[2021] Politics of the Everyday

Tuesday, 30 November 2021, 9h – 14h (Argentina/Brasil).
Coordination: Ramiro Segura (UNLP), Tilmann Heil (UzK, USP)

Latin American cities constitute places of encounter, interaction, exchange, dialogue, negotiation, friction and/or conflict between heterogeneous and unequal social actors. From the definition of the limits between the house and the street to the ways in which various collectives occupy and creatively use public space to stage their claims, passing through a multiplicity of heterogeneous urban situations in the square, the neighbourhood, the market and public transportation, among other spaces, we witness the creation, reproduction, questioning and even denial of forms and logics of coexistence between different and unequal people. A “politics of the everyday” unfolds on different scales and with often opposing meanings. Faced with the consolidation of increasingly polarized global and national public spaces, whose extremes are probably forms of denial of difference (the expulsion of “the others” and/or the self-segregation of “us”) on the one hand, and the collective critique of the dominant forms of social classification and hierarchization with an egalitarian, intersectional and plural horizon on the other, this workshop questions the forms, meanings and scope of heterogeneous “politics of the everyday” in Latin American cities: Do socially dominant discourses such as conservatism and progressivism exhaust the actually existing forms in which everyday interaction with others unfolds in the city? In what urban social spaces do these forms of coexistence unfold and who are the social actors actively involved in the production of these forms through their practices? Do these practices and meanings constitute a source for the emergence of new ways of imagining, projecting and constructing an “Other future”?

This workshop brings together members and fellows of Mecila – Maria Sibylla Merian Centre of Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America – and selected invitees. They all have an outstanding track record in thinking with the most diverse city dwellers about the “Politics of the Everyday”. Apart from discussing current research results, they aim to device an empirically grounded, conceptually sound research programme for “Narratives of Urban Conviviality-Inequality”.

If you are interested, please send us an email to ask to attend. As we would like to keep the workshop format, there is a limited number of places available. The event will be held in spanish.

Program

9.00-11.15 hs

• Introducción y explicación de la dinámica 15’
• Presentaciones recíprocas (en que están trabajando) 30’
• Primer eje de diálogo e intercambio: diferencias. ¿Cuáles son las diferencias socialmente relevantes para los actores y colectivos involucrados en las situaciones etnográficas que están estudiando actualmente? 60’
• Presentación de la experiencia Maps Urbe 30’

11.45-14.00 hs

• Segundo eje de diálogo e intercambio: des/encuentros. ¿Cuales son los espacios y las formas relacionales en que se transmitan intercambios, encuentros, conflictos, negociaciones, evitaciones, etc. en sus investigaciones? 60’
• Tercer eje de diálogo e intercambio: silencios. ¿Han identificado silencios en los contextos sociales analizados? Pensamos no exclusivamente en lo que está silenciado y reprimido; más bien estamos pensando en un continuo de silencios que va desde las tácticas de mundos otros hasta la sobrevivencia enfrentando la represión, pasando por ciertas formas de estabilización de relaciones asimétricas. 60’
• Conclusiones 15’

Participaron:

• Cecília Gil Mariño, University of Cologne
• Claudio Avarado Lincopi, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
• Daniela Vicherat Mattar, Leiden University
• Jerónimo Pinedo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Mecila
• Nicolas Suarez, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Mecila
• Olivia Casagrande, University of Sheffield
• Ramiro Segura, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Mecila
• Ricardo Campello, UNICAMP
• Susana Durão, UNICAMP, Mecila
• Tilmann Heil, University of Cologne, Mecila

Image: Planto de Buenos Aires, 1909. Fuente: Biblioteca Nacional, 912 (821.1-191.8). Imagem via Novick, A., Favelukes, G. e Vecslir, L. (2015). Mapas, planes y esquemas en la construcción del Gran Buenos Aires. Anais do IAA, 45(1), 55-72. Licença sob CC BY 3.0