Books by Simone Pfeifer
Social Media im Transnationalen Alltag , 2020
Welche Rolle spielen digitale Medien im transnationalen sozialen Alltag? Für Senegales_innen in B... more Welche Rolle spielen digitale Medien im transnationalen sozialen Alltag? Für Senegales_innen in Berlin und Dakar erfüllen sie eine besondere Funktion: Mobiltelefone, Social Media, digitale Fotografie und Videos ermöglichen es, abwesende Personen – Geschwister, Freunde oder Ehepartner – auf spezifische Weise präsent zu machen.
Simone Pfeifers medienethnografische Arbeit bezieht die Perspektiven aus Deutschland und Senegal gleichberechtigt in die Untersuchung ein und zeigt, wie Senegales_innen ihren sozialen Alltag durch transnationale Medienpraktiken gestalten. Die aktuelle Forschung zu Migration und Medien wird dabei durch den Fokus auf Visualität und die Bedeutung von Bildern bei der Gestaltung von sozialer und emotionaler Nähe erweitert.
Edited Volumes & Special Issues by Simone Pfeifer
The entanglement of Jihad, Political Violence, and Media has determined the lives of Muslims in E... more The entanglement of Jihad, Political Violence, and Media has determined the lives of Muslims in Europe and the US over the past 20 years. This book unravels the nexus of these elements, to critically examine how their conjunction is perpetuated, reproduced, or disputed. In 16 case studies, the contributors critically reflect on the identification of jihad with political violence, address the academic, legal, political and broader public production of knowledge on this topic, examine the aesthetic formations involved in the mediation and reaffirmation of this narrow understanding, explore the experiential worlds of people whose ideas and actions are labelled as and affected by notions of violent jihad, and illuminate the institutional and media contexts (e.g. of archives) in which an entanglement of jihad and political violence takes effect, with profound consequences.
This volume decentres dominant discourses on so-called jihadist actors and deradicalization contexts to offer more nuanced understandings of the political and socio-cultural contexts.
Jihadi Audiovisuality and Its Entanglements: Meanings, Aesthetics, Appropriations (Edinburgh University Press), 2020
In 12 case studies, this book examines the different ways in which Jihadi groups and their suppor... more In 12 case studies, this book examines the different ways in which Jihadi groups and their supporters use visualisation, sound production and aesthetic means to articulate their cause in online as well as offline contexts.
Divided into four thematic sections, the chapters probe Jihadi appropriation of traditional and popular cultural expressions and show how, in turn, political activists appropriate extremist media to oppose and resist the propaganda. By conceptualising militant Islamist audiovisual productions as part of global media aesthetics and practices, the authors shed light on how religious actors, artists, civil society activists, global youth, political forces, security agencies and researchers engage with mediated manifestations of Jihadi ideology to deconstruct, reinforce, defy or oppose the messages.
Papers by Simone Pfeifer
AllegraLab, 2024
This paper explores the multifaceted approach of multimodal digital curating, emphasizing its tra... more This paper explores the multifaceted approach of multimodal digital curating, emphasizing its transformative potential in shaping ethnographic encounters and academic knowledge production. Drawing on insights and the talks from the “Multimodal Digital Curating” workshop organized by the Media Anthropology Working Group of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology, this framing paper contextualises our understanding of multimodal digital curating while highlighting key epistemic, ethical, theoretical, and practical dimensions discussed in workshop contributions. Furthermore, we explore the collaborative nature of digital curating, its experimental potential, and the challenges it presents, including economic constraints, technological biases, sustainability concerns, and power dynamics in collaborations. Ultimately, this report illuminates multimodal digital curating as not only a mode of knowledge production but also a dynamic social practice with far-reaching epistemic implications for the production, dissemination, and reception of anthropological research.
