Ioana Florea - Exploring Ethnicity in the City of Experts

My research project starts from the social constructivism idea that reality is how people perceive it and how they think it is – because their perceptions and beliefs lead to practices; of course, this is not a “one way” determination, but a circular process, from practice to perception and from perception to practice and further on.
The understanding of “ethnicity” used in this project it is based on: 1) philosopher Michel Foucault’s power-discourse theory – stating that any public affirmation is a discourse and it involves power relations (being either micro- or macro-social); and 2) historian Eric Hobsbawm’s invented traditions theory – stating that culture, tradition, cultural identity are continuously transformed, negotiated, rediscovered or forgotten by the different social groups associated to them.
For example, ethnicity can be used by a group, as a legitimizing discourse to reclaim certain ancient rights or properties; on the contrary, it can be used to deny the rights of a certain group; or a certain ethnic tradition, such as a celebration or an artefact, can be advertised and commercialized as tourist attraction, by romanticizing (and thus reinventing) its meaning.
From this double perspective, ethnicity can be analysed as a fluid concept (as opposed to fixed), like a mirror revealing social relationships, social contexts, transformations of social realities.
I would like to turn this “mirror” towards the future, in order to illustrate how perceptions, discourses, re-inventions of ethnic issues would develop, and thus shape the future cities. I choose to study this process at the local level of Ostrava; it is a representative case study because it is a city in transformation, with many possible futures and with similarities (economic, political, historical, and social) to many other East European cities.
So, in order to turn towards the future, I propose to turn towards the ones who build it or who will build it: through policy, through the power of decision, through expert discourses about it, through the sharing of knowledge and information about it; among the social actors playing this role, the social sciences scholars are of special importance – as experts of the social reality.
I plan to explore the social reality of the social sciences scholars, in order to (at least partly) answer the questions: how do social sciences professors teach about ethnicity (generally and locally)? how do students – the future experts of social reality – perceive ethnicity and ethnical issues (as individuals and as specialists)? how is this topic reflected in courses, projects, articles, planned programs, at the Faculty of Social Studies in Ostrava?
Social knowledge (and not only), although aiming to be objective, cannot totally escape subjectivity – but is can be sincere, by clearly stating its premises and its reference system; it is what Max Weber understood through “axiological neutrality” in social sciences. The research will offer the social sciences scholars (professors and students) to come closer to “axiological neutrality” and state their perspectives.
In addition, the Faculty and some of its professors are partners in the “Ostrava European Capital of Culture” Project and their approach on ethnicity will have an imprint on the overall Project; and the Project, if implemented, will have an imprint on the entire city of Ostrava and its region – thus, directly creating the city of the future and its approach of ethnical issues. This part of the research can open a wider discussion about the Project and its multi-layered impact.
The exploration will be based on qualitative instruments: in-depth interviews (unstructured and semi-structured) with University professors and students, audio-recorded. The analysis of interviews will try to picture the city of the future, as seen and invented by the social experts, and the role ethnicity will play as a social discourse, in that context. I will also edit an audio-installation with key words from the interviews, illustrating the “mirror” effect of the study’s central concept.