Call for Papers: “Anthropology, Work, and Images: Contemporary Perspectives”

This dossier seeks to bring together articles, visual essays, and other forms of academic research that discuss the critical interconnections between labor and images in national and international contexts. We proceed from the premise that the visual and experiential dimensions reveal fundamental aspects of contemporary work experiences, serving as powerful fields for the production of knowledge. How do the multiple temporalities of images enable us to examine inequalities, intersectionalities, moralities, and other analytical categories in the social sciences? In what ways do theoretical-ethnographic discussions involving sounds, photographs, drawings, and videos shed light on the multiple dimensions of human life? 

How should we think about the production of images and narratives of the self in the contemporary world, considering the growth of information technologies and the emergence of particular forms of political subjectivities? How do these visual expressions reconfigure the imaginary of work, political disputes over social rights, and professional representations and identities? We aim to welcome research from anthropology and related fields that addresses images in the broadest sense: still images, moving images, and various forms of graphic designs. We understand images as spaces of experiential construction in deep interaction with written text, but capable of going beyond it. 

This broadening of the scope of theoretical discussion involving images functions as an ethical mechanism—a tool for dialogue, engagement, and restitution (Ferraz, 2009) – which amplifies the “ethics of interaction” (Rocha; Eckert, 2013, p. 105), a hallmark of contemporary anthropology. We are interested in including images both as objects of analysis (various media examined throughout the research) and as part of the production of ethnographic material (essays, curatorial projects, collections). The proposal for a visual anthropology of work, as a field of practice and theoretical inquiry, does not necessarily imply the production of images by the researcher, but requires sensitivity to understand the images that already circulate and are mobilized by people in the field. 

Images open up a vast and enriching array of possibilities for studying the phenomenon of work, aligning with the ethical practices of restorative, dialogical, and collaborative anthropology. Possible approaches include: the imaginary of work (Dantas, 2020); the anthropological study of labor memory and of documentary and photographic collections (Gómez; Rapkiewicz; Eckert, 2019); the detailed analysis of labor gestures and techniques (Caiuby, 2023); the study of sounds (Feld, 2004; Vedana, 2010); the investigation of cinema as a field of reflection on labor (Gama, 2024); the narratives of the “self” (Ricoeur, 1991); and the associations in which “photographic reproduction acts as narrative reproduction” (Giordano, 2011, p. 28). The potential of the image, through its connection to memory, has made it a catalyst for enduring narratives – the “significant images,” in Collier’s (1973) terms, which pertain to a symbolic and emic aspect of the cultural group under study, and which “defy words, when seeing cannot be conveyed by describing” (Moreira Leite, 2007, p. 221). 

It is crucial to emphasize that we conceive of labor not as an isolated category, but in broad dialogue with various fields of anthropology: the environment, nature-culture relations, health, kinship, gender, race, generation, the body, nationality, globalization, transnational flows, among others. This call stems from a concern raised by the Latin American Network of Anthropology of Work (RELAT), which has observed, at recent conferences, multiple visual expressions of work as a research resource, a record of interaction, and a form of expression for workers in collaborative initiatives. We thus seek to consolidate the anthropological study of work as an imagistic phenomenon. 

This proposal is justified and fits within the framework of Antropolítica because it brings together fundamental debates in the social sciences. It articulates discussions on the broad transformations in the world of work and the political economy across different international contexts, as well as fostering an in-depth theoretical debate on modes of expression in academic research that involve visuality, sounds, and other forms. This set of ways of doing and thinking anthropologically expands the horizons of the discipline, making visuality and other techniques fundamental for strengthening connections, academic restitution, and public and political engagement.

 

Suggested reading:

CAIUBY NOVAES, Sylvia. O Trabalho das Imagens — Imagens e sons do Trabalho. Fotocronografias, [s. l.], v. 6, n. 13, p. 158–169, 2023. Disponível em: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/fotocronografias/article/view/130823. Acesso em: 27 jan. 2026.

COLLIER, John. Avaliação e interpretação do inventário cultural. In: COLLIER, John. Antropologia visual: a fotografia como método de pesquisa. São Paulo: EPU: EDUSP, 1973. p. 113-154.

