Photography as a participatory method in visual anthropology

En este artículo mi objetivo es discutir la teoría y los posibles usos de la fotografía participativa en antropología social y cultural. Previamente, pongo a consideración y describo la subjetividad de la vista y presento el concepto de múltiples realidades/perspectivas. En la primera parte, expongo algunas afirmaciones sobre la fotografía y sus conexiones con la realidad y el valor informativo. A continuación, propongo una posibilidad de combinar la teoría de la visión y el perspectivismo, descrito anteriormente, con teorías de la fotografía, creando una nueva compresión del valor informativo de las imágenes.En la segunda parte del artículo, describo en primer lugar algunos ejemplos de proyectos previos de fotografía participativa, así como diferentes aspectos relacionados con ellos. Más adelante, presento el proyecto “Views from inside” (miradas desde el interior) que desarrollé junto con María Lebioda. Abordo varios aspectos metodológicos que han de tenerse en cuenta en el diseño de un proyecto de fotografía participativa. Como muestra, incluyo fotografías tomadas durante el proyecto. El propósito de este artículo es introducir una nueva compresión de la fotografía, y debatir algunos aspectos de la misma. No pretende ser una guía completa, pues hay muchos aspectos que no se abordan en el texto. La pretensión es presentar una experiencia que pueda ser útil para cualquier persona que desee hacer un proyecto de fotografía participativa. Abstract: In this paper my goal is to theoretically ground, and discuss the possible uses of, participatory photography in social and cultural anthropology. However, before discussing photography, I consider the subjectivity of sight and make a claim of multiplicity of realities/perspectives I then briefly outline some previous statements on photography and its connection to reality and informational value. Then I propose a way of combining the theory of vision and perspectivism described earlier with theories of photography to create a new understanding of the informational value of photography. I will also briefly discuss the connection between language and photography. The second part of this essay first discusses several examples of visual participatory projects and some issues emerging out of them. Later I give an introduction to the project “Views from inside” which I conducted together with Maria Lebioda. I discuss several issues of participatory photography methodology and things that need to be taken into account while planning such projects. I provide examples of photos made during this project. The goal of this essay is to introduce a certain way of thinking about photography, and to discuss some aspects of it. It is not a complete manual, and there are many things that are not discussed here, but I hope this essay may be useful to those who are planning a participatory photography project

Photography as a participatory method in visual anthropology

In this paper my goal is to theoretically ground, and discuss the possible uses of, participatory photography in social and cultural anthropology. However, before discussing photography, I consider the subjectivity of sight and make a claim of multiplicity of realities/perspectives I then briefly outline some previous statements on photography and its connection to reality and informational value. Then I propose a way of combining the theory of vision and perspectivism described earlier with theories of photography to create a new understanding of the informational value of photography. I will also briefly discuss the connection between language and photography. The second part of this essay first discusses several examples of visual participatory projects and some issues emerging out of them. Later I give an introduction to the project "Views from inside" which I conducted together with Maria Lebioda. I discuss several issues of participatory photography methodology and things that need to be taken into account while planning such projects. I provide examples of photos made during this project. The goal of this essay is to introduce a certain way of thinking about photography, and to discuss some aspects of it. It is not a complete manual, and there are many things that are not discussed here, but I hope this essay may be useful to those who are planning a participatory photography project.En este articulo mi objetivo es discutir la teoria y los posibles usos de la fotografia participativa en antropologia social y cultural. Previamente, pongo a consideracion y describo la subjetividad de la vista y presento el concepto de multiples realidades/perspectivas. En la primera parte, expongo algunas afirmaciones sobre la fotografia y sus conexiones con la realidad y el valor informativo. A continuacion, propongo una posibilidad de combinar la teoria de la vision y el perspectivismo, descrito anteriormente, con teorias de la fotografia, creando una nueva compresion del valor informativo de las imagenes. En la segunda parte del articulo, describo en primer lugar algunos ejemplos de proyectos previos de fotografia participativa, asi como diferentes aspectos relacionados con ellos. Mas adelante, presento el proyecto "Views from inside" (miradas desde el interior) que desarrolle junto con Maria Lebioda. Abordo varios aspectos metodologicos que han de tenerse en cuenta en el diseno de un proyecto de fotografia participativa. Como muestra, incluyo fotografias tomadas durante el proyecto. El proposito de este articulo es introducir una nueva compresion de la fotografia, y debatir algunos aspectos de la misma. No pretende ser una guia completa, pues hay muchos aspectos que no se abordan en el texto. La pretension es presentar una experiencia que pueda ser util para cualquier persona que desee hacer un proyecto de fotografia participativa

Being German and being Paraguayan in Nueva Germania : arguing for “contextual epistemic permissibility” and “methodological complementarity”

