SIEF Summer School

Convened by Prof. Dr. Monique Scheer (Ludwig-Uhland-Institut für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft, University of Tübingen)

Supported by the Institutional Strategy by the University of Tübingen (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, ZUK 63), the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), the CRC 923 on “Threatened Orders”, and the Tübinger Vereinigung für Volkskunde e. V. (TVV)

This international summer school combines two highly debated topics: trust and resistance. From protest to critical consumption, to the do-it-yourself movement, to radical gardening or alternative health care: when groups are formed in resistance to an ‘establishment’ or ‘mainstream’, they often express a lack of trust in the ‘powers that be’ – therefore, practices of mistrust seem to be constitutive for such movements. On the other hand, within the group it is important to establish trust in the alternative models being tried out. Thus, it would seem that trust and mistrust operate in these cases as a dynamic motor for change. Thinking about the conceptualization of trust and mistrust will necessarily be part of the discussion. Is trust an attitude, an ethic, a virtue, or a feeling, perhaps even an emotion? From the ethnographic perspective, it makes sense to look at trust and mistrust in connection with the practices that mobilize and cultivate them.
The summer school invites scholars from the fields of European ethnology, social and cultural anthropology, sociology, and history who have published important contributions on the topic. The focus of the lectures is on looking at trust/mistrust at the micro-level of everyday life and social interactions, including conceptual and methodological considerations. Keynotes and lectures are open to the public; a registration is not required.