Nations in news: ordinary stereotypes in national TV news coverage of Spain and Germany

This contribution investigates the stereotyping of nations in TV news text. It compares the headline appearances of the names Germany and Spain on each other‟s leading national evening TV news program during the peak of the European financial crisis (2011-13). The paper combines quantitative analysis of word-frequency and topic-distribution in a 621 headline-corpus, with in-depth case analysis of news values underpinning 32 extracted headline examples. A discussion of literature in media anthropology and Critical Discourse Analysis concludes with the argument that intentions and consequences of media discourse should be separated, whereas differences between ordinary and official language should not be overvalued. The case study shows how the textual display of Germans and Spaniards supports the everyday imagining of national belonging, how othering works through the labelling of nations as “economies”, and how negativity, competition and relatedness are prevailing values underlying the examined news headlines

Demófilo, Folklore and Contemporary Spanish Anthropology. Readings of Antonio Machado y Álvarez (1846–1893)

Antonio Machado y Álvarez (1846–1893), also known as Demófilo, was a pioneering collector and interpreter of folkloristic material from Andalusia and Spain. He wrote on popular dialects, literature, tales, sayings, music, flamenco and other expressions of popular culture. In this contribution I bring his writings of the end of the 19th century in conversation with debates at the end of the 20th century. At that moment, different readings of Demófilo, and of the Spanish folklore tradition in general, played a prominent role within an evolving anthropological discourse in and on Spain. In particular, I focus on the three related themes both in the writings of Demófilo and the commentators of the “folklore tradition” in more recent times. First, I look at the discussions over the “scientific quality” and the “subaltern” status of Spanish or otherwise regional or national anthropological traditions. Second, I discuss the relationship between cultural (identity) studies and the interplay between central and peripheral ethno-nationalisms in Spain. Finally, I reflect on the academic dispute over the differences between contributions of “foreign” and “local” scholars to the analysis of the Spanish cultural reality

Silicon utopias: the making of a tech startuo ecosystem in Manchester (UK)

‘Silicon utopias’, the hope for a green, affluent and happy future through the creation of new tech-businesses, are today informing many urban development processes globally. In this contribution, I look at the recent remodeling of Manchester (Northern England) as an entrepreneurial city. In particular, I present a specific government investment scheme and its relation to the work of a group of local lobbyists who have been promoting a new tech startup community in the city since 2012. Stemming from this empirical example, I explore the interplay between local entrepreneurial dreams and the state’s promotion of startups. The paper concludes with the argument that an anthropologically informed concept of cynicism can contribute to a nuanced reading of silicon utopias and dystopias

Science, Markets, Politics and the Place of Anthropology in the Discursive Field of Entrepreneurship.

The argument of this article is that a universal, transcultural entrepreneurship concept should not reduce the term to the popular notion of legal business creation. Therefore, the paper first explores why talking about entrepreneurship has become so popular in recent years and which role anthropology as a discipline could or should play in the politics of the contemporary entrepreneurship discourse. Secondly, the problems of entrepreneurship as a multi-disciplinary field of research are presented and different disciplinary approaches to entrepreneurship are discussed. Finally, it is suggested that agency-driven innovation in relation to local surroundings should be the theoretical core of an anthropological entrepreneurship concept

Heritage entrepreneurship. Agency-driven promotion of the Mediterranean diet in Spain.

This article explores the role of the agency in the social process that constitutes cultural heritage. By introducing the concept of heritage entrepreneurship to explain the conversion of cultural elements into heritage, we discuss the case of the Mediterranean diet (MD) in Spain. We explore the role of an expert NGO in the recent inclusion of the MD in the UNESCO Representative List of the intangible cultural heritage of Humanity. Empirical evidence is presented for two basic patterns of heritage entrepreneurship, namely the construction and promotion of cultural heritage. First, we show how the community-heritage narrative is constructed in the official nomination file of the MD. Second, we analyse how businesses, governments and researchers constitute a specific heritage entrepreneur. We argue that the promotion of the MD as cultural heritage makes ordinary food different, both qualitatively (healthy and sustainable) and culturally (Mediterranean and traditional). We then look at the specific political, economic and scientific value of such a difference and its uses in Spain

Culture in Heritage On the Socio-Anthropological Notion of Culture in Current Heritage Discourses

