Abstract
In his introduction to this timely and challenging collection of essays, Othon Alexandrakis questions whether existing research methodologies can deal with the question of ‘what is really happening on the ground?’ in the protest and resistance movements that have emerged across the globe since 2008. Throughout, the contributing authors reflect in different ways on the challenges of forging an appropriate, adequate and ethical scholarly response to strikes, riots, the erosion of the freedoms of the individual following the rise of the far right, the dangers experienced by refugees and migrants, and the precarity experienced by many in the wake of austerity. As Neni Panourgiá writes in her exploration of the effects of austerity on those living in Greece, ‘how do we write about this crisis as analysts when the unsafety of the ethnographic ground bleeds into and contaminates the safety of our text?’ (p. 117). In many ways, this anthology reflects the committed work of scholarly bridge-building: from one shore of critical certainties and frameworks to a further unstable landing place, where these theoretical paradigms have to be dried off and tested anew, and changed or discarded where necessary.
As part of this work, the contributing authors carefully negotiate their own relationship to their field of research. Several contributors write from the perspective of friend, active participant in the action being described, or from the perspective of fieldwork researcher, and in some cases these positions are combined. In her essay on affective composition within the Campagne in Lotto movement, and resistance to the exploitation of migrant farm workers in Italy, Irene Peano insists on the collaborative nature of such research, and that her insights reflect the ‘protracted, continuous, and critical reflections and self-reflection’ (p. 65) of the groups and individuals that she describes. The points at which knowledge becomes shared and transmitted are carefully described, as in Jessica Greenberg’s essay on the ‘politics of disappointment’ and its complex relationship to utopian politics and motivations. Greenberg delineates the personal, emotional contexts for decision-making on the part of individuals, thus complicating narratives of activism and activists, particularly in post-conflict and peace- or consensus-building scenarios. Eirini Avramopoulou’s essay on the tense relations between the need to be protected by forces that contribute to the persecution of those requiring protection, is particularly resonant in this regard, forging a text through personal experience, the description of highly emotive encounters and memories, narratives of a friend, as well as engaging closely with theoretical paradigms around gender, naming, and discourses of human rights. The resulting essay is beautiful as well as deeply informative, with the languages of evidence, research, narrative and critical framing pressed into the service of adequately re-presenting the complexities of experience as lived and observed.
Overall, there is an emphasis throughout the anthology on the point of change, on the point of crisis or action, rather than the everyday (although, as several essays note, the everyday for certain groups has become characterized by crisis). This is countered by the contributions of Tania Ahmad and Cymene Howe on the politics of the ordinary and of inaction. John Postill, in his essay on temporality, combines the two, focusing on routines within protest, and on the importance of attending to ‘microtemporality’ and the ‘micro-dynamics of protest’ as well as the broader descriptive arc (p. 195). James D Faubion also takes the anthology in a slightly different direction in his attention to religious movements, reflecting that its ‘exclusion leaves an astonishing number of anomalies unaccounted’ (p. 90). In her essay, Petra Rethmann considers the work of artists within social movement processes.
Marianne Maeckelbergh’s essay on ethical research will be of particular interest to those involved in teaching and supervision, as well as to researchers. Here, the issue of the ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’ text reappears in a new formulation. Maeckelbergh notes that in some instances, ‘very mundane practices like writing down people’s names can at times put people in danger’ (p. 214), while in other contexts, anonymity can disrespect the specific contribution made by individuals who wish to be named. Maeckelbergh also points to the particular risks to the researcher as they position themselves in relation to different legal systems, disciplinary codes of practice in researching social movements that are often explicitly opposed to prevailing norms and systems of power and government. A footnote in Maeckelbergh’s essay – on the ethics of conducting research on far right organizations – is also instructive, as she outlines that the position of the anthropologist would be to ‘do no harm’, but that this for her would be ethically untenable, as it would involve protecting or ignoring fascist and often racist violence (p. 229). Similarly, Alex Khasnabish’s essay will be of value to those positioning this work within the broader ecologies and economies of academia.
The collection ends with a discussion between Athena Athanasiou and Othon Alexandrakis, reflecting the fact that this volume opens up new points of departure, rather than offering resolution. It will contribute to the critical discourses around each of the individual case studies, as well as acting as a valuable guide for those embarking on new research work on the kinds of communities and individuals described within.