This article aims to critically discuss particular advantages, disadvantages and challenges conce... more This article aims to critically discuss particular advantages, disadvantages and challenges concerning ethnographic research within Resistance Studies. By so doing, four methodological aspects of ethnography will be scrutinized in depth. These are epistemological assumptions referred to as the ethnographic stance, the practice of doing participant observation, the emic-etic distinction, and the emphasis on thick description. Fusing James Scott's notion of hidden resistance with Erving Goffman distinction between the frontstage and backstage of self-presentation, this article suggests that ethnographic research methods could be particularly useful to access backstage spheres, and thereby a useful tool for observing hidden resistance practices. As hidden resistance draws its strength from the virtue of being disguised, ethnographic resistance studies imply ethical challenges particular to Resistance Studies. This is especialy relevant in research contexts characterized by high levels of violence and repression.
Both cases seek to undermine repressive Turkish assimilation policies. This article shows how soc... more Both cases seek to undermine repressive Turkish assimilation policies. This article shows how social movements, through constructive resistance practices, can be understood as central actors in processes of social and political transformation, termed 'self-organised development'.
Violence, deaths, fear and sorrow characterise the everyday lives of those in Turkey's Kurdish re... more Violence, deaths, fear and sorrow characterise the everyday lives of those in Turkey's Kurdish region, also known as Northern Kurdistan. Through ethnographic field research, this article explores connections between resistance and emotions by scrutinising empirical observations and activists' narratives during and after participation in a ceremony for a 16-year-old Kurdish boy who had been killed by Turkish forces -a 'martyr' in the eyes of the activists. By fusing empirical ethnographic data with James Scott's theoretical works on hidden resistance and Arlie Russell Hochschild's theorisations of emotional management, two distinct forms of what will be termed emotional resistance will be pointed out. Emotional resistance refers to conscious attempts to manipulate or manoeuvre around one's own emotional expressions or reactions in order to undermine the power of psychological or direct violence in political contexts.
Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences is the newest contribution to the bou... more Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences is the newest contribution to the bourgeoning Kurdish Studies literature. The edited volume unites eight junior scholars who offer ethnographic studies based on their latest research. The chapters are clustered around four main headings: women’s participation, paramilitary, space, and infrapolitics of resistance. Each heading assembles two chapters which are in dialog with each other and offer complementary and at times competing perspectives. All four headings correspond to the emerging domains of research in Kurdish studies. Authors share a micro-level focus and take extensive field work as the basis of their argument. In the wake of massive urban destructions and renewed warfare in the Kurdish region in Turkey, this volume also stakes a stance against the memoricide of the Kurdish municipal experience and cultural production.
Uploads
Papers by Minoo Koefoed
Books by Minoo Koefoed