Barbara Götsch | University of Vienna (original) (raw)
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Papers by Barbara Götsch
Imagination, 2022
In diesem Beitrag betrachte ich „Mentalisieren“ als ein bedeutendes Modell von Prozessen des sozi... more In diesem Beitrag betrachte ich „Mentalisieren“ als ein bedeutendes Modell von Prozessen des sozialen Verständnisses. Dabei interessiert mich insbesondere der Zusammenhang zwischen Konzepten des „Mentalisierens“ und Konzepten von „Kultur“. Dazu gehe ich zuerst auf das aktuelle Konzept „Mentalisieren“ in seinem interdisziplinären Entstehungszusammenhang ein, v.a. was die „Theory of Mind“-Forschung betrifft, und erörtere anschließend die Bedeutung von Kultur und sozialem Lernen beim Weiterentwickeln der Mentalisierungsfähigkeit in der Lebensspanne. Unter anderem gehe ich auf einen rezenten Aufsatz von Peter Fonagy und seiner Forschungsgruppe (Fonagy et al., 2021) mit dem Titel „Culture and psychopathology: an attempt at reconsidering the role of social learning“ näher ein. Meine Betrachtungen beziehen neben psychologischen Disziplinen unter anderem auch Erkenntnisse aus dem Fachbereich der Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie mit ein, da dieses Fach den Fokus auf die Erforschung von Kultur im sozialen Leben legt.
Narrative Culture, 2022
This article engages with an extended ethnographic vignette that centers on negotiations between ... more This article engages with an extended ethnographic vignette that centers on negotiations between a Moroccan educational association and a UN agency over a possible future project collaboration. After a phase of meandering in the conversation, a “polished” story told by the NGO team leader marks a turning point in negotiations and manages to convince agency representatives. The article discusses the use of such polished stories in relation to other, less polished and arguably more authentic narrative practices, that is, stories that gradually emerge when collaborators make sense of the past or coconstruct visions of the future. It adopts the concept of the community of practice with its focus on social learning and the constant negotiation of meaning among participants in combination with recent approaches in the interdisciplinary study of narrative practices that argue for the productive coexistence of different narrative activities in the same event. In the case at hand, different narrative practices in concert served the sharing of knowledge and ultimately persuasion, while increasing intersubjective understanding between participants in the meeting.
Narrative Culture, 2022
“Let me tell you a story,” interlocutors repeatedly said to anthropologist Monika Kolodziej (in t... more “Let me tell you a story,” interlocutors repeatedly said to anthropologist Monika Kolodziej (in this issue) when she inquired about interethnic relations in a province in northwest China. Kolodziej tried to understand the people she engaged with: she wanted to know how they lived and what mattered to them. She did not ask for stories but found conversations in the field to be punctuated by them. She is not alone in this observation. Ethnographic fieldwork is often full of stories; it thrives on them. Practices of storytelling are foundational to sociality and sociability in a social group. They facilitate social understanding and represent sites of identity negotiation. This special issue centers on this phenomenon and zooms in on storied encounters in ethnography and anthropology. Ethnographers come to understand the lifeworlds of their interlocutors by engaging with them physically and, more recently, also virtually. They spend this time listening, conversing, observing, and participating. In this process, they encounter narratives in different situations and of different kinds, be they polished accounts with clear beginnings and endings—life histories, political narratives, gossip, jokes, folktales, legends, and myths—or narratives that emerge in situational co-telling, where participants contribute different story elements and meaning is subject to negotiation.
Archiv Orientalní, 2020
Today, cities the world over are entangled in aspirational uture visions, as regions compete wit... more Today, cities the world over are entangled in aspirational uture visions, as regions compete with others in different parts of the world for investment, tourists, and talent to guarantee econom-ic growth. Tis paper approaches the cities of Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Vienna via their self-presentations and projections of the future. It sees cities as learning assemblages and pays attention to the narrative construction of imaginaries and future trajectories, as depicted in the respective city galleries and planning museums. All cities are aound to be entangled in interna-tional policy trends and, in their unique ways, strive for recognition, competitiveness, and conviviality. Singapore emerges as torn between ambition, transparency, and control, while wanting to foster creativity and revive its cultural heritage; Kuala Lumpur appears simultaneously geared by boosterism and at home in opacity and multiplicity, privileging Malays while trying not to alienate other ethnic groups; and Vienna ambivalently projects a future that reconciles nostalgia for monarchic splendor and the social-democratic heritage of egalitarian urbanism with ambi-tions for international recognition and newly popular trends for citizen participation and “rights to the city.
