AnthroArt

What are the ‘more-than-human’ experiences of life in a city? While modern urban planning policies focus on the need for green spaces in cities, these are usually controlled environments. However, nature encompasses ecosystems that may include elements often considered disruptive. The creatures we call pests have violated such notions of modernity as long as we have underestimated their disobedience, their relationship to urban politics, and the niche created for them by social inequality. The study of cockroaches offers insights into social dynamics, discourses, and political strategies. Different species of cockroaches, their ecosystems, and their interactions with humans and urban infrastructure co-evolve and mutually influence each other. Cockroaches are integral to broader ecosystems, and their survival and behavior depend not only on self-regulation but also on interactions with their environment, including human activities such as hygiene practices, urbanization, and climate change. This article discusses the infrastructure associated with cockroaches in Bucharest, Romania – the research focuses on kitchen and sewage cockroaches, insects perceived as filthy, useless to the ecosystem, and disruptive to our well-being. It explores the classist and gendered discourses surrounding these insects and investigates the personal experiences and the effects of cockroach infestation on our relationships with others (both with those we live with and our neighbors).

Article by Ruxandra Paduraru, illustrated by Alexandra Hochreiter, read by Katia Pascariu

https://theanthro.art/pests-in-town-cockroaches-in-the-bucharest-urban-imaginary-ruxandra-paduraru/

Across the European Union, a youthful demographic (ages 15-34) is increasingly preoccupied with climate change and sustainability. Nevertheless, there is a significant gap between their intentions and actions, between what they would like to do and what they are able to do. Drawing on a more extensive study on climate change and youth in Romania and the EU, we focus on a problem space that centres around education as the main domain for co-productive interventions that could address this gap. In our research, when discussing youth engagement with climate change, the experts and young people interviewed champion education as a sine qua non condition for empowering youth. However, there is a pervasive structural misunderstanding among policymakers and experts about the perspectives, interests, ways of learning, and thought processes of the youth. This disconnect extends to misconceptions on the most effective ways to educate and engage them in these matters.

Article by Alexandra Ciocănel & Andrada Istrate, illustrated by Melinda Ureczki Lázár

https://theanthro.art/the-kids-are-alright-are-they-exploring-the-intersection-of-climate-change-education-sustainability-and-policy-design-for-empowering-youth-alexandra-ciocanel-andrada-istrate/

The protagonist of this story is Ana (a pseudonym), a Romanian domestic careworker, aged 45. Ana came to work in Italy in 2005 when she was 36 years old. She had no children of her own, but had a niece, whose university education she supported financially. When the niece finished university, and found employment, Ana would divide all the money that she gained every month (€600/month) in two. She would give half of the money to her partner to finish building their house in Romania, and she would keep half for her own expenses in Italy: clothes, food, tablets, monthly internet and telephone passes, cigarettes, and alcohol. In the 11 years she had worked in Italy, Ana also contributed to the renovation of her parents’ house, in a village in eastern Romania. This piece of writing describes in detail the party we organised in Grano in July 2014, at Ana’s request. The material presented comes mainly from this event but is also based on my previous research, between July 2013 and August 2014, on migrant care work with the elderly in the region and the limited amount of time live-in migrant care workers have. In this case, changing the field of interest from the house to a public venue of encounter, from care to the curation of a party, allowed a very powerful shifting of contexts that facilitates understanding.

Article by Gabriela Nicoelscu, illustrated by Oana Hajos, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andrei

https://theanthro.art/celebrating-invisibility-live-in-romanian-badanti-caring-for-the-elderly-in-southeast-italy-gabriela-nicolescu/

Despite the existence of a legal framework that regulates their access to social protection within the European Union, mobile citizens face numerous obstacles in accessing their social rights. Thus, while migration abroad addresses inequalities that migrants face in the country of origin, migrants are in a position of inequality compared to non-migrants when it comes to accessing social protection across borders. Based on interviews with welfare brokers and Romanian migrants in Germany, this text shows that the barriers faced by EU migrants lead to the emergence of various “welfare brokers” – companies, non-governmental organisations, informal intermediaries – who, one one hand, facilitate migrants’ access to cross border social protection and, implicitly, address the inequalities they face on this front. On the other hand, their use of brokerage services reinforce existing inequalities between migrants from different categories.

Article by Alexandra Voivozeanu, illustrated by Lucian Barbu, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andrei

https://theanthro.art/how-do-welfare-intermediaries-help-eu-migrants-access-social-protection-alexandra-voivozeanu/

Public art defines and enhances the world that we inhabit. Here we propose to use its expression in the urban and virtual environment as a mediator for our understanding of how people of various social backgrounds, skill, or disability engage with various public spaces. The article thus reflects on how wellbeing is generated in inclusive public spaces, by drawing on the experience of moving art and culture to the virtual environment. We start from the recent experience of the pandemic and draw on the example of street art – a form of culture designed with the widest public in mind. As new limits have been imposed to the accessibility of traditional forms of culture, public art has been extended and reshaped in the virtual space. This has reopened questions of the value we place in public spaces and to what extent public art can promote inclusivity by making culture more accessible in the real and virtual environment alike. The main reference point are public art projects around which we build an inter-disciplinary dialogue. We start with the perspective of an artist and urban designer and a social scientist. The wider public is drawn into the discussion through a series of podcasts focused on the value we attribute to public spaces.*. Ultimately, we reflect on opportunities to achieve an inclusive public space, by drawing lessons from the integration of virtual and urban street art – as experienced in the example of the Fisart and Virtual Fisart street art festivals **.

