When Time Freezes: Socio-Anthropological Research on Social Crises

Abstract

Social and cultural anthropologists have made a unique, relevant and anti-normative contribution to the study of crises. By means of ethnographic fieldwork in specific settings, anthropologists have provided significant information on how social groups try to cope with critical situations in everyday life resorting to different strategies, forms of cooperation or political action. Simultaneously, anthropology has brought to light the role played by cognitive schemata and symbolic resources in making sense of crisis situations, turning them intelligible and developing possible resolutions. Anthropology has carried out important studies on how people experience time, give meaning to and produce plausible images of the future in crisis situations, when time freezes. The main theoretical contributions to the study of crises will be discussed, together with a number of empirical studies among which special attention will be paid to those carried out in Latin America, including my own research on the experiences and responses of the middle class during the 2001 Argentine crisis.Keywords: crisis; social anthropology; time; experience; Latin America Los antropólogos sociales y culturales han hecho una contribución única, relevante y anti-normativa a los estudios de crisis. Mediante el trabajo de campo etnográfico en escenarios específicos, los antropólogos han proporcionado información importante sobre cómo los grupos sociales tratan de hacer frente a situaciones críticas en la vida cotidiana por medio de diferentes estrategias, formas de cooperación o acción política. Al mismo tiempo, la antropología ha puesto de manifiesto el papel que desempeñan los esquemas cognitivos y los recursos simbólicos para dar sentido a las situaciones de crisis, tornándolas inteligibles y desarrollando posibles soluciones. La antropología ha llevado a cabo importantes estudios sobre cómo las personas experimentan el tiempo, dan sentido y producen imágenes del futuro plausibles en situaciones de crisis, cuando el tiempo se congela. Aquí se discutirán las principales contribuciones teóricas a los estudios de crisis, junto con una serie de investigaciones empíricas, entre las cuales se prestará especial atención a aquellas llevadas a cabo en América Latina, incluso mis propios estudios sobre las experiencias y las respuestas de la clase media durante la crisis argentina de 2001.

Repensar la crisis. Una estrategia para investigar la crisis política argentina de 2001

“…El objetivo de estos trabajos no ha sido normativo ni teleológico sino que se han enfocado en entender cómo los sujetos perciben, categorizan, dan sentido y actúan en condiciones sociales críticas. Aquí las crisis refieren a discontinuidades temporales; los sujetos perciben un quiebre en una secuencia que modifica lo que hasta entonces era de una determinada manera (Visacovsky: 2017) Es decir, frente a las crisis los actores apelan a esquemas o marcos interpretativos que les permitan entender su situación (material) presente y lograr algún grado de previsibilidad o proyección hacia el futuro. Estos marcos son dinámicos y objeto de luchas políticas y sociales.…”

The days Argentina stood still. History, nation and imaginable futures in the public interpretations of the Argentine crisis at the beginning of the twenty-first century

“…From the perspective of the medical conception in which this notion was originated, a crisis is a turning point because when it breaks out, it is impossible to know the outcome of a situation, i.e., if a patient will improve or worsen (Habermas, 1976;Holton, 1987;Koselleck, 1988). It is a temporary disruption in which the future does not appear as the predictable result of the continuity between past and present, so time is perceived as stagnant: something is no longer what it used to be, but it has not yet become what it is meant to be (Visacovsky, 2011b(Visacovsky, , 2017. The idea of crisis implies the inability to envision the future and it is, therefore, a time that can only be lived as uncertain (Koselleck, 1988); that is what Claudio Lomnitz-Adler (2003, p. 132) calls a present saturation, i.e., a collective aversion to socialize viable and desirable future images, close to the idea of frozen time (Visacovsky, 2017) and the classic liminality (Horvath;Thomassen;Wydra, 2015).…”

“…It is a temporary disruption in which the future does not appear as the predictable result of the continuity between past and present, so time is perceived as stagnant: something is no longer what it used to be, but it has not yet become what it is meant to be (Visacovsky, 2011b(Visacovsky, , 2017. The idea of crisis implies the inability to envision the future and it is, therefore, a time that can only be lived as uncertain (Koselleck, 1988); that is what Claudio Lomnitz-Adler (2003, p. 132) calls a present saturation, i.e., a collective aversion to socialize viable and desirable future images, close to the idea of frozen time (Visacovsky, 2017) and the classic liminality (Horvath;Thomassen;Wydra, 2015). Those undergoing the time of crisis cannot know how or when it will end, but they can still imagine possible outcomes; and in doing so, they forge possible solutions and scenarios for political action.…”

“…These interpretations embedded in narratives constitute a symbolic precondition for the organization of present experiences. A new future has to be designed and imposed on society, both by way of a consensus as well as by disputing other possible futures (Visacovsky, 2017). In parallel, the same perception of the crisis as a public and general issue must be imposed, as a critique (critique and crisis are related terms, see Koselleck, 1988;Roitman, 2014) of the current interpretation of a political project embodied in the state (Hay, 1996).…”

Digital Dentistry: Pandemics, Problems, And Panaceas

“…Anthropologists call such an event a “liminal moment in which a given order that is considered normal or desired is dissolved, breaks down, and is affected by a decomposition or unbalance that needs to be restored”. 1 Many of these disruptions transformed our everyday lives resulting in a deceleration of everyday life, the shrinkage of social spaces, the collapsing of work and domestic spaces, and the closure of schools and businesses. One positive outcome of this chaos has been the role digital technologies have and continue to play in mitigating the personal and social uncertainties associated with this crisis.…”