Periodic Reporting for period 4 - CROSSLOCATIONS (Crosslocations in the Mediterranean: rethinking the socio-cultural dynamics of relative positioning)
Période du rapport: 2021-03-01 au 2022-08-31
Crosslocations developed a new way to both theorize and research the dynamics of location in the Mediterranean region. It explored the multiple, often overlapping, sometimes contradictory and coexisting ways by which the significance and value of locations are generated, and the implications of that in terms of how people experience where they are in the world. Many projects have studied the mobility of populations (migration, refugees, shifting border politics and so on); Crosslocations shifted its focus to how the regularly changing connections and disconnections between places affects people's lives.
We began with the idea that several locations can coexist and overlap in any given place, each one ascribing different relative significance and value to the place, and that these values change over time. It drew on the concepts of 'locating regimes' and 'relative location' introduced as conceptual tools to test, critically assess and develop this new approach towards studying and analysing the dynamics of connections and disconnections between places. And differently from many other studies, the disconnections were as important to the research as the connections: the effects of raising walls, drawing lines and forbidding passage are as important as the multiple ways in which places are interconnected. While the world is multiply and globally interconnected (e.g. by internet cables running along the seabed; by transnational banking systems; by international border regulations; by transportation and trade infrastructures, etc), it is also a highly unequal world which disconnects and limits relations between regions. Understanding how a place can be simultaneously connected in some ways while disconnected in others, and what effects that has for people, was at the heart of the work of this project.
The core research material was ethnographic fieldwork carried out in different parts of the Mediterranean region. This was combined with advice from a team of experts in economy, infrastructure, law, religion, language and other disciplines, that could advise the anthropologists on how their areas of specialism connected and disconnected the Mediterranean region in different ways. We also collaborated with a cartographer and photographer so as to experiment with different ways to visualise this novel way of understanding location: ways to make the idea of overlapping, coexisting locating regimes visible. Conventional maps show only some kinds of borders (formal political, topographic and geological ones, mostly); the aim was to make visible many of the other ways of connecting and subdividing places.
The overall objective was to draw on this approach to create a different way to research, analyse and understand the crisscrossing, overlapping and sometimes contradictory dynamics of locations in the Mediterranean region.
We began with the idea that several locations can coexist and overlap in any given place, each one ascribing different relative significance and value to the place, and that these values change over time. It drew on the concepts of 'locating regimes' and 'relative location' introduced as conceptual tools to test, critically assess and develop this new approach towards studying and analysing the dynamics of connections and disconnections between places. And differently from many other studies, the disconnections were as important to the research as the connections: the effects of raising walls, drawing lines and forbidding passage are as important as the multiple ways in which places are interconnected. While the world is multiply and globally interconnected (e.g. by internet cables running along the seabed; by transnational banking systems; by international border regulations; by transportation and trade infrastructures, etc), it is also a highly unequal world which disconnects and limits relations between regions. Understanding how a place can be simultaneously connected in some ways while disconnected in others, and what effects that has for people, was at the heart of the work of this project.
The core research material was ethnographic fieldwork carried out in different parts of the Mediterranean region. This was combined with advice from a team of experts in economy, infrastructure, law, religion, language and other disciplines, that could advise the anthropologists on how their areas of specialism connected and disconnected the Mediterranean region in different ways. We also collaborated with a cartographer and photographer so as to experiment with different ways to visualise this novel way of understanding location: ways to make the idea of overlapping, coexisting locating regimes visible. Conventional maps show only some kinds of borders (formal political, topographic and geological ones, mostly); the aim was to make visible many of the other ways of connecting and subdividing places.
The overall objective was to draw on this approach to create a different way to research, analyse and understand the crisscrossing, overlapping and sometimes contradictory dynamics of locations in the Mediterranean region.
We carried out the following work:
1. Ethnographic research. The Crosslocations anthropology team carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Italy, and central Spain. In addition, the project leader (Green) carried out small ethnographic projects across different parts of the Mediterranean region, looking into livestock transport, the cross-border tracking of wild animals and attempts to control the spread of zoonotic disease: the idea was to study cross-Mediterranean border regimes that controlled something other than people, so as to outline the different border structures involved (laws, institutions, infrastructure, bureaucracy, history, etc). Each researcher has published a range of articles and chapters on the results of their own research, but we have also produced two major collaborative works. The first is a volume edited by Rommel and Viscomi, "Locating the Mediterranean: Connections and separations across space and time" published in 2022 (https://hup.fi/site/books/e/10.33134/HUP-18/(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)). The second is a book co-authored by seven of the anthropologists (Green, Lähteenaho, Douzina-Bakalaki, Rommel, Viscomi, Soto Bermant and Scalco) presenting a summary of the results and demonstrating the crosslocations approach.