Working Paper Series Collaborative Research Center 1187 Media of Cooperation, 2023
Finding innovative, engaging, hierarchy-defying and, above all, precise descriptions of teaching ... more Finding innovative, engaging, hierarchy-defying and, above all, precise descriptions of teaching exercises suitable for imparting complex theory and methodological approaches as multi-layered as postdigital ethnography is rare to find. Those that exist are mostly scattered across a few non-specific blogs and private Twitter feeds – finding them is a matter of an obscure combination of serendipity and algorithms. In this working paper we reflect on our co-teaching methods applied in a Masterclass on postdigital ethnography. Our aim is twofold: not only to reflect on teaching methods in postdigital ethnography, but also to present concrete examples of implementation in teaching and co-teaching constellations by means of teaching exercises.
Medien der Kooperation, 2023
Entangled religions, Nov 18, 2022
This article explores how the regulations imposed during Germany's first COVID-19 lockdown in 202... more This article explores how the regulations imposed during Germany's first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 impacted on gendered mosque spaces and the digital spheres relating to those spaces. Examining the call to prayer as a sensory form that establishes "aesthetic formations" (Meyer 2009), the article unpacks gender-specific Muslim perspectives on space within mosques and the contested position mosques occupy in German public space. Paying particular attention to the temporalities of the pandemic restrictions, the article reflects on women's (digital) practices and relates them to ongoing debates about the contested presence of sonic markers of Muslim religiosity in public space in Germany. It argues that the heterogeneous digital practices and discourses that emerged in 'pandemic times' should not only be viewed as extraordinary responses to an exceptional situation, but as exemplary of ongoing debates over gendered Muslim spaces and publicness in Germany.
Entangled Religions, 2022
This article explores how the regulations imposed during Germany's first COVID-19 lockdown in 202... more This article explores how the regulations imposed during Germany's first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 impacted on gendered mosque spaces and the digital spheres relating to those spaces. Examining the call to prayer as a sensory form that establishes "aesthetic formations" (Meyer 2009), the article unpacks gender-specific Muslim perspectives on space within mosques and the contested position mosques occupy in German public space. Paying particular attention to the temporalities of the pandemic restrictions, the article reflects on women's (digital) practices and relates them to ongoing debates about the contested presence of sonic markers of Muslim religiosity in public space in Germany. It argues that the heterogeneous digital practices and discourses that emerged in 'pandemic times' should not only be viewed as extraordinary responses to an exceptional situation, but as exemplary of ongoing debates over gendered Muslim spaces and publicness in Germany.
Journal of Muslims in Europe, 2020
The article explores ethical challenges in digital media ethnography in the field of militant pol... more The article explores ethical challenges in digital media ethnography in the field of militant political Islam, pointing to the dilemma that arises in doing research on Islam as part of the securitised research funding system. Expanding on discussions in anthropology about the principles of “do no harm” and “be open and honest about your work”, the authors reflectively contextualise the interrelated notions of “Jihadism” and “Salafism” and examine how these categories serve as “floating signifiers”. Examining one particular incident from the digital fieldwork leads to discussions of transparency, anonymity and shifting forms of “publicness” in the digital sphere.
ZfE | JSCA , 2021
Our aim with this issue is to provide a starting point for an intensive conversation about the fl... more Our aim with this issue is to provide a starting point for an intensive conversation about the flexibility and systematization of the methodology of research and its specific challenges in highly contested fields like far right and militant Islamist movements. The contributions to this special section discuss issues related to the moral, emotional and ethical challenges, that anthropologists have faced in conducting research in such highly contested fields. They offer more textured views of dilemmas and challenges in highly contested fields through careful reflection on their ethnographic encounters. They all deem it necessary to position their work within recent debates, in webs of the production of knowledge, embedded in the power relations and complexities in their respective fields and within the discipline, albeit in very different ways.
Visual Anthropology , 2021
This article explores portrait images, wedding albums and Facebook images as per-sonal migrant ar... more This article explores portrait images, wedding albums and Facebook images as per-sonal migrant archives. Examining the particular temporalities and the analog–di-gital materialities of the images, we unfold their significance for the construction of transnational sociality among Senegalese in Berlin and Dakar, from the perspec-tive of women. By addressing distinct audiences the archives of migration are pur-posefully made (in)visible by their owners, creating gendered and generational “intimate publics.” Foregrounding the notion of the active personal migrant archive, we see the archive as a resource for aspiration and communication among socially close yet geographically distant persons.
