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Empathy in anthropology
Symposium of October 12th and 13th, 2007, co-organised by the French Association of the anthropologists, the Mediterranean Home of the sciences of the Man (MMSH) and the Centre of Study of the Africain Worlds (Donatecarcenter.com)
Room Duby / Mediterranean Home of the Sciences of the Man / 5, street of the Castle of the Clock, 13090 Aix-en-Provence
French Association of the Anthropologists, IDEMEC, Donatecarcenter.com
Symposium organised by Ghislaine GALLENGA and BRUNO MARTINELLI
Programme
Friday, October 12th, 2007 
9 h 00
Reception of the participants
9 h 30
Unveiling of the aerial aixoise of AFA
Addresses : Bernard Morel (manager de la MMSH), Laurent Bazin (president de l' AFA), Dionigi Albera (manager de l' IDEMEC), Jacky Bouju (manager du Donatecarcenter.com-Aix)
10 h 00
Introduction of symposium Ghislaine Gallenga, Bruno Martinelli
10 h 45 Pause
11 h 00
Forms and levels of empathy in the inquiry of ground
President of session : Laurent Bazin
- Reciprocal empathy in situation of crisis, Ann Montjaret
- Empathy of the researcher, empathy of the actors : methodological continual coming and going, Yannis Papadaniel
11 h 40 Debate
12 h 30 Meals
14 h 30
Empathy, sympathy, antipathy (1)
President of session : Bruno Martinelli
- Work without affinity : the ethnologist to the "converting" , Sandra Fancello
- Empathy and understanding of imagination of violence, Alexandra Cimpric
15 h 10 Debate
16 h 00 Pause
16 h 20 Empathy, sympathy, antipathy (2)
- Shared experience, empathy and building of knowledges, Magalie Sizorn
- Body-stake. Ethnology of dance visited again, Julie Boukobza
17 h 00 Debate
18 h 00 Cocktail dînatoire
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
9 h 30
Empathy and anthropology of the close
President of session Jeanne Favret-Saada
- Empathy to include a job : "wings" of contemporary dance, Audrey Bottineau and Betty Lefèvre
- Empathy, a "tool" furthermore for the anthropologist : the administrative reception of the foreigners in France, Mylène Chambon
10 h 15 Pause
10 h 30
- Between pathos and logos, reflexion on distance in anthropology, Giulia Fabbiano
10 h 50 Debate
11 h 30 Synthesis of fence, Ghislaine Gallenga, Bruno Martinelli
Presentation
Neither new or employed, the question of empathy is central in many contemporary anthropological jobs. Malinowski promoter of « observation participant » had revealed the tricks of the ethnographer in the posthumous newspaper. Geertz had also tackled the question of empathy, some years ago, when he implicated the claim of the anthropologist to restore « the point of view of the indigenous ». Many contemporary jobs explain conditions in which the ethnologists initiate then organise their inquiries of ground in circles and most various contexts in Africa or in Oceania as in France and in Europe. Although the firm is seeded with traps, it is possible to put social status in contact (and psychological) of inquiry with the process of building of sense and of knowledge ethnographic work of which is result. This requirement of reflexion on empathy comes at the time when a deep revival of questioning is observable in jobs which put the emphasis on forms of altérité characteristics of the industrial and urban societies. The polemical dimension takes a preponderant place in the choices of objects, steps, objectives, the ethical and technical conditions of current research. The emergence of concerns centered on empathy, in the broad sense and so that it is opportune to examine in a comparative way, is one of the revealing of displacements of fields and of buildings of new objects in which ethnology thinks today it is hired.
Main questions approached in the course of symposium :
How is the empathy built in the course of the ethnographic inquiry ? The question of empathy cannot be merged with those of immersion and of observation participant. If it is a question of understanding social or cultural practices holders of stocks of altérité, how is this methodological position implemented in some current researches on sexual identity, sociabilities of suburbs, the world of firm and of job, cultures of exclusion or of violence, the situations of closed hearing, new paradigms of the altérité or "cultural" claims ?
Does the empathy contribute to the production of knowledge ? Is the empathy of which they will see that she can be connoted idéologiquement by ideas of identification or of fusional understanding a necessary resource, though according to various modalities, for the production of anthropological knowledge ? If, beyond language, empathy opens the way to some understanding of non-verbal suggesting impression or phantasm to achieve the implicit, or even the intimate, which are modalities for every research field ?
What ethical problems raises empathy ? It is necessary to wonder about the impact of invasifs processes from elements of studied culture such as linguistic practices, lived relations, representations or the imagination of other one in ethnographic relation. If empathy is the reason to be of the ground, it is a question of determining its effects and its consequences in the building of speech and of knowledge on all floors of the step of research.
List of the participants
DIONIGI ALBERA, NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, IDEMEC LAURENT BAZIN, NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, CLERSE AUDREY BOTTINEAU, Doctorante, University of Rouen JACKY BOUJU, Master of conferences, University of Provence, Donatecarcenter.com JULIE BOUKOBZA, Post-Doctorante, IREMAN MYLÈNE CHAMBON, Doctorante, IDEMEC ALEXANDRA CIMPRIC, Doctorante, Donatecarcenter.com GIULIA FABBIANO, EHESS / NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SANDRA FANCELLO, NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, Donatecarcenter.com JEANNE FAVRET-SAADA, head d' Études, EPHE GHISLAINE GALLENGA, Mistress of conferences, University of Provence BETTY LEFEVRE, Teacher, University of Rouen BRUNO MARTINELLI, Professor, University of Provence, Donatecarcenter.com ANN MONTJARET, NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, CERLIS BERNARD MOREL, Professor, University of Provence YANNIS PAPADANIEL, Research helper, University of Lausanne MAGALIE SIZORN, ATER, University of Rouen THIERRY WENDLING, Master asistant, University of Neuchâtel
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