Master Thesis: Multimodal Anthropology
This thesis comprises an anthropological investigation of the social, cultural, and political factors that led to the ambition of establishing a Danish folk high school in Gellerupparken, Aarhus. I introduce the concept of Social Tectonics to illuminate and analyze the entanglements between these factors and their relation to the physical urban space and power as prerequisites in shaping a Danish folk high school in this specific residential area.
The thesis presents ethnographic examples that shed light on the social, cultural, and political conditions that have shaped the ambition of a Danish folk high school in Gellerup as a future inclusive urban space with a focus on social cohesion, democratic awareness, and personal development. Within this context, the thesis explores perspectives that demonstrate how ambiguities, uncertainties, and broken promises between citizens and the municipality have affected several residents of Gellerupparken and their experience of the extensive urban transformation in the area – experiences that have, for some residents, led to feelings of marginalization and alienation. Consequently, the thesis also examines the connections between the ambition of a folk high school and the urban transformation of Gellerup.
The thesis - both its written part and the product - is based on 20 months of participant observation and 24 formal interviews with residents, officials, volunteers, and consultants in Gellerupparken and Aarhus from 2018 to 2022. The product is designed as a website that presents a series of multimodal works created as collaborative experiments in the latter half of the fieldwork, 2020-2022, involving the school's board, volunteers, and staff. These films, photographs, and exhibitions were developed as a collaboration between me and the individuals behind the high school with the initial purpose of communicating and presenting Gellerup Folk High School to politicians, stakeholders, and investors. However, these collaborative experiments also sparked many of the conversations, insights, and reflections presented and discussed in the thesis. The works were created based on 110 hours of film footage, 3 full-day workshops, and 1500 photographs.
The analysis incorporates several of these multimodal products as representations and reference points for the investigations and content that emerged during the fieldwork between me and the participants. The collaborative experiments functioned as digital milestones, outlining the early contours of the path towards the realization of Gellerup Folk High School and facilitating the dialectical interplay between aspirations and their realization. Furthermore, these works enable a multidimensional presentation of the research and its findings. Through my collaborative approach and the use of multimodal products, my intention is to contribute to the understanding and further development of the ideas and visions for a future folk high school in Gellerup, as expressed by the organizers and participants of Gellerup Folk High School during my fieldwork.
Multimodal Companion Product
The written thesis is accompanied by this website which I developed as digital companion product to showcase the videos and photographs discussed in the thesis. The website includes hyperlinks to the original sites where these videos and photographs were initially published. The website can be explored as an independent portfolio, however specific sections of it will be referenced in the thesis. The videos and photographs were produced as part of a collaborative process where I was asked to assist the organizers of Gellerup Højskole with the production of materials that could communicate the project to the public. The process of making these materials – as a mode of participatory research – resulted in several of the dialogues, reflections, and insights that are presented in this thesis.
By designating the products presented in this thesis as multimodal, my intention is merely to emphasize and include the wide range of media formats or modalities that comprise these products, e.g., text, audiovisual content, digital media, analog materials, film, photography, art, exhibition materials, or a combination hereof.
Take a moment to explore the audiovisual components of the thesis by scrolling down.
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