Night Ethnography

Walking, looking and mapping: An introduction to the fieldwork methods on the urban night

During the celebration of the first International Conference on Night Studies, it was celebrated a master-class on ethnographic fieldwork applied on night time.

It was a theoretical session that explored the methodological understanding of social facts based on the naturalistic and processual approach to social life proposed by classic authors such as Radcliffe-Brown of Herbert Blumer.

In this session were presented particular qualitative methodologies that support case-centred, empirical and grounded explorations of the field: participant observation, informal conversations, in-depth interviews and mapping.

The main objective was to acquire the understanding of how ethnography is crafted in urban settings, from the first exploratory walks and ideas (experienced in the field trip) to the more engaged and deep recognition of the social order produced and performed in the night realm.

This workshop was directed by Daniel Malet, know more about him here below

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Daniel Malet is BA in Cultural Anthropology (2005) and History (2011), and holds a PhD Degree in Urban Anthropology (2011) from the University of Barcelona. My doctoral thesis work puts forward  Praça do Rossio, a historical and ethnographic research focused on the most emblematic space in Lisbon’s downtown. taking as case studies the cities of Barcelona and Lisbon, my research has mainly focused on anthropology of urban space, city policies, collective action and olisipography. I have also carried out some ethnography on Santiago island (Cape Verde archipelago), where I acquired experience on mobility conceptions, risk practices and urban renewal projects. Currently I am enrolled as a FCT postdoctoral research fellow at the CIES-IUL (Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa), conducting a 6-year research on ERASMUS students seen as a short-term migration actors involved on heritagization processes, space production and transnational dynamics. Besides this, I’m an active member of the Research Group on Social Control and Exclusion (GRECS) from the Catalan Institute of Antrhopology (ICA) and the Anthropology Department of the University of Barcelona.

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