Convenors: Jessica De Largy Healy and Monica Heintz (ANR Anthrop en)
Ethical and scientific principles concerning the transpa rency and accessibility of the field data that informs published ethnograph ies have varied greatly over time – from an early ideology of transparency associated with salvage ethnography at the beginning of the 20th century, s uch as in the Yale Human Relations Area Files, to the emergence of ethical concerns over the security and preservation of the privacy of informants af ter WWII and more recently with the controversial Human Terrain System in t he US military, as well as to an increasing awareness of local sensibilitie s towards the preservation of secret knowledge. At the turn of the 21s t century the impetus for increased accountability and transpare ncy in public organisations was immediately followed in Europe by new data restrictions with the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018. While the anonymization of research participants, going well beyond a mere pseudonymization process, has long been the rule in anthropology, a parallel drive for naming and identifying the subjects of anthropological e nquiry in the wake of the Writing Culture critique (see Crapanzano’s < em>Portrait of Tuhami, 1983) and Indigenous scholarship is now accepte d as a form of empowerment and recognition of shared cultural and intellect ual property rights over ethnographic data and knowledge.
In European institutions, the Open science movement has gained momentum in the past de cade with the digitization of much of our professional practice. Aiming for an increased accountability, inclusiveness and sharing of the benefits of science with society at large, it translates into a series of policies and recommendations to open scientific data. But what does this “openness” impl y for a discipline such as anthropology? Who are social scientists accounta ble to? With whom lies the responsibility and authority to make the collect ed materials available, in what form and to whom? The research project we h ave conducted since 2019 at the Laboratoire d’ethnologie et de sociologie c omparative, at Nanterre University, “The frontiers of anthropological knowl edge”, was specifically designed to question the application of these open access principles to anthropological materials. Through a set of case studi es of ethnographic corpuses (sound recordings, photographs, video, fieldnot es) collected at various times in various places, it sought to understand t he limits of transparency or of openness that these materials can tolerate without compromising or being counterproductive to the conduct of research.
It is with the idea of pursuing these interrogations and analysing f urther the implications of the Open data movement on our anthropological pr actice that we would like to consider limit ethnographic cases that shed li ght on the conundrums, and the solutions anthropologists have encountered a nd devised over time to respond to empirical field situations or the additi onal questions that have to be raised and taken into account before the ope ning of such material could be envisaged. Thus we would like to invite anth ropologists who practice undercover ethnography or ethnography in sensitive , violent, forbidden or illicit contexts, ethnography whose data is confide ntial or whose data once displayed could harm or distress individuals and c ollectives, ethnography whose data is too intimate to be shared, or, on the contrary, anthropology whose data needs to be urgently disseminated for po litical or economic purposes.
Download program and abst racts
DAY 1: Tuesday 13th of September 2022
9h: Morning tea & coffee
9h30: Welcome and Introductio
n: Jessica De Largy Healy and Monica Heintz
Panel 1: Se
crets
Chair: Anthony Stavrianakis (CNRS)
10h: Isabelle R
ivoal (CNRS) – Aporia of trust: between respect for sources and the adminis
tration of proof. Managing data in the context of religious secre
cy (Druzes, Middle East).
10h40: Martin Lamotte (CNRS) – Finding a sec
ret, Keeping it secret! Operation of knowledge and acknowledgment within th
e gang Los Ñetas
11h20: Coffee break
11h35: Sam Williams (MPI Hal
le) – Too intimate to be shared? Sex, ethics, and ethnographic “data” in an
era of open science
12h15: Discussion
13h00: Lunch buffet
Panel 2: Decolonising ethnographic practices
Chair: Damiana Ot
oiu (University of Bucharest)
14h00: Haidy Geismar (UCL) – Co
llecting the World
14h40: James Rose (University of Melbourne) – Real-
time Repatriation: Data Governance for Social Anthropology in the 21st Cent
ury
15h20: Break
15h35: Theodoros Rakopoulos (University of Oslo)
– Decolonising secrets: Of silence, masks, guns, and Cyprus as a Problem&n
bsp;
16h15: Discussion
17h: End of the first day
DAY 2: Wednesday 14th of September 2022
Panel 3: Authorships
Chair: Valentina Vapnarsky (CNRS-EPHE)
10h: Leandro Varison (mqB) – Contesting anthropological authors
hip: Indigenous Peoples’ critiques of intellectual property rights
10h
40: Aimar Ventsel (U. of Tartu) – Doing the underdog: ethics, trust, friend
ship
11h20: Coffee break
11h35: Cyril Touboulic (UPN) – The ethno
graphy of navy special forces: between adequacy and negotiation of research
results in the era of open data
12h15: Discussion
13h00: Lunch b
uffet
Panel 4: Revelations
Chair: Jessica De Largy Healy
14h00: Carolina Kobelinsky (CNRS) – Testing the Endurance of
the Ethnographic Relationship
14h40: Elissa Helms (CEU) – Pseudonyms,
social media, and the criminalization of solidarity: Research dilemmas in
a Bosnian border community along the Balkan Route of migration
15h20:
Break
15h35: Julie Cayla (CAK) – Ethnologist, spy and apprentice. Secr
eting the data produced on the African art market in Burkina Faso
16h1
5: General discussion
17h: End of the conference
Convenors: Jessica De Largy Healy and Monica Heintz (ANR Anthrop en)
Ethical and scientific principles concerning the transpa rency and accessibility of the field data that informs published ethnograph ies have varied greatly over time – from an early ideology of transparency associated with salvage ethnography at the beginning of the 20th century, s uch as in the Yale Human Relations Area Files, to the emergence of ethical concerns over the security and preservation of the privacy of informants af ter WWII and more recently with the controversial Human Terrain System in t he US military, as well as to an increasing awareness of local sensibilitie s towards the preservation of secret knowledge. At the turn of the 21s t century the impetus for increased accountability and transpare ncy in public organisations was immediately followed in Europe by new data restrictions with the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018. While the anonymization of research participants, going well beyond a mere pseudonymization process, has long been the rule in anthropology, a parallel drive for naming and identifying the subjects of anthropological e nquiry in the wake of the Writing Culture critique (see Crapanzano’s < em>Portrait of Tuhami, 1983) and Indigenous scholarship is now accepte d as a form of empowerment and recognition of shared cultural and intellect ual property rights over ethnographic data and knowledge.
