Workshops > At the crossroads of the arts and social sciences: pitfalls and opportunities for collaborative research practices in the Americas

 AT THE CROSSROADS OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES: PITFALLS AND POSSIBILITIES OF COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PRACTICES IN THE AMERICAS

Thursday, October 2nd from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Centre des Colloques, room 3.02

Organization : Irene Pochetti (Université Paris-Est Créteil) and Marjolaine David (Université de Bordeaux).

Speakers : Delphine Lacombe (CNRS), Charlotte Chloé Ada Pescayre (LESC/EREA, Université Paris Nanterre), Francesca Cozzolino (Ensad-Lab, École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs), Léa Bernard (EHESS), Valentina Rivas Robles (Universidad Nacional de La Plata), Coralie Maurin (Institut National de la Recherche pour l'Agriculture et l'Environnement (INRAE)

Abstract :

This workshop proposal is the fruit of a reflection between two projects linking the arts and the humanities and social sciences developed within the IdA: the Constelaciones project, which focuses on the creation of a digital archive platform of Latin American street activisms, co-constructed by researchers, activists and artists, and the Del Barrio al desierto project, which, based on cross-research between an ethnographer and a photographer, looks at youth in working-class neighborhoods in Mexico through their circles. The Del Barrio al desierto project, based on cross-disciplinary research by an ethnographer and a photographer, looks at young people in Mexico's working-class neighborhoods through their movement between different spaces and spiritual practices.

These two projects share a collaborative dimension in that they involve non-academic actors in the processes of knowledge production and dissemination, thus putting into tension the traditional subject/object relationship that diagrams field practices in the social sciences. They are thus part of new research methodologies that recognize the multiplicity of knowledge production sites and the non-autonomy of the academic research field. This research also places a fundamental emphasis on the issues of image creation, reproduction, conservation and circulation, which are at the heart of both projects.

Far from being self-evident, these dialogues involve questioning disciplinary achievements and givens and taking into account particular constraints, and even, sometimes, reconciling ideal and reality, theory and practice. Even if the scientific literature around open sciences (Anglada, Abadal, 2018), action-participation research (Fals Borda, 2009) or even, more recently, activist research (Benasayag,Sztulwark, 2000; Colectivo Situaciones, 2003), nourished by feminist and decolonial epistemology (Haraway, 1988 ; Lugones, 2011, Rivera Cusiquansqui), provides a foundation for these approaches; their behind-the-scenes aspects, and particularly the difficulties encountered during implementation, sometimes remain unthought of, or even invisible, to the benefit of valorizing their innovative potential.

However, these zones of discomfort represent - when considered - fertile spaces for reflection and creation. This workshop looks at the grey areas and the pitfalls of these new research territories in the specific context of Americanist research. How are convergences of actors and interests concretely achieved? How do North-South asymmetries permeate these research spaces combining the arts and social sciences? What are the specific issues linked to the production and circulation of images in the context of these scientific cohabitations (Breviglieri, 2021)?


We invite workshop participants to present research in progress that addresses one or more of these questions.