In Bewegung: Beiträge zur Dynamik von Städten, Gesellschaften und Strukturen, 2018
Bio-social becomings: Integrating Social and Biological Anthropology (Ingold & Palsson Eds.), 2013
Frontiers in Psychology, Oct 10, 2014
Trauminseln? Tourismus und Alltag in "Urlaubsparadiesen", 2006
Book Reviews by Barbara Götsch
Social Anthropology, 2020
Asian Ethnology, 2019
The edited volume Soziale Ästhetik, Atmosphäre, Medialität: Beiträge aus der Ethnologie may be tr... more The edited volume Soziale Ästhetik, Atmosphäre, Medialität: Beiträge aus der Ethnologie may be translated as "Social Aesthetics, Atmosphere, Mediality: Ethnological/ Anthropological Contributions." It was published in honor of Frank Heidemann, professor of Ethnologie (ethnology/socio-cultural anthropology) at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. The volume comprises an introduction and twenty-two essays contributed by former students, friends and (some well-known) colleagues from around the globe that all pay tribute to his legacy as a teacher and scholar. The chapters are written in either German or English. The introduction (in German) traces Heidemann's scholarly trajectory and presents recurring themes in his work. Heidemann is mostly known for his work on South Asia with a particular emphasis on the South Indian Nilgiris but also Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Thematically, he has worked on topics as diverse as migration, history, politics, local culture, myths and rituals, while problematizing the question of "ethnographic representation." The latter is also reflected in his take on visual anthropology, which he firmly established as an area of specialization at the Munich university department. Heidemann's growing awareness of the holistic nature of emotional and sensual experience, probably fostered by his own experience in participant observation, as argued by the editors in the introduction, may have contributed to his recent endeavor of grasping and theorizing the elusive and fleeting character of particular kinds of human sociality in their sensual and cultural dimension. He approaches the latter drawing on the concepts of "social aesthetics" and "atmosphere." Heidemann's theoretical and methodological interests as well as his legacy as a teacher are reflected in the three thematic parts of the book, consisting of four to nine chapters each. Thus, the first part, entitled "Social Aesthetics and Atmosphere," comprises nine essays that engage with these concepts in one way or other. Hence, we find
Social Anthropology, 2015
Social Anthropology, 2015
Social Anthropology, 2014
Social Anthropology, Feb 1, 2006
Books by Barbara Götsch
Diakonisch-soziales Lernen - Baustein 1: Materialien für den Unterricht, die Jugendarbeit und die Erwachsenenbildung, 2007
Diakonisch-Soziales Lernen – Baustein 2, Materialien für den Unterricht, die Jugendarbeit und die Erwachsenenbildung., 2008
Diakonisch-Soziales Lernen – Baustein 3: Materialien für den Unterricht, die Jugendarbeit und die Erwachsenenbildung., 2008
Imagination, 2022
In diesem Beitrag betrachte ich „Mentalisieren“ als ein bedeutendes Modell von Prozessen des sozi... more In diesem Beitrag betrachte ich „Mentalisieren“ als ein bedeutendes Modell von Prozessen des sozialen Verständnisses. Dabei interessiert mich insbesondere der Zusammenhang zwischen Konzepten des „Mentalisierens“ und Konzepten von „Kultur“. Dazu gehe ich zuerst auf das aktuelle Konzept „Mentalisieren“ in seinem interdisziplinären Entstehungszusammenhang ein, v.a. was die „Theory of Mind“-Forschung betrifft, und erörtere anschließend die Bedeutung von Kultur und sozialem Lernen beim Weiterentwickeln der Mentalisierungsfähigkeit in der Lebensspanne. Unter anderem gehe ich auf einen rezenten Aufsatz von Peter Fonagy und seiner Forschungsgruppe (Fonagy et al., 2021) mit dem Titel „Culture and psychopathology: an attempt at reconsidering the role of social learning“ näher ein. Meine Betrachtungen beziehen neben psychologischen Disziplinen unter anderem auch Erkenntnisse aus dem Fachbereich der Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie mit ein, da dieses Fach den Fokus auf die Erforschung von Kultur im sozialen Leben legt.
Narrative Culture, 2022
This article engages with an extended ethnographic vignette that centers on negotiations between ... more This article engages with an extended ethnographic vignette that centers on negotiations between a Moroccan educational association and a UN agency over a possible future project collaboration. After a phase of meandering in the conversation, a “polished” story told by the NGO team leader marks a turning point in negotiations and manages to convince agency representatives. The article discusses the use of such polished stories in relation to other, less polished and arguably more authentic narrative practices, that is, stories that gradually emerge when collaborators make sense of the past or coconstruct visions of the future. It adopts the concept of the community of practice with its focus on social learning and the constant negotiation of meaning among participants in combination with recent approaches in the interdisciplinary study of narrative practices that argue for the productive coexistence of different narrative activities in the same event. In the case at hand, different narrative practices in concert served the sharing of knowledge and ultimately persuasion, while increasing intersubjective understanding between participants in the meeting.