Download a free copy: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HKM5S9IQSUA4TS2PNJWV/full?target=10.1080/08949468.2021.1944770
Journal of Muslims in Europe, Apr 30, 2020
The article explores ethical challenges in digital media ethnography in the field of
militant pol... more The article explores ethical challenges in digital media ethnography in the field of
militant political Islam, pointing to the dilemma that arises in doing research on Islam
as part of the securitised research funding system. Expanding on discussions in anthropology
about the principles of “do no harm” and “be open and honest about your
work”, the authors reflectively contextualise the interrelated notions of “Jihadism” and
“Salafism” and examine how these categories serve as “floating signifiers”. Examining
one particular incident from the digital fieldwork leads to discussions of transparency,
anonymity and shifting forms of “publicness” in the digital sphere.
Arbeitspapiere des Instituts für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), 183: 39-42., 2019
Hg.): Eventforschung. Theoretische und methodische Herausforderungen.
Navigationen: Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften, 2017
Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturwissenschaften, 2017
Mit dem Fokus auf Medienpraktiken bündelt dieses Heft aktuelle Positionen zur empirischen Erforsc... more Mit dem Fokus auf Medienpraktiken bündelt dieses Heft aktuelle Positionen zur empirischen Erforschung von Medien. Die Beiträge gehen davon aus, dass Medien erst durch ihren Gebrauch zu Medien werden. Medienpraktiken zu erforschen, bedeutet jedoch nicht nur herauszufinden, was Menschen mit Medien tun, sondern auch was Medien mit Menschen machen. Diese für die Medienpraktikenforschung zentrale Einsicht lösen die interdisziplinären Beiträge des Bandes ein, indem sie aus den jeweiligen Positionen und Konstellationen verdeutlichen, wie Medien und Praktiken sich gegenseitig bedingen.
Die Beiträge dieses Bandes lösen diese Forderungen in unterschiedlicher Gewichtung ein. Sie befassen sich aus medienethnologischer, kultursoziologischer, literaturwissenschaftlicher, historischer, soziologischer und medienwissenschaftlicher Perspektive damit, was jeweils als situierte Medienpraktik verstanden werden kann. Gemeinsam ist damit allen Beiträgen, dass sie erst aus ihren jeweiligen Untersuchungen und Perspektiven heraus bestimmen, was genau als Medienpraktik und Medien, die in ihnen zum Tragen kommen, gefasst werden kann.
Chapters in Edited Volumes by Simone Pfeifer
Deine Kamera ist eine App. Über Medienverflechtungen des Applizierens und Appropriierens. , 2024
In diesem Beitrag untersuche ich Reenactments von IS-Hinrichtungsvideos in deutschsprachigen digi... more In diesem Beitrag untersuche ich Reenactments von IS-Hinrichtungsvideos in deutschsprachigen digitalen Kontexten. Am Beispiel von Videos der aktivistischen Gruppe 12thMemoRise in Düsseldorf und der Identitären Bewegung in Wien verdeutliche ich, wie die mediale Vermittlung des Körpers nicht nur durch Kameraeinstellungen und Schnitt, sondern auf spezifische Weise durch Kameraapplikationen und die Einbindung in Social-Media-Netzwerke stattfindet. (P)Reenactments vermitteln dabei nicht nur zwischen verschiedenen Kontexten, sondern sie können gleichzeitig eine transformierende Wirkung haben: Der ursprünglich referenzierten Gewalt wird etwas entgegengesetzt oder sie wird im neuen Kontext umgedeutet. Auch der Vermittlung zwischen Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und möglichen Zukünften kommt besondere Bedeutung zu, da Vorahnungen, Vorhersagen
Handbuch Digitale Medien und Methoden, 2023
In diesem Beitrag stellen wir digitale ethnografische Team-Arbeit vor. Am Beispiel des Profils Ha... more In diesem Beitrag stellen wir digitale ethnografische Team-Arbeit vor. Am Beispiel des Profils Hashtag Islam auf Instagram veranschaulichen wir kollaboratives Vorgehen im Team, den Aufbau einer Zusammenarbeit, die Rolle der teilnehmenden Beobachtung und die Interaktion mit und Ausweitung der Kollaboration auch auf Gesprächspartner*innen. Der Beitrag reflektiert zusätzlich Chancen und Herausforderungen der Forschung im Team und geht zentral auf die Reflexion der unterschiedlichen Positionalitäten der Mitglieder ein.
Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung: Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium, 2023
In der Fluchtforschung wurde die Bedeutung von Smartphones, sozialen Medien und Messenger-Dienste... more In der Fluchtforschung wurde die Bedeutung von Smartphones, sozialen Medien und Messenger-Diensten für die unterschiedlichen Stationen der Flucht und für transnationale Fa milienverbindungen herausgestellt. Zunehmend reflektieren Forscher*innen auch über die me thodische Nutzung dieses digitalen Raumes. Digitale ethnografische Methoden eignen sich in besonderem Maße, um auf die spezielle Situation von Menschen mit Fluchterfahrung einzugehen und ethisch sensible Perspektiven zu entwickeln. Dieser Beitrag führt anhand von ausgewählten Beispielen in digitale ethnografische Methoden zur Erforschung von Flucht und Migration ein. Digitale, mobile und partizipative Ansätze werden in der Ethnografie meist in Kombination miteinander genutzt und verdeutlichen, dass der „digitale Raum“ nicht losgelöst, sondern als integraler Bestandteil des Alltags von Geflüchteten erforscht werden muss.
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Books by Simone Pfeifer
Simone Pfeifers medienethnografische Arbeit bezieht die Perspektiven aus Deutschland und Senegal gleichberechtigt in die Untersuchung ein und zeigt, wie Senegales_innen ihren sozialen Alltag durch transnationale Medienpraktiken gestalten. Die aktuelle Forschung zu Migration und Medien wird dabei durch den Fokus auf Visualität und die Bedeutung von Bildern bei der Gestaltung von sozialer und emotionaler Nähe erweitert.
Edited Volumes & Special Issues by Simone Pfeifer
This volume decentres dominant discourses on so-called jihadist actors and deradicalization contexts to offer more nuanced understandings of the political and socio-cultural contexts.
Divided into four thematic sections, the chapters probe Jihadi appropriation of traditional and popular cultural expressions and show how, in turn, political activists appropriate extremist media to oppose and resist the propaganda. By conceptualising militant Islamist audiovisual productions as part of global media aesthetics and practices, the authors shed light on how religious actors, artists, civil society activists, global youth, political forces, security agencies and researchers engage with mediated manifestations of Jihadi ideology to deconstruct, reinforce, defy or oppose the messages.
Papers by Simone Pfeifer
Download a free copy: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HKM5S9IQSUA4TS2PNJWV/full?target=10.1080/08949468.2021.1944770
militant political Islam, pointing to the dilemma that arises in doing research on Islam
as part of the securitised research funding system. Expanding on discussions in anthropology
about the principles of “do no harm” and “be open and honest about your
work”, the authors reflectively contextualise the interrelated notions of “Jihadism” and
“Salafism” and examine how these categories serve as “floating signifiers”. Examining
one particular incident from the digital fieldwork leads to discussions of transparency,
anonymity and shifting forms of “publicness” in the digital sphere.
Die Beiträge dieses Bandes lösen diese Forderungen in unterschiedlicher Gewichtung ein. Sie befassen sich aus medienethnologischer, kultursoziologischer, literaturwissenschaftlicher, historischer, soziologischer und medienwissenschaftlicher Perspektive damit, was jeweils als situierte Medienpraktik verstanden werden kann. Gemeinsam ist damit allen Beiträgen, dass sie erst aus ihren jeweiligen Untersuchungen und Perspektiven heraus bestimmen, was genau als Medienpraktik und Medien, die in ihnen zum Tragen kommen, gefasst werden kann.
Chapters in Edited Volumes by Simone Pfeifer
Simone Pfeifers medienethnografische Arbeit bezieht die Perspektiven aus Deutschland und Senegal gleichberechtigt in die Untersuchung ein und zeigt, wie Senegales_innen ihren sozialen Alltag durch transnationale Medienpraktiken gestalten. Die aktuelle Forschung zu Migration und Medien wird dabei durch den Fokus auf Visualität und die Bedeutung von Bildern bei der Gestaltung von sozialer und emotionaler Nähe erweitert.