In European institutions, the Open science movement has gained momentum in the past de cade with the digitization of much of our professional practice. Aiming for an increased accountability, inclusiveness and sharing of the benefits of science with society at large, it translates into a series of policies and recommendations to open scientific data. But what does this “openness” impl y for a discipline such as anthropology? Who are social scientists accounta ble to? With whom lies the responsibility and authority to make the collect ed materials available, in what form and to whom? The research project we h ave conducted since 2019 at the Laboratoire d’ethnologie et de sociologie c omparative, at Nanterre University, “The frontiers of anthropological knowl edge”, was specifically designed to question the application of these open access principles to anthropological materials. Through a set of case studi es of ethnographic corpuses (sound recordings, photographs, video, fieldnot es) collected at various times in various places, it sought to understand t he limits of transparency or of openness that these materials can tolerate without compromising or being counterproductive to the conduct of research.
It is with the idea of pursuing these interrogations and analysing f urther the implications of the Open data movement on our anthropological pr actice that we would like to consider limit ethnographic cases that shed li ght on the conundrums, and the solutions anthropologists have encountered a nd devised over time to respond to empirical field situations or the additi onal questions that have to be raised and taken into account before the ope ning of such material could be envisaged. Thus we would like to invite anth ropologists who practice undercover ethnography or ethnography in sensitive , violent, forbidden or illicit contexts, ethnography whose data is confide ntial or whose data once displayed could harm or distress individuals and c ollectives, ethnography whose data is too intimate to be shared, or, on the contrary, anthropology whose data needs to be urgently disseminated for po litical or economic purposes.
Download program and abstracts
DAY 1: Tuesday 13th<
/sup> of September 2022
9h: Morning tea & coffee
9h3
0: Welcome and Introduction: Jessica De Largy Healy and Monica Heintz
Panel 1: Secrets
Chair: Anthony Stavrianakis (CNRS)
10h: Isabelle Rivoal (CNRS) – Aporia of trust: between respect f
or sources and the administration of proof. Managing data in the conte
xt of religious secrecy (Druzes, Middle East).
10h40: Martin Lamo
tte (CNRS) – Finding a secret, Keeping it secret! Operation of knowledge an
d acknowledgment within the gang Los Ñetas
11h20: Coffee break
11
h35: Sam Williams (MPI Halle) – Too intimate to be shared? Sex, ethics, and
ethnographic “data” in an era of open science
12h15: Discussion
13h00: Lunch buffet
Panel 2: Decolonising ethnographic practi
ces
Chair: Damiana Otoiu (University of Bucharest)
14h00
: Haidy Geismar (UCL) – Collecting the World
14h40: James Rose (Univer
sity of Melbourne) – Real-time Repatriation: Data Governance for Social Ant
hropology in the 21st Century
15h20: Break
15h35: Theodoros Rakop
oulos (University of Oslo) – Decolonising secrets: Of silence, masks, guns,
and Cyprus as a Problem &nb
sp;
16h15: Discussion
17h: End of the first da
y
DAY 2: Wednesday 14th of Sept ember 2022
Panel 3: Authorships
Chair: Valentin
a Vapnarsky (CNRS-EPHE)
10h: Leandro Varison (mqB) – Contesti
ng anthropological authorship: Indigenous Peoples’ critiques of intellectua
l property rights
10h40: Aimar Ventsel (U. of Tartu) – Doing the under
dog: ethics, trust, friendship
11h20: Coffee break
11h35: Cyril T
ouboulic (UPN) – The ethnography of navy special forces: between adequacy a
nd negotiation of research results in the era of open data
12h15: Disc
ussion
13h00: Lunch buffet
Panel 4: Revelations
Cha
ir: Jessica De Largy Healy
14h00: Carolina Kobelinsky (CNRS)
– Testing the Endurance of the Ethnographic Relationship
14h40: Elissa
Helms (CEU) – Pseudonyms, social media, and the criminalization of solidar
ity: Research dilemmas in a Bosnian border community along the Balkan Route
of migration
15h20: Break
15h35: Julie Cayla (CAK) – Ethnologist
, spy and apprentice. Secreting the data produced on the African art market
in Burkina Faso
16h15: General discussion
17h: End of the confer
ence