nachdem ist Pädagogik ein doing von Volksgesundheit, ethnischer Identität oder Bürgerschaft und Essen im Kindergarten ist eine wichtige Art und Weise, um dies in frühkindlichen Einrichtungen zu betreiben.
Research Interests: Sociology of Children and Childhood, Actor Network Theory, Anthropology of the Body, Anthropology of Children and Childhood, The Body, and 2 morePreschool Education and Childhood Obesity Prevention; the Use of Technology in Projects to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity; Behavior Change Theories and Their Application to Intervention Design
This study moves in the space between two fields: science and technology studies (STS) and childhood studies; it thus belongs to the broader STS literature that investigates everyday practices outside the laboratory. The interpretation of... more
This study moves in the space between two fields: science and technology studies (STS) and childhood studies; it thus belongs to the broader STS literature that investigates everyday practices outside the laboratory. The interpretation of ethnographic and bibliographic data on contemporary cardiovascular and obesity prevention in German kindergartens makes evident that when knowledge travels from biomedical laboratories to the preschool, then psychology comes into play! Bodies of knowledge such as behavioural or cognitive theories shape prevention and intervention practices, which could be seen as originally resulting from biomedical findings and trends. Accompanying this development is a change in the primary sciences that deal with childhood: these are no longer pedagogy or developmental and educational psychology (at least in their traditional forms), but ‘developmental science’. All this shapes contemporary childhood in quite normative ways. It thus remains an open question what non- or less normative institutional practices and bodies of knowledge could look like.
Research Interests: Epistemology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Anthropology of the Body, Computer Networks, Critical Psychology, and 9 morePreventive Health, Anthropology of Children and Childhood, Health Education, Sociology of Health, Childhood Obesity, Databases, Software, Biopedagogy, and Science and Technology Studies
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This special issue of Science, Technology, & Human Values critically explores a new stage in which the life sciences and biomedical practices have entered. This new stage is marked by postgenomic developments and an increased interest of... more
This special issue of Science, Technology, & Human Values critically explores a new stage in which the life sciences and biomedical practices have entered. This new stage is marked by postgenomic developments and an increased interest of life sciences in the everyday lives of people outside laboratories and clinical settings. Furthermore, particular attention is given to many chronic and degenerative disorders such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, or developmental disorders. These developments coincide—or have become entangled—with a new set of interests that an anthropologically inclined science and technology studies (STS) is bringing to the analyses of biomedical practices. An increased interest is observed in the anthropologically inclined STS in studying phenomena on different scales and in exploring fields that are not readily dominated by technoscientific rationality in practice. The introduction to the special issue examines briefly these developments and situates them in a broader genealogy of different movements that have taken place in the anthropologically inclined subfield of STS since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Cardiovascular diseases present the leading cause of death worldwide. Over the last decade, their preventio has become not only a central medical and public health issue but also a matter of political concern as well as a major market for... more
Cardiovascular diseases present the leading cause of death worldwide. Over the last decade, their preventio has become not only a central medical and public health issue but also a matter of political concern as well as a major market for pharma, nutrition, and exercise. A preventive assemblage has formed that integrates diverse kinds of knowledges, technologies, and actors, from molecular biology to social work, to foster a specific healthy lifestyle. In this article, the authors analyze this preventive assemblage as a heterogeneous engineer, that is, as an attempt to order complex everyday life into an architecture of modernism. This article draws on research conducted as part of the interdisciplinary research cluster ‘‘preventive self’’ (2006-2009) bringing together analyses from social anthropology, history, linguistics, sociology of knowledge, and medicine. The authors report here primarily from ethnographic investigations into biomedical research, primary care, and educational practices in kindergartens. The authors conclude that the preventive assemblage largely fails to install any kind of singular order. Instead, it is translated into existing orderings producing heterogeneity of a different nuance.
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Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Critical Pedagogy, Critical Race Theory, Violence Against Women, and 9 moreLatin American social movements, Transnational Feminism, Pädagogik, Kritische Theorie, Community Education, Landless Workers Movement (MST), Postcolonial feminisms, Human Rights and Social Justice, and Resistance Formation
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The paper presented here is an attempt at casting human development as a semiotic-material phenomenon which reflects power relations and includes uncertainty. On the ground of post-structuralist approaches, development is considered here... more
The paper presented here is an attempt at casting human development as a semiotic-material phenomenon which reflects power relations and includes uncertainty. On the ground of post-structuralist approaches, development is considered here as a performative concept, which does not represent but creates realities. Emphasis is put on the notions of ‘mediation’, ‘translation’ and ‘materiality’ in everyday practices of students and teachers in a concrete school setting, where I conducted ethnographical research for one school year. The analysis of discursive research material of teachers’ discussions and interviews with students proves the developmental discourse to be interrelated to teachers’ and students’ positioning in the school; the developmental discourse orders ongoing interaction and enables students and teachers to perform the past and witness the future in a way which corresponds with dominant values and state social/educational policies. By translating a variety of events into a line moving from the past to the future as well as by materializing this line as diagrams and other semiotic-material objects, development becomes a technology of the self of (late) modernity which implies power relations and supports the maintenance of the modern order. On these grounds, a relational approach to development is suggested, which raises methodological and political issues.
