Based on long-term fieldwork in Northeast Brazil and the Republic of Georgia, this article explores how open-endedness can be incorporated into ethnographic analysis and writing, not as the empirical object, but as a basic condition for knowledge production. In the empirical contexts that we describe, daily life is marked by poor prospects and the absence of possibility, especially for young people. Rather than letting this guide our analyses, this article argues for the necessity of paying attention to the openness and potential of experienced moments of change. We propose that even relapses into former habits and predicaments present the potential for change on a subjective level. In the process of putting informants' stories into words and analysis, we revisit both field and text, constituting a hopeful practice similar to that of our informants.
The article is focused thematically on the uses and meanings of media for (some) young people in Recife, a million-inhabitant city in the northeast of Brazil. The article brings together the perspective of Anne Line Dalsgaard, a long-term anthropological field researcher who is familiar with the everyday lives and social conditions for growing up in Recife, and the findings of a short-term, interview-and observation-based media ethnographic study, conducted by Norbert Wildermuth. The concept of imagination as potentially both an enabling and a limiting practice in the consumption of media is discussed centrally in this attempt to contribute to an empirically grounded understanding of the role that media play for youth in their striving to 'find a place in life' . In the empirical context presented in the article, imaginations, expanded and circulated by a globalized media circuit, are appropriated and interpreted locally and under particular socio-economic conditions.
This paper discusses the use of essays as tools for communication and reflection in a collaborativeThe ancient Persians thought of the moon as a mirror hung above the earth and reflecting it. That is nonsense. But the distant, the out-of-the-way, the displaced into heights, as it reflects back and leads to an understanding of present reality, may be more realistic than the various kinds of naturalism -that is a special gift to us from reflection. (Bloch et al 1970: 121) THE PROJECTIn the autumn 2007 I participated in a collaborative research project "The Meaning of Work Life", which involved philosopher Anne Marie Pahuus, myself as an anthropologist, and two private companies: the largest privately owned software company in Denmark with around 400 employees located in the city of Århus 2 , and a large national accountancy firm with 900 employees distributed over 29 local offices. The initial contact to Aarhus University 3 was established by the, at that time, CEO of the accountancy firm, and was motivated by a wish or maybe even a need for "something different". As she saw it, the company (and the accounting industry as such) was stuck with a particular way of thinking in their HR management and they needed a new perspective on the predicament of attraction and retention of employees. While the project was still just an idea, the software company heard about it and joined in. With no restrictions at all on our work both companies invited 1 The German word verfremdung means alienation or estrangement, that is, a state of mind in which a spectator sees in a fresh light the things he has hitherto taken for granted. The term is often related to Brecht's theatre in which special effects were used to break with the traditional identification with what was going on on stage and hence reach a critical attitude to what was seen. 2 Århus is the second largest city in Denmark (300.000 inhabitants). 3 The CEO contacted Aarhus University's outreach department and from here the match between Anne Marie Pahuus and me was established (for further information see www.outreach.au.dk). EPIC 2008, pp. 146-159, ISBN 0-9799094-7-3.
Barselslivet er lykkeligt, rigt og meningsfyldt, men det er også kropsligt kaotisk, tidsmæssigt udflydende og i skarp kontrast til hverdagslivet. Mens bleer skiftes og gyld tørres af, inkorporeres denne kontrast som en strukturel belastning i moderskabet.
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