Convenors
Sebastiano Citroni, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria
sebastiano.citroni@uninsubria.it
Massimiliano Raffa, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria
massimiliano.raffa@uninsubria.it
The ongoing transformation of urban fabrics and their concomitant social relations
necessitates an urgent recalibration and reinterpretation of predominant approaches to ethnographic urban analysis. Global urbanisation, the proliferation of megalopolises in the Global South and their attendant waves of civil unrest, demographic ageing in the Global North, the phenomenon of overtourism, pervasive digitalisation, shifting human-nature interfaces, burgeoning spatial inequalities, and displacement linked to mega-events or gentrification processes all exemplify the imperative to re-contextualise the most established interpretative paradigms of urban ethnography. Within the broader need to ‘shake’ «many of the concepts and categories within mainstream urban studies that serve dubious policy agendas» (Slater 2021), urban ethnography can make a substantive contribution by reconceptualising its foundational tenets in light of contemporary urban realities.
Two principal vectors now challenge established ethnographic approaches to urban studies. First, the transition from the study of stable, clearly delineated social worlds to the exploration of temporary, diffuse, and multi-sited practices, exemplified by how migrants and diverse typologies of city-users engage with urban space in transient yet significant modes; second, the pervasive impact of digital communication on associational patterns and quotidian practices, which necessitates a fundamental reconsideration of the very notion of ethnographic «fieldwork». Neither of these directions represents terra incognita; indeed, both transient urban inhabitants and digital communication have long been the foci of significant scholarship and multifaceted debates. Nevertheless, these research streams often risk intellectual insularity, manifesting a hyper-specialism that eschews engagement with the canonical themes of urban ethnography: marginality, public space, conflict and collective action, neighbourhood dynamics, the exercise of political power, informal economies, modes of dwelling, among other things.
The «dematerialisation» of social interactions and the ephemeral nature of many contemporary urban social practices evolve in tandem with the emergence of seemingly unrelated or even antithetical debates, such as those centred on new materialisms and the infrastructural dimension of contemporary social life. Urban ethnography offers a number of possibilities to bridge these conceptual chasms, presenting challenges that can be met through in-depth investigations combining meticulous attention to situated data with the development of arguments aimed at ascending levels of generality and offering comprehensive perspectives on ongoing dynamics and trends. This panel actively seeks research contributions pertaining to diverse field studies on a wide array of urban phenomena (e.g., neighbourhood relations, overtourism, gentrification, collective action, public space, and so forth). The goal is to advance the theoretical, analytical, and interpretative development of the longstanding research tradition in urban ethnography. In essence, the panel focuses on empirical field studies that investigate urban phenomena both at a descriptive level, elucidating their dense internal articulation, and at an interpretative level, propounding new hypotheses and theories in dialogue with the established corpus of field research upon which they build.
Open questions
- How do the ephemeral and multi-sited practices of city users reconceptualise traditional notions of urban community and belonging?
- What are the implications of these transformations for the social morphology of
neighbourhood relations? - How might the classical ethnographic approach be reconciled with the increasing salience of digital communication in urban social interactions?
- What are the methodological and ethical ramifications of urban ethnography in an era characterised by ubiquitous digital surveillance and contested online privacy?
- How can urban ethnographers effectively synthesise the analysis of material infrastructures with the study of immaterial social interactions?
- In what ways can urban ethnography contribute to a more nuanced and critical understanding of gentrification and overtourism processes in contemporary urban milieux?
- What role can urban ethnography play in analysing and potentially mitigating growing spatial inequalities in the global city?
- How might traditional ethnographic methods be adapted to investigate social movements and collective action in urban contexts characterised by rapid flux and heightened mobility?
Keywords
urban mobility; digitalisation; hybrid proximity; multi-sited ethnography; city users.
Subdisciplines or interdisciplinary areas of interest
digital anthropology; mobilities studies; sociology of public space; critical human geography; interactionist sociology; media and communication studies; urban political ecology.
References
Slater, T.
2021 Shaking up the city: Ignorance, inequality, and the urban question. University of California Press.
Convenors’ bios
Sebastiano Citroni is associate professor in Cultural Sociology at Insubria University, in the Department of Law, Economics and Cultures (Como – Italy). His main research interests focus on ethnography, civil society, urban studies, events, social theory and everyday life. His last monographic book – L’associarsi quotidiano (2022) – deals with the political value of civic practices and urban events.
Massimiliano Raffa is a Research Fellow at the University of Insubria. He holds a PhD in Cultural Sociology and has taught courses at IULM University, the University of Salento, the Conservatory of Lecce, and the SAE Institute Milan. He has been a visiting researcher at the University of Liverpool and Utrecht University, and his research has been presented at conferences hosted by numerous institutions (including the University of Oxford, King’s College London, and the University of West London). His primary research interests encompass symbolic forms, cultural history, critical digital media studies, social theory, and cultural production and consumption.