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In this introduction to the Ethos 2011 Dialogue the guest editors discuss questions related to child and youth development as seen from a cultural-historical and critical psychological point of view. The authors contributing to the... more
In this introduction to the Ethos 2011 Dialogue the guest editors discuss questions related to child and youth development as seen from a cultural-historical and critical psychological point of view. The authors contributing to the dialogue develop a particular focus on the notions of mediation, practice, and active subjectivity while examining a series of conflictual cases of child and youth development. We seek here to introduce this work as it advances the long existing dialogue among cultural-historical, critical psychological, and anthropological approaches and anthropological theory thus suggesting directions for future research.
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he study presented below has been an effort in examining the interdependence between time and memory practices, and in particular in studying how memory is related to the generation of pasts, presents and futures. Drawing on a one-year... more
he study presented below has been an effort in examining the interdependence between time and memory practices, and in particular in studying how memory is related to the generation of pasts, presents and futures. Drawing on a one-year ethnographical research project in a secondary vocational school for students from sociocultural minorities in Germany, I examine how material-semiotic orderings determine how students' development and everyday action is remembered and forgotten, and at the same time what kind of futures are made possible for the students. On the ground of a relational-materialist approach, I analyze symmetrically the interaction between students and reports, files or questionnaires, and other actants. My analysis challenges the modern model of the arrow of time by suggesting that memory includes uncertainty, and that it is impossible to predict how pasts, presents and futures relate to each other.
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The special issue Doing Memory, Doing Identity: Politics of the Everyday in Contemporary Global Communities draws on anthropological theory, performance studies, feminism, post-colonial studies, and other theoretical traditions for an... more
The special issue Doing Memory, Doing Identity: Politics of the Everyday in Contemporary Global Communities draws on anthropological theory, performance studies, feminism, post-colonial studies, and other theoretical traditions for an insightful examination of the everyday practices of doing memory. A series of theoretical pieces as well as ethnographies from locations as diverse as Italy, Norway, France, Brazil and China investigate the multiple links between individual and collective pasts, futures and identities, especially focussing on emotions, embodiment, the senses, difference and power relations. Taking a critical stance in regard to current social-scientific and socio-political debates, this special issue reflects on the political and ethical aspects of day-to-day memory practices and examines issues related to identity, imagination and otherness.
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This book is the result of a long movement of ideas and practices between Brazil and Germany. It brings together different research methodologies (discourse analysis, case studies, cross-cultural comparison, and action and... more
This book is the result of a long movement of ideas and practices between Brazil and Germany. It brings together different research methodologies (discourse analysis, case studies, cross-cultural comparison, and action and practice-research) and studies innovative theoretical approaches and childhood-related practices that question present power relations and open up new ways of dealing with emerging phenomena in the fields of school and educational policy as well as in home-rearing, therapeutic, and community practices. A series of critical case-studies and examples of radically innovative educational, media and therapeutic practices and community-based interventions are presented, all of which demonstrate the transformative powers of collective subjectivities in the making of the history of childhood and youth and of society in general. The studies presented in this volume also illustrate the role cultural-historical and qualitative childhood research may play in this “making of history”. With an introduction by M. Kontopodis and chapters by: I. Behnken, M. Benites, F. Camerini, M. Damiani, B. Fichtner, F. Liberali, A. Lopes, M. Mascia, I. S. Soares, H. Winkler, and W. Wörster
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The paper presented here starts with a reference to modernist time theories, followed by a presentation of alternative views in the works of FOUCAULT, DELEUZE, LATOUR and others. The study concentrates on the concrete context of an... more
The paper presented here starts with a reference to modernist time theories, followed by a presentation of alternative views in the works of FOUCAULT, DELEUZE, LATOUR and others. The study concentrates on the concrete context of an experimental school aiming at incorporation of excluded students into society. Based on the synthesis of discourse analysis and Actor-Network-Theory, the study puts forward a twofold question: a) whether and how the "fabrication of times" is interrelated to micro-formations of discourses and b) how micro-formations of discourses emerge as processes in the concrete setting of a school in regard to their temporal and other aspects. To answer this query, I combine some critical ethnographic work with an Actor-Network-Theory methodology—an approach which could be regarded as "rhizomatic analysis" (DELEUZE & GUATTARI, 1980). Examining discursive and non-discursive action with a particular focus on materialities (sites, students' documents, educational reports, CVs, and files), I introduce the notion of "temporal devices of control" and map two of them: that of synchronicity and that of convergence. In this way, I propose a new understanding of time and relate it to discourse formation. This, in turn, reveals a new potential for critical reflection on theories of time as well as on all action taking place in the school.
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Review of book by Bart Cammaerts, Michael Bruter, Shakuntala Banaji, Sarah Harrison & Nick Anstead (PalgraveMacMillan, 2016)