This thesis involves a collaborative study of emic articulations and quotidian ways of ‘being German’ and ‘being Paraguayan’ in Nueva Germania, a rural municipality in Paraguay. An argument is made that the social categories focused upon during this thesis, were evoked according to different contexts. While many claimed that Germanness or Paraguayanness were key categories, essentialistic characteristics that defined them and others as people of a certain kind, in other situations these social divisions were disregarded or even contradicted. This leads me to the theoretical conclusion that social categories, and epistemic frameworks more broadly, should not be understood as universally relevant or as universally applicable, and should not be treated as such. The thesis therefore proposes to assume ‘contextual epistemic permissibility’ as a key axiom for use within anthropology and in the wider social sciences. The possible theoretical and methodological consequences of such an assumption are elaborated upon. Different theories of self, social action, and agency are debated in the course of this thesis: it is asked which might best analytically accommodate the assumption of contextual epistemic permissibility. Furthermore, in order to reflect the multiplicity of emic epistemic frameworks, the thesis proposes that a notion of ‘analytical and representative complementarity’ be introduced, rather than monistic theoretical models. Such complementarity is practised in the thesis through the use of different multiscalar analyses (for example, the use of different theories of nationalism), and through the simultaneous use of different forms of representation. The above theoretical divagations are intertwined and related to the individual stories of twelve people from Nueva Germania, and are presented with both textual and photographic means. The stories were created through a collaborative process. Each project participant was free to decide upon the subject of their account, and therefore the resulting stories are able to cover a variety of different themes, at the same time introducing the reader to individual histories, struggles, opinions, plans, and critiques. Some elements of these accounts directly relate to the theoretical debates focused upon within the thesis while other elements of the individual stories are left to speak for themselves, and for the reader to make sense of independently. The photographs and texts, in their intertextual presentation, allow for an embodiment of the argument concerning representational complementarity

Encountering, explaining and refuting essentialism

Essentialism manifests itself in a diversity of forms and is used in multiple ways. Yet it is always potentially dangerous — even when it is mobilised strategically and in apparently worthy forms for purposes of overcoming oppressive structures. As the first in a collection of articles focused on various manifestations of essentialism, this article offers a brief historical outline of how social anthropology deployed essentialist thinking, even amongst its canonical exponents. It examines how Durkheimian theorisations and the structuralist traditions to which they gave rise — in particular assumptions of the singular and homogeneous symbolic classification of society — lent themselves to essentialism. It considers the example of South Africa where essentialist social theories contributed to inhumane political formations. Given that essentialism always carries a latency to be used for pernicious ends, the article concludes by considering social anthropological approaches that might permit an understanding of individuals and society in ways that neither lead to nor need essentialist thinking, and instead recognise the contradictoriness, flux and incompleteness inherent in social life.PostprintPeer reviewe

Pro Libris: Lubuskie Pismo Literacko-Kulturalne, nr 4 (2011)

142 s. : il

Pro Libris: Lubuskie Pismo Literacko-Kulturalne, nr 3 (2009)

134 s. : il.

Pro Libris: Lubuskie Pismo Literacko-Kulturalne, nr 4 (2008)

172 s. : il

Pro Libris: Lubuskie Pismo Literacko-Kulturalne, nr 2 (2009)

123 s. : il.

Loss of paraplegin drives spasticity rather than ataxia in a cohort of 241 patients with SPG7

Objective : We took advantage of a large multinational recruitment to delineate genotype-phenotype correlations in a large, trans-European multicenter cohort of patients with spastic paraplegia gene 7 (SPG7). Methods : We analyzed clinical and genetic data from 241 patients with SPG7, integrating neurologic follow-up data. One case was examined neuropathologically. Results : Patients with SPG7 had a mean age of 35.5 +/- 14.3 years (n = 233) at onset and presented with spasticity (n = 89), ataxia (n = 74), or both (n = 45). At the first visit, patients with a longer disease duration (> 20 years, n = 62) showed more cerebellar dysarthria (p < 0.05), deep sensory loss (p < 0.01), muscle wasting (p < 0.01), ophthalmoplegia (p < 0.05), and sphincter dysfunction (p < 0.05) than those with a shorter duration (< 10 years, n = 93). Progression, measured by Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia evaluations, showed a mean annual increase of 1.0 +/- 1.4 points in a subgroup of 30 patients. Patients homozygous for loss of function (LOF) variants (n = 65) presented significantly more often with pyramidal signs (p < 0.05), diminished visual acuity due to optic atrophy (p < 0.0001), and deep sensory loss (p < 0.0001) than those with at least 1 missense variant (n = 176). Patients with at least 1 Ala510Val variant (58%) were older (age 37.6 +/- 13.7 vs 32.8 +/- 14.6 years, p < 0.05) and showed ataxia at onset (p < 0.05). Neuropathologic examination revealed reduction of the pyramidal tract in the medulla oblongata and moderate loss of Purkinje cells and substantia nigra neurons. Conclusions : This is the largest SPG7 cohort study to date and shows a spasticity-predominant phenotype of LOF variants and more frequent cerebellar ataxia and later onset in patients carrying at least 1 Ala510Val variant