Article by Liliana Harding and Corina Nani, illustrated by Corina Nani, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andrei

https://theanthro.art/valuing-art-in-public-spaces-liliana-harding-corina-nani/

Does social inclusion mean that we can eradicate social inequality or even just reduce inequality between certain categories of people and/or groups? Or we need to refresh our thinking and chose the harder way which seems a bit Sisyphusian and instead of focusing on social exclusion and inequalities, to look for cases of social inclusion and social cohesion (in their broader sense) and try to understand it. The situation of the Roma minority might be illustrative. Historically, the Roma population was excluded and marginalized all over the world, yet, there are situations when despite the measurable unequal position in the local community, the relationship between the local Roma and the non-Roma population was free of conflicts. The way the local society organized itself might answer the question of why in certain communities we can feel some kind of social cohesion on which social inclusion can be built later. One of the practices that contribute to maintaining local equilibrium and overcoming ethnic, racial, and class-related prejudices is the practice of Godparenting. In the village, Roma parents choose Hungarian Godparents for their newborn children. Their request is rarely refused by the Hungarians. During the years, the Roma family and the Hungarian family maintains an asymmetrical relationship but still based on trust. In this context, not all, but more social interventions that address inequality are reported as successful compared to more conflictual localities. Ethnic identity gains more cultural importance and its social prestige grows.

Article by Stefánia Toma, illustrated by Melinda Ureczki Lázár, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andrei

https://theanthro.art/godparents-patrons-and-trust-in-ethnically-mixed-rural-communities-in-transylvania-stefania-toma/

Creating spaces of solidarity for the most vulnerable is key to ensuring that some form of social justice is achieved, in a society where socio-economic policies and social attitudes are not the most favorable towards these categories. This article looks at how social canteens and soup kitchens contribute to creating such spaces, focusing on a specific category of vulnerability, homelessness, as a case study. Homeless persons belong to a social group extremely prone to poverty, discrimination, and social exclusion, with difficult or very low access to basic needs such as housing, food, belonging, and security. The purpose of this research is to understand to which extent food access initiatives build spaces which can offer a sense of inclusion and safety to their beneficiaries, while altogether meeting their food needs.

Article by Beatrice Manole, illustrated by József Vass

https://theanthro.art/living-in-precarity-how-social-canteens-and-soup-kitchens-contribute-to-community-solidarity-beatrice-manole/

Why is menstruation considered to be something shameful? As a cis-woman I have experienced and seen how menstruation is depicted around me, either in whispered voices and jokes or perfectly concealed in the commercials. This question was the starting point of my research, only to find out that menstruation is a lens that reveals a range of social inequalities experienced by women. In my qualitative research, I have talked with ten women (ages 50 to 81) regarding their experiences of menstruations during the communist period in Romania in order to better understand the historical context of menstruation in Romania. In the biographical narratives they shared with me, menstruation is described as a private, natural process, an individual experience, which is to stay within the limits of their private lives, rarely shared with closest female friends or in romantic relationships. The political and economic context from 1966 to 1989 had an impact on their perception of their bodies, reproduction, and sexuality because of the ban on abortions instituted by Decree 770. The female bodies became an economic and biological tool that the Communist Party used to secure economic growth and sustain industrial development. Women’s narratives about menstruation introduced me to the privacy of their lives, which allowed me to see the negative effects of pronatalist policies, gender inequality present both within and outside the family, and the false class equality that led to the emergence of interconnected social networks of informal economic practices.

Article by Anca Niță, illustrated by Roma Gavrilă, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andrei

https://theanthro.art/menstruation-social-inequality-and-biopolitics-in-socialist-romania-anca-nita/

With ten children in their household, a family from Bucharest could not remember how many times they were evicted. Dorina and Ioan kept on hiding and moving because of fear of having their kids taken by the social care department. They feared the public institution that was meant to give support to people in their situation. They also had to navigate the constant pressure from Local Police which would fine them for their informal work or their living in abandoned homes. What are the challenges imposed by the politics of the daily life of the urban poor? Who are the actors that trigger and that implement the policing practices within Bucharest? What are the effects of implementing formal and informal policing practices on the urban poor? During my ethnographic endeavor, I observed several dynamics at play within the formal and informal practices of policing the urban poor. The end result seems to be what I would call the local clandestine, the urban poor who fear that their mere existence in the public space might be sanctionable and who finds safety in being unnoticed.

Article by Irina Zamfirescu, illustrated by Rucsandra Enache, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andrei

https://theanthro.art/state-led-vulnerability-and-the-subtle-process-of-constructing-the-local-clandestine-irina-zamfirescu/

A growing critical heritage scholarship interrogates the facets of socio-economic, cultural and even spatial exclusion involved in heritage-making and in preserving the integrity and authenticity – particularly of built heritage, historic monuments or cultural landscapes. In the case of a high-profile UNESCO site in rural Transylvania, most residents have limited (or dissonant) access to the cultural landscape they inhabit. However, this has not led to open contestation and residents have accepted to live with the official heritage enforced by a local minority – the very few remaining heirs of the Saxon settlers who built the village back in the thirteenth century. Locals even participate in the performing and production of the official narrative, as long as they are acknowledged, have a share in the gains of heritage commodification while the cultural or spatial exclusion provides room for informality and freedom from the burden of staging authenticity. I set out to this village as soaring pressure from tourism and media popularity were beginning to have consequences on the local politics and economics of heritage-making, re-opening axes of contestation that had been until then surprisingly well kept in check.

Article by Irina Dobriță, illustrated by Cristina Barsony, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andrei

https://theanthro.art/affording-authenticity-strategies-for-inclusive-heritage-making-in-a-world-heritage-site-irina-dobrita/