This volume decentres dominant discourses on so-called jihadist actors and deradicalization contexts to offer more nuanced understandings of the political and socio-cultural contexts.
Divided into four thematic sections, the chapters probe Jihadi appropriation of traditional and popular cultural expressions and show how, in turn, political activists appropriate extremist media to oppose and resist the propaganda. By conceptualising militant Islamist audiovisual productions as part of global media aesthetics and practices, the authors shed light on how religious actors, artists, civil society activists, global youth, political forces, security agencies and researchers engage with mediated manifestations of Jihadi ideology to deconstruct, reinforce, defy or oppose the messages.
Download a free copy: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HKM5S9IQSUA4TS2PNJWV/full?target=10.1080/08949468.2021.1944770
militant political Islam, pointing to the dilemma that arises in doing research on Islam
as part of the securitised research funding system. Expanding on discussions in anthropology
about the principles of “do no harm” and “be open and honest about your
work”, the authors reflectively contextualise the interrelated notions of “Jihadism” and
“Salafism” and examine how these categories serve as “floating signifiers”. Examining
one particular incident from the digital fieldwork leads to discussions of transparency,
anonymity and shifting forms of “publicness” in the digital sphere.
Die Beiträge dieses Bandes lösen diese Forderungen in unterschiedlicher Gewichtung ein. Sie befassen sich aus medienethnologischer, kultursoziologischer, literaturwissenschaftlicher, historischer, soziologischer und medienwissenschaftlicher Perspektive damit, was jeweils als situierte Medienpraktik verstanden werden kann. Gemeinsam ist damit allen Beiträgen, dass sie erst aus ihren jeweiligen Untersuchungen und Perspektiven heraus bestimmen, was genau als Medienpraktik und Medien, die in ihnen zum Tragen kommen, gefasst werden kann.
Photographs and especially wedding photography has been a revelatory practice in the course of my fieldwork in Dakar (Senegal). My own practice of taking images of others and learning to pose in front of the camera introduced me to a culturally specific form of visuality and helped me to gain an insight into the aesthetic, sensorial and experiential dimensions of femininity, selfhood and the making of rela-tionships.
The event is hosted by the Junior Research Group 'Jihadism on the Internet: Images and Videos, their Appropriation and Dissemination'.
Registration is open until September 26: http://jihadism-online.de/conference/en/registration/
Outline: We want to take to the centre stage audio-visual Jihadist offers, their figurations and aesthetics, and the various forms of appropriation. We want to bring together experts and colleagues from multiple disciplines to foster multifarious exchanges, which will allow us to assess Jihadi audio-visuals in all their complexity. We will explore the acoustic dimension of Jihadi videos, focus on cinematic means and the creative power involved in Jihadi audio-visuals, and examine artivist modes of engaging with these communicative offers.
10.-11. March 2022 at CATS (Heidelberg University)
Organised by: Cathrine Bublatzky (HCTS) and Simone Pfeifer (Mainz/Cologne)
Funded by the Thyssen Foundation and co-financed by the Baden Württemberg Foundation and the project Contemporary Photography as a Cultural Practice by Diasporic Iranians in Europe.
For our workshop Populist Aesthetics in Cultural Perspectives: Truthmaking, Faking, and the Politics of Affect in (Digital) Media to be held at the CATS (Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University) on 10.-11. March 2022, we are seeking a few more contributions with a particular regional focus on Africa or (South)Asia to complement our program.
Short Abstract:
Faking, and the Politics of Affect in (Digital) Media brings together researchers from anthropology and related disciplines to reflect on aesthetic dynamics in populist movements and how sensory perception and affective media practices shape understandings of the world and political subjectivities in particular ways.
Call for Papers
We invite interested researchers with a particular regional focus on Africa or (South)Asia to complement the already rich program and to send an abstract (300 words) and short bio (150 words) until 6th of December 2021 to bublatzky@hcts.uni-heidelberg.de and s.pfeifer@uni-koeln.de.