Paola Juan | University of Lausanne (original) (raw)

Drafts by Paola Juan

Cette journée d'étude autour du manifeste Gens, dont la traduction française est publiée dans la ... more Cette journée d'étude autour du manifeste Gens, dont la traduction française est publiée dans la rubrique Lectures & débats de la revue Terrain, vise à créer un lieu de réflexion sur l'ethnographie féministe du capitaliste telle qu'elle est proposée dans le manifeste, et au-delà.

Ce travail est focalisé sur le cas de l'Islande et sur le processus de création et de développeme... more Ce travail est focalisé sur le cas de l'Islande et sur le processus de création et de développement du sentiment d'identité nationale, depuis le XIXème siècle jusqu'à nos jours, avec une concentration sur deux moments clés : Le moment où s'est construite l'identité nationale et l'affirmation de l'Etat-Nation, puis le contexte actuel de l'Islande, depuis la montée du néolibéralisme. Mon argument est le suivant : le discours nationaliste islandais a procédé à une recomposition et à une reformulation de son identité nationale de manière à ce qu'elle corresponde aux enjeux politiques et économique internationaux du présent, distincts dans ces deux moments. Ainsi, certaines formes d'expression de l'identité nationale islandaise sont valorisées ou marginalisées selon les périodes, comme la littérature, la langue, les arts ou la musique.

Papers by Paola Juan

Paola Juan et Anne-Christine Trémon, « Le Manifeste Gens à la loupe », Terrain [En ligne], Lectur... more Paola Juan et Anne-Christine Trémon, « Le Manifeste Gens à la loupe », Terrain [En ligne], Lectures et débats, mis en ligne le 09 octobre 2023, consulté le 09 octobre 2023. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/terrain/25509

Portraits, Gifts and Exchange Valuation in Xlendi Bay, Malta, 2022

This article explores gift exchange and valuation based on a fieldwork experience in Xlendi Bay,... more This article explores gift exchange and valuation based on a fieldwork experience in Xlendi Bay, Malta, during which the author gave strangers portrait drawings of themselves for free. Participants systematically gave back more than what was expected (money, drinks, etc.). What does this case study say about the valuation and performativity of (portrait) gifts? By subjecting classic anthropological theories of valuation and gift exchange to an experimental methodology and ethnographic data, this short article shows that monetary value is constructed through a series of aspects specific to each social interaction. In this social setting, several components play a role: (1) the creation of intimacy through timing, corporeal positioning, the author's gaze and the act of giving itself; (2) the potential of identification in the portrait; (3) the visibility of the act of production and the subjective valuation of the gift receiver; (4) the blurred boundaries between commodity and gift; and (5) positionality.

Working Paper ISSR , 2022

This paper explores the valuation of mental health based on the notion of Parity of Esteem betwee... more This paper explores the valuation of mental health based on the notion of Parity of Esteem between mental health and physical health, as recently adopted by the UK Government and the NHS England. How, and to what extent, has “mental health” come to count as being of value for the English authorities through the creation and use of the notion of Parity of Esteem? Through such a question, this paper questions what the Parity of Esteem study of valuation reveals about theoretical and methodological assumptions made by scholars of the Valuation Studies movement. It eventually seeks to identify if there is a way forward for the study of valuation from an anthropological and critical viewpoint.

It thus explores the valuation process of Parity of Esteem through the Valuation Studies perspective, discussing, in particular, the use of standardized and technocratic language and the politics of knowledge in such operations, while inquiring into the subsequent limitations for Valuation Studies. It then draws attention to several critical aspects of the study of valuation and the way it has been approached by scholars of Valuation Studies.

