This presentation explores two possibilities for engaging with moral imagining in anthropological research. At a theoretical level, I inquire on the synergistic effects that a dialogue with contemporary theories in the field of peace and conflict studies, particularly with the Theory of the Many Peaces (W. Dietrich), can produce. Methodologically, this paper explores the potential of research methods based on creative practices in line with the approach of Conflict Transformation (J.P. Lederach).
As an examplary field to inquire on the potential of this interdisciplinary dialogue, I address the issue of ‘(in-)dignity’. As the movement of ‘Los Indignados’ (as well as ‘Occupy Wall Street’ and others) shows, ‘human dignity’ has become a field of omnipresent disenchantment worldwide. Concomitantly, while ‘dignity’ as a unifying concept has been rightly questioned by anthropologists for its imperialistic Eurocentric baggage, it still continues to play a key legitimatory role for Human Rights work and social movements in the critical times we live in. Last but not least, climate crisis pushes us to question the destructive limitations that a ‘(only-)human dignity’ has brought forth. ‘Dignity’ has become as much necessary as it has become empty of meaning. How can anthropology challenge the dystopias of dignity and envisage new perspectives?
Considering that the field of Peace Studies and the approach of Conflict Transformation explicitly aim to envisage ‘better futures’ and develop tools to ‘make them real’, engaging in this interdisciplinary dialogue promises to be extremely fruitful for an imaginative anthropology. In this line, using the pluralistic and relational approach of the Many Peaces Theory, this paper explores ‘dignity’ as a plural and relational category. Exploring embodied experiences of dignity through traditional and creative methods of anthropological research becomes then central to recovering (an) enlivened sense(s) for dignity.
