Ontological politics - what is it and how is it a matter for concern in ethnographic research? (STS II) - Detailseite

Many in anthropology argue that we are in the midst of an ontological turn. The end of the representational paradigm in ethnography is being taken a step further to emphasise the performativity of (social) scientific method. The world kicks back against simple constructivism and at the same time anthropologist participate in making multiple worlds.
That is all very confusing. This seminar wants to raise a couple of simple questions:
What is meant by ontology when used by protagonists within recent debates around ontological politics?
What sort of ethnographic research do people do when they base their work on this or that notion of ontology.
The seminar will tackle the recent debate in the anthropological and STS literature , identify positions (hopefully), trace their Um- and Hinterland and read a few recent ethnographies that have tried to make the ontological turn productive for their research.
The seminar will take place in English if there is at least one non-German speaker in the room. The literature is all in English in any case.

Texts that may be featured:
Woolgar S, Lezaun J (2013) The wrong bin bag: A turn to ontology in science and technology studies? Social Studies of Science 43 (3):321-340. doi:10.1177/0306312713488820
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, 2012, “Immanence and Fear: Stranger events and subjects in Amazonia,” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 2 (1): 27-43.
A dialogue from Common Knowledge 2004 (3): Ulrich Beck: “The Truth of Others: A Cosmopolitan Approach” (pp. 430-449) and Bruno Latour: “Whose Cosmos, Which Cosmopolitics? Comments on the Peace Terms of Ulrich Beck” (pp. 450-462).
Isabelle Stengers, 2005, “The Cosmopolitical Proposal,” in Bruno Latour & Peter Weibel, eds., Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, pp. 994-1003.
Tim Ingold, 2004, “A Circumpolar Night’s Dream,” in John Clammer et al., eds., Figured Worlds: Ontological Obstacles in Intercultural Relations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 25-57.
Annemarie Mol, 1999, “Ontological Politics: A Word and Some Questions,” in John Law, and J. Hassard, ed., Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 74-89.
Eduardo Kohn, 2013, How Forests Think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Helen Verran, 2011, “On Assemblage: Indigenous Knowledge and Digital Media (2003-2006) and HMS Investigator (1800-1805).” In Tony Bennet & Chris Healey, eds., Assembling Culture. London & New York: Routledge, pp. 163-176.

Die Lehrveranstaltung findet im Institutsgebäude der Europäischen Ethnologie in der Mohrenstraße 41, Raum 107a statt.