The intellectual ‘heritage’ of social anthropology - universalism, cultural relativism and comparative method - is today strongly used as a tool-box by institutions and scholars from other fields. An anthropologically colored concept of culture is employed in UNESCO’s international legal frameworks, in the epistemological foundation and justification of the new academic subject heritage as well as for wider contextualizations of case studies on specific heritage items. While all of these discourses involve a marked universalistic notion of culture, the contribution of our paper is to show the different roles that the anthropological subject, culture, plays in each one of them. (Past; History; Sociology of time; Cultural Heritage; UNESCO

Entrepreneurship and regional development in Europe: a comparative, socio-anthropological case study in Germany and Spain

This paper summarises the design, data and results of our research on the emergence and consolidation of forms of institutionalisation based on innovative entrepreneurial action in rural European territorial contexts. The investigation was conducted between the years 2006 and 2010. We present data obtained in two territorial references, the regions of Los Pedroches in Andalusia, Spain and Mühldorf in Bavaria, Germany. The paper explores the contributions of social anthropology to prevailing economic entrepreneurship theory by focusing on intangible, cultural variables that influence the implementation of local entrepreneurial initiatives. Presenting data from a case study of two European rural areas of different levels of economic development, the text argues that entrepreneurial research needs to incorporate qualitative data on the sociocultural preconditions of emerging innovative institutions. The research emphasises the need for a broader concept of entrepreneurial behaviour that is able to overcome the reductionist idea of firm creation, and presents a theoretical model for actor-based territorial development studies founded on the combined social theories of Niklas Luhmann and Pierre Bourdieu.Prispevek predstavlja zasnovo, podatke in rezultate našega raziskovanja pojava ter konsolidacije oblik institucionalizacije, ki temeljijo na inovativnih podjetniških akcijah v ruralnih evropskih kontekstih. Zbiranje podatkov je potekalo med letoma 2006 in 2010, v prispevku pa so predstavljeni podatki dveh regij, Los Pedroches v Andaluziji, Španija ter Mühldorf na Bavarskem, Nemčija. Prispevek proučuje doprinose socialne antropologije k prevladujočim teorijam gospodarskega podjetništva, s tem, da se osredotoča na neoprijemljive, kulturne spremenljivke, ki vplivajo na implementacijo lokalnih podjetniških iniciativ. S predstavitvijo podatkov dveh evropskih ruralnih regij na različnih stopnjah ekonomskega razvoja, želimo pokazati, da preučevanje podjetništva zahteva vključitev kvalitativnih podatkov o družbeno-kulturnih predpogojih vzhajajočih inovativnih institucij. Raziskava poudarja potrebo po širšem konceptu podjetniškega vedenja, s katerim je mogoče preseči zgolj redukcionistično idejo ustanovitve podjetja ter predstaviti teoretski model študij razvoja regij, ki se osredotoča na akterje in temelji na kombinaciji družbenih teorij Niklasa Luhmanna ter Pierra Bourdieuja

Mann der Tat, Enterprise Culture und Ethno-preneurs: Eine Diskussion kritischer, affirmativer und pragmatischer Entrepreneurship- Ansätze am Beispiel Spaniens

This contribution suggests a classification of different anthropological contributions to entrepreneurship research. Critical approaches to entrepreneurship focus on the ideological bias of the term. As the work of Mary Douglas, they critique the methodological individualism and the utilitarian self-concept underlying the entrepreneur. Affirmative approaches, in the tradition of Joseph Schumpeter or Frederik Barth, are concerned with the definition, understanding and transformative outcomes of entrepreneurship. Pragmatic approaches use tactically the social eminence of the term by expanding it to a wide range of apparently distant topics, such as the ‘ethno-preneur’ coined by John and Jean Comaroff. To illustrate the analytical scope of each of these approaches, I discuss some of my empirical material from Spain, such as the discourse on entrepreneurship in the 2015 parliamentary elections, the case of a media entrepreneur in rural Andalusia and the politics of heritage entrepreneurship and the Mediterranean diet in Catalonia

Startup communities: notes on the sociality of tech-entrepreneurs in Manchester

In this contribution I explore the conflicting moralities and practices of technology entrepreneurship through the lenses of Mary Douglas’ Grid-Group Cultural Theory. Starting from the distinction between communitarian, individualistic and hierarchical culture, I explore my empirical material drawn from ethnographic fieldwork in Manchester, UK. In particular, I describe the sociality of young male tech-entrepreneurs at networking events, ‘coffices’ and coworkspaces around an urban ‘creative quarter’. I argue that ‘startup communities’ simultaneously encourage individualistic market-competition, contribute to feelings of local group-belonging and are narrative constructions promoted by entrepreneurs, corporations and the State.Universidad de Sevill