RESEARCH IN PROGRESS SEMINAR SERIES

AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

Friday 21 October, 4.00 pm

Deconstructing a Rhinoceros!
Voices from Molenbeek/Brussels

Christine Moderbacher, University of Aberdeen

This event is free, but places must be booked. To book tickets please go to: http://christinemoderbacher.eventbrite.co.uk

Based on research in one of Brussels central neighbourhoods, Molenbeek, where the daily life experience of a large amount of its inhabitants is characterized by the feeling of exclusion rather than post modern ‘intermingling’, this paper seeks to portray the everyday experience of migrant carpentry apprentices through visual and textual storytelling. By painting a different picture than the recently dystopical images of Molenbeek and its inhabitants depicted by the international media, the presentation will aim to offer an insight into existential demands, constraints, dilemmas, potentialities, uncertainties, and the ‘struggle for being’ (Jackson 2005: x) that ultimately play into what it means to construct a life in the centre, but yet on the margins, of a European city.