Narrative Culture, 2022
“Let me tell you a story,” interlocutors repeatedly said to anthropologist Monika Kolodziej (in t... more “Let me tell you a story,” interlocutors repeatedly said to anthropologist Monika Kolodziej (in this issue) when she inquired about interethnic relations in a province in northwest China. Kolodziej tried to understand the people she engaged with: she wanted to know how they lived and what mattered to them. She did not ask for stories but found conversations in the field to be punctuated by them. She is not alone in this observation. Ethnographic fieldwork is often full of stories; it thrives on them. Practices of storytelling are foundational to sociality and sociability in a social group. They facilitate social understanding and represent sites of identity negotiation. This special issue centers on this phenomenon and zooms in on storied encounters in ethnography and anthropology. Ethnographers come to understand the lifeworlds of their interlocutors by engaging with them physically and, more recently, also virtually. They spend this time listening, conversing, observing, and participating. In this process, they encounter narratives in different situations and of different kinds, be they polished accounts with clear beginnings and endings—life histories, political narratives, gossip, jokes, folktales, legends, and myths—or narratives that emerge in situational co-telling, where participants contribute different story elements and meaning is subject to negotiation.
Archiv Orientalní, 2020
Today, cities the world over are entangled in aspirational uture visions, as regions compete wit... more Today, cities the world over are entangled in aspirational uture visions, as regions compete with others in different parts of the world for investment, tourists, and talent to guarantee econom-ic growth. Tis paper approaches the cities of Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Vienna via their self-presentations and projections of the future. It sees cities as learning assemblages and pays attention to the narrative construction of imaginaries and future trajectories, as depicted in the respective city galleries and planning museums. All cities are aound to be entangled in interna-tional policy trends and, in their unique ways, strive for recognition, competitiveness, and conviviality. Singapore emerges as torn between ambition, transparency, and control, while wanting to foster creativity and revive its cultural heritage; Kuala Lumpur appears simultaneously geared by boosterism and at home in opacity and multiplicity, privileging Malays while trying not to alienate other ethnic groups; and Vienna ambivalently projects a future that reconciles nostalgia for monarchic splendor and the social-democratic heritage of egalitarian urbanism with ambi-tions for international recognition and newly popular trends for citizen participation and “rights to the city.
In Bewegung: Beiträge zur Dynamik von Städten, Gesellschaften und Strukturen, 2018
Bio-social becomings: Integrating Social and Biological Anthropology (Ingold & Palsson Eds.), 2013
Frontiers in Psychology, Oct 10, 2014
Trauminseln? Tourismus und Alltag in "Urlaubsparadiesen", 2006
Social Anthropology, 2020
Asian Ethnology, 2019
The edited volume Soziale Ästhetik, Atmosphäre, Medialität: Beiträge aus der Ethnologie may be tr... more The edited volume Soziale Ästhetik, Atmosphäre, Medialität: Beiträge aus der Ethnologie may be translated as "Social Aesthetics, Atmosphere, Mediality: Ethnological/ Anthropological Contributions." It was published in honor of Frank Heidemann, professor of Ethnologie (ethnology/socio-cultural anthropology) at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. The volume comprises an introduction and twenty-two essays contributed by former students, friends and (some well-known) colleagues from around the globe that all pay tribute to his legacy as a teacher and scholar. The chapters are written in either German or English. The introduction (in German) traces Heidemann's scholarly trajectory and presents recurring themes in his work. Heidemann is mostly known for his work on South Asia with a particular emphasis on the South Indian Nilgiris but also Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Thematically, he has worked on topics as diverse as migration, history, politics, local culture, myths and rituals, while problematizing the question of "ethnographic representation." The latter is also reflected in his take on visual anthropology, which he firmly established as an area of specialization at the Munich university department. Heidemann's growing awareness of the holistic nature of emotional and sensual experience, probably fostered by his own experience in participant observation, as argued by the editors in the introduction, may have contributed to his recent endeavor of grasping and theorizing the elusive and fleeting character of particular kinds of human sociality in their sensual and cultural dimension. He approaches the latter drawing on the concepts of "social aesthetics" and "atmosphere." Heidemann's theoretical and methodological interests as well as his legacy as a teacher are reflected in the three thematic parts of the book, consisting of four to nine chapters each. Thus, the first part, entitled "Social Aesthetics and Atmosphere," comprises nine essays that engage with these concepts in one way or other. Hence, we find
Social Anthropology, 2015
Social Anthropology, 2015
Social Anthropology, 2014
Social Anthropology, Feb 1, 2006
Diakonisch-soziales Lernen - Baustein 1: Materialien für den Unterricht, die Jugendarbeit und die Erwachsenenbildung, 2007
Diakonisch-Soziales Lernen – Baustein 2, Materialien für den Unterricht, die Jugendarbeit und die Erwachsenenbildung., 2008
Diakonisch-Soziales Lernen – Baustein 3: Materialien für den Unterricht, die Jugendarbeit und die Erwachsenenbildung., 2008