Ethnographies of slow violence: Studying the effects of rural disintegration

Vorbrugg A. Ethnographies of slow violence: Studying the effects of rural disintegration // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №1. P. 31-52.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-1-31-52

Annotation

The article considers the nexus of slow violence as a concept, research focus and problem—on the one hand, and the practices and politics of ethnographic fieldwork and writing—on the other hand. It highlights two aspects; first, the epistemological alliances between researchers and research participants which confront forms of violence that as if remain partly elusive to both sides; second, the multi-temporal ethnographies that work through drawn-out and complex timescapes of violence by tracing cross-temporal connections. The notions of fieldwork are still defined mainly in spatial terms, and so the issue of slow violence is an important reminder to pay more attention to the temporal dimension. The article demonstrates how rural dwellers make sense of complex changes and loss by using the ruins of disintegration as signifiers, and how researchers can draw on this in their analysis. It is based on the ethnographic research conducted in rural Russia which shows how the concept of slow violence helps to make sense of and to make visible the forms of loss and dispossession that often remain elusive in academic and public representations of the Russian countryside.

Keywords

slow violence, multi-temporal ethnography, politics of representation, politics of fieldwork, rural Russia

About the authors

Vorbrugg Alexander, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Geography, University of Bern (Switzerland). Hallerstr. 12, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Translator: Trotsuk Irina V., DSc (Sociology), Senior Researcher, Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Researcher, Chayanov Research Center, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp, 82.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

 

Read 1213 times Last modified on Mar 15 2023

Russian Peasant Studies. Scientific journal

Center for Agrarian studies of the Russian Presidental Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)

Hard copies of the journal can be purchased at the Delo e-store or by subscription in the "Press of Russia" Agency (subscription index - Т81017).

Friends and Partners

 


Rosa Luxemburg foundation
was a partner of Russian Peasant Studies before it was removed from list of approved foundations in 2022

Subscription

Here you can make free subscription to mailing list of our Journal.
captcha 
Subscription allows to receive letters with links to download latest Volume and articles in PDF.