DANTAS, Luísa. Radicalizando o imaginário: Impactos das transformações do trabalho nas construções imagéticas de si de domésticas brasileiras. Iluminuras, Porto Alegre, v. 21, n. 52, 2020. Disponível em: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/iluminuras/article/view/101735. Acesso em: 27 jan. 2026.

FELD, Steven; BRENNEIS, Donald. Doing anthropology in sound. American Ethnologist, [s. l.], v. 31, n. 4, p. 461-474, 2004. Disponível em: http://sed.ucsd.edu/files/2014/01/Feld_Brenneis-2004.pdf. Acesso em: 8 jun. 2026.

FERRAZ, Ana Lúcia Marques Camargo. Dramaturgias da autonomia. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2009.

GAMA DE ALMEIDA, Aline. Notas para uma etnografia-fílmica. Iluminuras, Porto Alegre, v. 25, n. 68, 2024. Disponível em: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/iluminuras/article/view/140448. Acesso em: 27 jan. 2026.

GIORDANO, Mariana. La imagen fotográfica: relato, huella y memoria. In: GIORDANO, Mariana; REYERO, Alejandra (comp.). Identidades en foco: fotografia e investigación social. Resistencia: Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, 2011. p. 21-38.

GÓMEZ, Guillermo; RAPKIEWICZ, Yuri; ECKERT, Cornelia. Etnografias da duração e os desejos de memória ferroviária no Sul do Brasil. Amazônica: Revista de Antropologia, Belém, v. 11, n. 1, p. 83-109, 2019. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufpa.br/index.php/amazonica/article/view/6652. Acesso em: 27 jan. 2026.

MARINS, Cristina Teixeira. Plataformas de redes sociais e trabalho doméstico remunerado no Brasil: transformações e implicações políticas. Horizontes Antropológicos, Porto Alegre, v. 30, n. 68, e680402, 2024. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9983e680402. Acesso em: 27 jan. 2026.

MOREIRA LEITE, Miriam Lifchitz. Imagem e memória e Barreiras da Iconografia. In: MOREIRA LEITE, Miriam Lifchitz. Livros de viagem: 1803/1900. Rio de Janeiro: Editora UFRJ, 2007. p. 119-263.

RICOEUR, Paul. O si e a identidade narrativa. In: RICOEUR, Paul. O si-mesmo como um outro. Campinas: Papirus, 1991. p. 139-200.

ROCHA, Ana Luiza Carvalho da; ECKERT, Cornelia. Etnografia da duração. Porto Alegre: Marcavisual, 2013.

SAMAIN, Etienne. “Ver” e “Dizer” na tradição etnográfica: Bronislaw Malinowski e a fotografia. Horizontes Antropológicos, Porto Alegre, ano 1, n. 2, p. 19-48, 1995. Disponível em: https://www.scielo.br/j/ha/a/FZHxGzdFbj3jd3fDM8XdP4M/abstract/?lang=pt. Acesso em: 8 jun. 2026.

VEDANA, Viviane. Territórios sonoros e ambiências: etnografia sonora e antropologia urbana. Iluminuras, Porto Alegre, v. 11, n. 25, 2010. Disponível em: https://seer.ufrgs.br/iluminuras/article/view/15537. Acesso em: 8 jun. 2026.

Given the evaluation criteria imposed on scientific journals, up to 50% of the articles may be authored by doctoral students; the remaining articles must be authored by at least one PhD holder. All submitted articles will undergo double-blind peer review by external reviewers, in accordance with the journal’s policy. To account for the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches across the different empirical fields and issues to be discussed, articles from the fields of Anthropology and Social Sciences will be given preference, provided they meet the criteria of exogeny in relation to UFF.

Organizers: Aline Gama de Almeida (UERJ), Guillermo Stefano Rosa Gómez (UFSM), and Luísa Maria Silva Dantas (UFPA).

Deadline: September 22, 2026.

NOTE: It is mandatory to indicate in the “Comments to the Editors” field that the submission is for the “Anthropology of Work” Dossier.

Contributions may be submitted until September 22, 2026, via the journal’s online system: https://periodicos.uff.br/antropolitica/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions