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Study group Anthropology, heritage and cultural imaginary - ANTROPIA

Reference of the Group:

GIUV2016-302

 
Description of research activity:
The Research Group on New Cultural Imaginaries was created with the aim of investigating the emergence, transformation and reinvention of new cultural imaginaries that will be explored on the basis of the thematic items of new spiritual forms as an expression of meaning, the reinvention of utopias, the challenges of sustainability and the new processes of patrimonialisation. Modern and post-modern deficits of meaning involve the recovery and reconfiguration of old forms of transcendent knowledge linked to ancient philosophies and religions. Thus, they are transformed into new cultural creativities to construct a vision of the sacred linked to innovative transnational forms of ecology, spirituality, economics, politics and social relations that involve the recovery of ancestral practices and knowledge, as well as the arrival of other medicines and therapies in the West that have led to a growing number of people combining the use of biomedical medicine with other medicines and therapeutic tools. This "re-enchantment of the world" is inscribed in a context of progressive de-institutionalisation of religion that empowers personal research in the individual sphere and generates the...The Research Group on New Cultural Imaginaries was created with the aim of investigating the emergence, transformation and reinvention of new cultural imaginaries that will be explored on the basis of the thematic items of new spiritual forms as an expression of meaning, the reinvention of utopias, the challenges of sustainability and the new processes of patrimonialisation. Modern and post-modern deficits of meaning involve the recovery and reconfiguration of old forms of transcendent knowledge linked to ancient philosophies and religions. Thus, they are transformed into new cultural creativities to construct a vision of the sacred linked to innovative transnational forms of ecology, spirituality, economics, politics and social relations that involve the recovery of ancestral practices and knowledge, as well as the arrival of other medicines and therapies in the West that have led to a growing number of people combining the use of biomedical medicine with other medicines and therapeutic tools. This "re-enchantment of the world" is inscribed in a context of progressive de-institutionalisation of religion that empowers personal research in the individual sphere and generates the phenomenon of "believing without belonging" while articulating modern, psycho-physical-spiritual movements that offer an experiential, emotional, mystical, strongly eclectic religiosity, with a pragmatic salvationist orientation, now and here, and a holism or universalism tinged with scientism, ecology and generic humanitarianism. Finally, we approach the new cultural imaginaries through sustainability, and in particular, the sustainability of the food system is also of concern to the practitioners of these new spiritualities who are protagonists of the emergence of new values and lifestyles. Finally, we approach the new cultural imaginaries through sustainability, and in particular, the sustainability of the food system, which is also of concern to the practitioners of these new spiritualities who are protagonists of the emergence of new values and lifestyles. However, food consumption practices and pathways show great inequality, not only in the degree to which the ethical dilemma of animal exploitation and ecosystem depletion is perceived, but also in the possibilities of accessing a healthier and more sustainable food system and food. These main items will also allow us to approach a series of cross-cutting analytical issues, among which we must highlight gender (segregation and social stratification around imaginaries), insofar as in the articulation of these phenomena we can observe clear differences between women and men, as well as globalisation (imaginaries accompany different globalisations), identity (adaptation and/or resistance to globalisation), universalism (tension between universal concepts and local realities), utopian imaginaries (new utopias of social transformation), gender and global communities (contemporary imaginaries constructed from articulation between global social networks).
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Scientific-technical goals:
  • Objetivo general: Este grupo de estudio nace con el objetivo de analizar los fenómenos sociales contemporáneos, desde la mirada antropológica, vinculados al surgimiento, la transformación y la reinvención de los procesos de patrimonialización, las nuevas espiritualidades, la transformación de imaginarios culturales y las relaciones interétnicas.
  • Conocer las nuevas transformaciones urbanas (sociales, económicos y políticas) sobre los diferentes imaginarios y prácticas culturales, observando las discursos y narrativas sobre que es la ciudad, así, como de las diferentes percepciones manejadas sobre el urbano y los usos que comportan.
  • Establecer en qué medida han incidido los diferentes modelos de espiritualidad sobre la sociedad y los nuevos imaginarios mediante la observación diacrónica, así como profundizar en su construcción sociocultural.
  • Identificar procesos de patrimonialización observando como se articulan, toman forma y resuelven, con especial atención a las condiciones de producción (ambientales, políticas, económicas, sociales y culturales), la memoria y en los imaginarios culturales que les estructuran.
  • Identificar la creación y difusión de los nuevos imaginarios culturales en las diferentes plataformas de la sociedad digital, que han posibilitado la eclosión de nuevas formas de sociabilidad y de narrativas que cuestionan, amplían y relativizan los parámetros en que se concebida y debatida la realidad social.
  • Discernir la percepción social y las expectativas de los nuevos imaginarios sobre los procesos de patrimonialización, las transformaciones urbanas, la alimentación, la espiritualidad y las nuevas narrativas en la sociedad digital, viendo como se han ido modificando a lo largo del tiempo y como lo han hecho, concretando el peso de los diferentes factores que determinan el imaginario en cada momento.
  • Abordar, desde una perspectiva histórica-antropológica, el estudio de las relaciones interétnicas, en especial entre mayorías y minorías etnicoculturales, así como el impacto de procesos e ideologías globales en las dinámicas y relaciones de poder locales.
 
Research lines:
  • New Spiritualities, Health and Welfare.Description and analysis of the wide variety of nutritional, therapeutic, esoteric and spiritual disciplines and techniques that have arrived in the West and through which the imaginaries of the body, health and spirituality have been modified to form a new field of social action.
  • Virtual Ethnography and Digital Culture.This line focuses on how the Internet and digital communication platforms provide an unprecedented context for the creation and dissemination of new cultural imaginaries, such as emancipatory utopias, scientific narratives, fake news and disinformation, anti-globalisation movements, suspicion and conspiracy thinking, and political dystopias.
  • Sustainability, Food and health.Investigate the relationship between sustainability and food, in order to reflect on how different imaginaries, itineraries and food consumption practices are articulated in relation to sustainability and health.
  • Patrimonialization processes (Cultural, natural and intangible heritage).Identifying heritage processes (cultural, natural and intangible heritage) by observing how they are exressed and shaped in different contexts, giving special attention to production conditions, as well as memory and nostalgia. Analysing the cultural imaginaries that structure them.
  • Historical anthropology and interethnic relations.From an integrative perspective of the different social sciences and humanities perspectives, this line will investigate interethnic and interreligious relations, in particular the majority-minority relationship, and the impact of global processes and ideologies on local power dynamics and relations.
  • Urban Transformations .This line focuses on the knowledge of new urban transformations (social, economic and political), giving attention to cultural imaginaries and practices and, especially, to discourses and narratives on the concept of the city and to the different perceptions of social actors.
 
Group members:
Name Nature of participation Entity Description
BEATRIZ SANTAMARINA CAMPOSDirectorUniversitat de València
Research team
MIQUEL ANGEL RUIZ TORRESMemberUniversitat de València
MARIA JOSE ALBERT RODRIGOMemberUniversitat de València
JULIO RAMIRO BODIMemberUniversitat de València
MARIA TERESA VICENTE RABANAQUEMemberUniversitat de València
XAVIER PEIRO PENALBAMemberUniversitat de València
ALBERT MONCUSI FERRECollaboratorUniversitat de València
EVA MOMPO LOPEZCollaboratorUniversitat de València
MARIA TERESA OJEDA MATACollaboratorUniversitat de València
 
CNAE:
  • Research and experimental development in the social sciencies and humanities
 
Associated structure:
  • Sociology and Social Anthropology