Juan Paola. Introduction. Quelle anthropologie dessiner autour de L’inconstance de l’âme sauvage... more Juan Paola. Introduction. Quelle anthropologie dessiner autour de L’inconstance de l’âme sauvage d’Eduardo Viveiros de Castro ?. In: ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, n°15, 2020. pp. 171-175;
https://www.persee.fr/doc/asdi_1662-4653_2020_num_15_1_1187

Final report on Mental Health Services, Project supported and funded by the Swiss Hospital x, 51 p. , 2019

Ce rapport porte sur l’incertitude omniprésente dans l'hôpital psychiatrique où j’ai travaillé et... more Ce rapport porte sur l’incertitude omniprésente dans l'hôpital psychiatrique où j’ai travaillé et sur ses stratégies de gestion. Il explore comment s’organisent et se manifestent discursivement les stratégies de gestion de l’incertitude, de quelle manière elles impactent la ou les valeur(s) des vies humaines de patients négociées dans l’articulation entre différents régimes discursifs.
Comment l’incertitude influence-t-elle les subjectivités de patients alors qu’ils ou elles sont au plus fort de leur vulnérabilité psychique et souffrance mentale ?

Traduction de Bear, Laura, Ho, Karen, Lowenhaupt Tsing, Anna and Yanagisako, Sylvia. 2015, “Gens... more Traduction de Bear, Laura, Ho, Karen, Lowenhaupt Tsing, Anna and Yanagisako, Sylvia. 2015, “Gens: A Feminist Manifesto for the Study of Capitalism," Theorizing the Contemporary, Fieldsights.
Dans la revue Terrain: anthropologie & sciences humaines

Juan Paola, Becci Irene, 2018. "Le "soin spirituel" pratiqué à l'hôpital. Un regard en néonatolog... more Juan Paola, Becci Irene, 2018. "Le "soin spirituel" pratiqué à l'hôpital. Un regard en néonatologie. Entretien avec Isaline Chammartin, infirmière", dans Pahud de Mortanges René, Schmid Hansjörg, Becci Irene (eds.) Spitalseelsorge in einer vielfältigen Schweiz. Interreligiöse, rechtliche und praktische Herausforderungen, Schulthess, pp. 135-146.

Conference Presentations by Paola Juan

Panel proposal : Swiss Anthropological Association SAA, Neuchâtel, November 10-12, 2022, 2022

Call for papers - deadline August 20 Rethinking “engaged anthropology” from our embodied expe... more Call for papers - deadline August 20

Rethinking “engaged anthropology” from our embodied experience of fieldwork, this panel draws on feminist and decolonial research contesting the heroic self-image of the anthropologist who “engage[s] in lone acts of bravery in order to shed light on the struggles of others with less relative privilege” (Berry et al. 2017). Despite criticisms and calls for reflexivity, this image has persisted widely in academia, reproducing, as “collateral damage”, gendered, racialized and colonial forms of violence manifested in research and teaching at our universities. The image of the brave, strong and independent researcher ignores the fact that power relations within the societies and groups we study can work on our bodies and minds in similar constraining and oppressive ways. Thereby, it also implies that a researcher’s vulnerability represents a personal failure or individual problem rather than the structural condition of their positions, both during fieldwork and within academic institutions. As anthropologists, however, we are not always in a privileged position to stand up against the violence and oppression we experience in the field. In certain situations, we are scared, vulnerable and condemned to silence in much the same way as our research partners.

Confronting the heroic self-image of the anthropologist, this panel seeks to investigate the methodological, ethical and epistemological consequences of “reciprocal vulnerabilities” for the discipline. We invite contributions that explore risk, vulnerability, violence, guilt and privilege in fieldwork, as well as how these experiences, emotions and positionalities are shaped by institutional structures of academia. Moreover, we encourage participants to examine and reflect on the links between practices of solidarity, self-care and caring for others and how they may reshape the ways we produce ethnographic knowledge and practice anthropology.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1URQB1eBsfSCUQDK0X8QpdYx6XbU1M0xHY6iOZGCh8Oc/viewform?edit_requested=true

This paper explores how family members change their perception of a relative when confronted with... more This paper explores how family members change their perception of a relative when confronted with a new psychiatric imaginary. The psychoanalytic and psychiatric discourses – viewed as forms of kinscript (Stack and Burton, 1993) provide new ways of understanding the psychiatrised relative and initiate a shift in the kinship system in order to cope with the new position that the relative takes on. Kinscripts are stories that families tell themselves about what acts upon and transmits values and ethics (ideas of love, choice, lineage). I question whether the process of psychiatrising individuals initiates knock on process of othering within kinship groups, understood as networks of belonging.