2. Visualisation work: photography and cartography. We carried out 12 collaborative expeditions with a photographer in the different field sites, in which the photographer (Lena Malm) worked with the anthropologist in each region to attempt to capture something of the dynamics of living in a crosslocated world. From this work, the team produced a public exhibition, made a video about the process of the collaboration (https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/3aa99c0d-4197-4aaf-be00-ade9d4198cfc(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)) and published a book based on the photography, which both described the collaboration and demonstrated its results (https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/news/society-economy/new-crosslocations-book-published-photography(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)). We also carried out 5 collaborative exhibitions with a cartographer in different field sites and generated a series of maps on the collaborative work that resulted. The maps were showcased in a one-month exhibition held in Helsinki in October 2021 and a book showing the results has been completed and is currently in production.
3. Wider dissemination. Throughout, the research team have presented their work at international conferences, seminars and workshops. For the final conference, held in Helsinki in May 2022 (delayed because of the Covid-19 restrictions), we teamed up with Balkan specialists who experimented with the approach in their research, showcased the photographic and cartographic work in a public forum and presented the results to an academic audience.
1. Ethnographic research. The Crosslocations anthropology team carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Italy, and central Spain. In addition, the project leader (Green) carried out small ethnographic projects across different parts of the Mediterranean region, looking into livestock transport, the cross-border tracking of wild animals and attempts to control the spread of zoonotic disease: the idea was to study cross-Mediterranean border regimes that controlled something other than people, so as to outline the different border structures involved (laws, institutions, infrastructure, bureaucracy, history, etc). Each researcher has published a range of articles and chapters on the results of their own research, but we have also produced two major collaborative works. The first is a volume edited by Rommel and Viscomi, "Locating the Mediterranean: Connections and separations across space and time" published in 2022 (https://hup.fi/site/books/e/10.33134/HUP-18/(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)). The second is a book co-authored by seven of the anthropologists (Green, Lähteenaho, Douzina-Bakalaki, Rommel, Viscomi, Soto Bermant and Scalco) presenting a summary of the results and demonstrating the crosslocations approach.
2. Visualisation work: photography and cartography. We carried out 12 collaborative expeditions with a photographer in the different field sites, in which the photographer (Lena Malm) worked with the anthropologist in each region to attempt to capture something of the dynamics of living in a crosslocated world. From this work, the team produced a public exhibition, made a video about the process of the collaboration (https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/3aa99c0d-4197-4aaf-be00-ade9d4198cfc(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)) and published a book based on the photography, which both described the collaboration and demonstrated its results (https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/news/society-economy/new-crosslocations-book-published-photography(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)). We also carried out 5 collaborative exhibitions with a cartographer in different field sites and generated a series of maps on the collaborative work that resulted. The maps were showcased in a one-month exhibition held in Helsinki in October 2021 and a book showing the results has been completed and is currently in production.
3. Wider dissemination. Throughout, the research team have presented their work at international conferences, seminars and workshops. For the final conference, held in Helsinki in May 2022 (delayed because of the Covid-19 restrictions), we teamed up with Balkan specialists who experimented with the approach in their research, showcased the photographic and cartographic work in a public forum and presented the results to an academic audience.
The most significant achievements have been to successfully test the premises of crosslocations; to describe and demonstrate the approach with empirical ethnographic, visual and cartographic data; and to develop the groundwork for extending the approach to other regions (e.g. the Balkans) and to other themes and topics.
For example, the PI is now collaborating with a team of veterinarians, virologists, microbiologists and AI specialists to use the crosslocations approach in developing better ways to respond to future epidemics. Crosslocations has proven to be a particularly valuable approach for this kind of multi-disciplinary work because it is sensitive to the coexistence of different types of data and knowledge. In the case of managing the spread of infectious disease, Crosslocations expertise on the multiple and overlapping forms of connections and disconnections between different places has proven highly valuable in developing new ways to think about the interplay between social, political, economic, environmental, zoonotic and microbiological conditions that are involved.
In more general terms, the research demonstrated that the concepts of 'locating regimes' and 'relative location' provide a genuinely different way of thinking about the way the places in which people live their lives are layered, scaffolded, connected to and disconnected from, other places. The detailed ethnography, combined with being able to visualise those dynamics, both through photography and maps, made it possible to see these conditions as living processes, capturing moments when the layers became comprehensible. The approach has proven to provide new ways to understand both the Mediterranean region and the relative value and significance of location more widely.
For example, the PI is now collaborating with a team of veterinarians, virologists, microbiologists and AI specialists to use the crosslocations approach in developing better ways to respond to future epidemics. Crosslocations has proven to be a particularly valuable approach for this kind of multi-disciplinary work because it is sensitive to the coexistence of different types of data and knowledge. In the case of managing the spread of infectious disease, Crosslocations expertise on the multiple and overlapping forms of connections and disconnections between different places has proven highly valuable in developing new ways to think about the interplay between social, political, economic, environmental, zoonotic and microbiological conditions that are involved.
In more general terms, the research demonstrated that the concepts of 'locating regimes' and 'relative location' provide a genuinely different way of thinking about the way the places in which people live their lives are layered, scaffolded, connected to and disconnected from, other places. The detailed ethnography, combined with being able to visualise those dynamics, both through photography and maps, made it possible to see these conditions as living processes, capturing moments when the layers became comprehensible. The approach has proven to provide new ways to understand both the Mediterranean region and the relative value and significance of location more widely.