Die Amerikas: Forschungskolloquium zu den Amerikas aus kulturwissenschaftlicher Sicht

Dr. Raúl Acosta (Universität Konstanz)

‘Toma-la Ciudad’: Intersubjective Persuasion through Mutimodal Activism in a Mexican City Museum

 In the autumn of 2013, an activist network in Guadalajara, Mexico, mounted a museum exhibition and organised a series of events to persuade urban dwellers and government officials of the need to address mounting problems in the city. They used the name ‘Toma-la Ciudad’ (take the city) for the whole series of events to encourage urban dwellers to reappropriate the city, or make it their own. This paper analyses the events as an effort of intersubjective persuasion, in which activists sought to stimulate experiences in participants to help them understand the problems and potential solutions that were suggested in the talks, happenings, and exhibition. Intersubjectivity is here considered as not limited to language, but rather immersed in a phenomenological arena. By spurring reflection on how everyone experiences the city, activists sought to break down some of the barriers that have characterised Mexico’s (and Latin America’s) urban inequality. As many other cities around the world, Guadalajara has gone through an accelerated expansion in size, inhabitants, and number of vehicles, with infrastructure and policies that do not ameliorate the frictions caused by such growth. Traffic jams and high levels of pollution are some of the results of this situation. In this context, numerous activist groups have emerged to address specific or multiple problems. Over the last few years, some of these groups have clustered in coalitions in order to improve their potential influence. ‘Toma-la Ciudad’ represented the launch of a new network, simply called ‘Tomala’, which has since sought to work as an umbrella organization for dozens of civil society groups.

Wann?            Donnerstag, 28. April 2016, 18 -20 Uhr

Wo?                Oettingenstr. 67, Raum L155 (Obergeschoss)

Veranstalter:  Institut für Ethnologie Lageplan

Programm zu den kulturwissenschaftlichen Forschungen in den Amerikas unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Eveline Dürr für das Sommersemester 2016 hier zum Download (70 KB).

Mehr Informationen zu Vorträgen am Institut für Ethnologie im Sommersemester 2016 finden Sie unter „Veranstaltungen".

Sie können auch das Archiv mit den Veranstaltungen der vergangenen Jahre besuchen.