Poster presented at the AAA2020 'Raising our voices' This poster explores gift exchange and valu... more Poster presented at the AAA2020 'Raising our voices'

This poster explores gift exchange and valuation based on a fieldwork experience during which I gave strangers portraits drawings of themselves in Xlendi Bay, Malta. During a few weeks, I proposed portraits on the street with a poster sign on which you could read « portrait for free ». Portraits were monetary free; it was established that in exchange, I was getting data. However, participants systematically decided to give me back much more than what was expected of them initially. Why? What does this case study tell us about the valuation and performativity of these portrait gifts? As the poster shows, the construction of monetary value took place through (1) creation of intimacy, made possible through the unbounded offer of my time, corporeal positioning, and my own gaze, but also through the act of giving itself and its moral implications; (2) the cultural potential of identification and recognition in the portrait; (3) the visibility of the act of production and the importance of subjective valuation; and finally (4) the blurred boundaries between commodity and gift, when a craft is given in a social setting which is usually associated with monetary exchange.

panel HE03, “At the intersection of hope and trouble: rethinking mental health landscape”, RAI202... more panel HE03, “At the intersection of hope and trouble: rethinking mental health landscape”, RAI2020, Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future
Convenor: Yuxin Peng (University of Oxford)
Discussant: Professor Elisabeth Hsu (University of Oxford)

The reflections developed in this presentation are part of an ongoing research project. I start by drawing on my fieldwork experience last year in a Swiss psychiatric hospital to show how a particular place can be both hopeful and troubling; how the paradigmatic shifts in psychiatry have contributed to complexify the landscape today, since psychiatric care inherits from these different periods and views, especially through the materiality and spatiality of built structures. I then explore how this complexification results not only in controversy and debate within the field, but also in the development of two axes of othering processes: one that is temporary, that is, hopeful, and one that is permanent. I formulate the hypothesis that this duality might be what defines the current generative timescapes of psychiatric care.

Panel100 Collections as Currency? Objects, Exchange, Values and Institutions, Royal Anthropological Institute, 2018

This paper is based on a fieldwork research led jointly with Sélima Chibout, which focused on the... more This paper is based on a fieldwork research led jointly with Sélima Chibout, which focused on the waste and sorting activities of the Swiss National Film Archive.
It explores the processes of their massive waste production and shows how sorting collectibles implies to dichotomize and classify what is valuable (memorable), from what is not (forgettable). This value hierarchization, at the core of the film archive’s activities, is the result of a “logic of rescuing” which is central to patrimonial institutions' aspirations. Such a logic also results from the shared resources and sociopolitical relationships between the Swiss film archive and other archives. This fact highlights the importance of conceptualizing this institution within a “network of aspirations”. Approached in a diachronic way, such network constitutes the condition of institutional dynamism and social change, which complexifies Kopytoff’s (1986) static view of museal institutions as structural « segments of society » tied together by a mechanical solidarity and common cultural values.

Conference paper, in P052 "Divergent Temporal Horizons", EASA, 2020

This paper questions what happens to patients’ agency in a hospital setting with a systemic, calc... more This paper questions what happens to patients’ agency in a hospital setting with a systemic, calculative attitude toward uncertainty and its temporality, as the institution tries to reshape patients' sense of directionality. It shows how patients engage actively in a new learning process of what Vigh (2010) would call “social navigation”, but in doing so, a discrepancy emerges between (1) the mission of redirecting patients’ directionality toward calculated rhythms and (2) patients’ own rhythms and agencies as their subjectivities and modes of socialization are sought to be redirected.
It identifies three attitudes towards uncertainty at play in the psychiatric hospital X: (1) calculation, (2) embracement, (3) denial. The first is hegemonic today, the second appears in informal timescapes, and the third is tied to the history of the asylum: although repeatedly dismissed, it is inscribed in the core of psychiatric practices. It shows how a systemic, calculative attitude of uncertainty contributes to devaluing patients’ subjectivities and sense of trust in their own capacity to shape their own path and to understand their own intimate lives. This can leave them on an even more uncertain path with a language which serves to provide an external and reductive understanding of their own subjectivity, without the possibility of socialized and integrated change in relation to their own agency.