'Making' as concept

State-making, identity-making, war-making, policy-making, and meaning-making have all become common theoretical concepts in recent years; sometimes the hyphen is dropped to create new words, e.g., placemaking. “Making” signifies the actor-oriented, dynamic, and historical nature of socio-cultural and political activities under study, making it a popular concept useful to various disciplines.
This workshop aims at examining where the diverse subjects of “making” may lead us in analyzing socio-cultural processes.
It will especially explore culture-related activities that form programs (ideals) and practices (praxis) of nurturing, internalizing, or enabling that contribute to societies in both positive and negative ways. These may include making as self-improvement, performing (sense-making), devotions (religion-making), social relations (e.g., kinship and gender), skill, technology, politics (e.g., new populism), or AI-scape production (the cultural world AI provides).
We will pay special attention to how these “makings” relate to the society under study, and to the world as a whole.

 

Thursday, the 6th of November 2025

OPENING SESSION 9h – 9h45: wellcome adresses Stephane Chretien, Professor in Mathmatics, Dean of the UFR Anthropology, Sociology and Political Sciences, University Lumière Lyon2 James Walker, Vice president, International Relations, University Lumière Lyon 2 9h45 – 10h Coffee Breack UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEING THANKS TO TECHNOSCIENCES AND NEUROSCIENCES 10h – 10h45: Theory-Making in American Cultural Anthropology, or Can Neuroscience Help? Shuenn-Der YU, Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei – Taïwan  10h45 – 11h30: Technoscience and science fiction: A world-making imaginary Marie-Clémence JALABER, PhD student, Laboratoire de recherche historique Rhône-Alpes (LARHRA) – UMR 5190, University Lumière Lyon2. 11h30 – 12h15: Life as Autofabrication: The role of AI Wei-Wen CHUNG, Professor Emeritus, National Chengchi University, Taïwan. 12h15 – 14h: Lunch Break Served at Cafetariat IDENTITY MAKING PROCESS 14h – 14h45: Sensory Weaving: Making Cross-ethnic Identity in Taiwan’s Yunnanese Dage Community Tasaw Hsin-chun LU, Institute of Musicology, National Taiwan Unviersity, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taïwan. 14h45 – 15h30: Local lives, global shifts: Identity-making processes among Djiboutian women Ibtissem BATTOUM, PhD Student, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Enjeux Contemporains, University Lumière Lyon2. 15h30 – 15h45: Coffee break 15h45 – 16h30: Making salt tea and eating tsampa: The zaskari identity in motion Salomé DEBOOS, Professor of Anthropology, UFR Anthropology, Sociology, Political Sciences, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Enjeux Contemporains, Université Lumière Lyon 2.

Friday, the 7th of November 2025:

STATE MAKING IDENTITY 9h – 9h45: Narration, Ritual Making, and the Ethnography of Development among the Hmub of the Eastern Yun-Gui Plateau Mei-ling CHIEN, Professor in Anthropology – ethnology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taïwan. 9h45 – 10h30: On the use of handicrafts for state-making in India Raphaëlle KOGEL, PhD Student, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Enjeux Contemporains, University Lumière Lyon 2 10h30 – 10h45 Coffee breack MAKING THE WORLD, SHAPING THE ENVIRONMENT. 10h45 – 11h30: Flavor of the Mountains: The Development of Taiwan’s High-Altitude Agriculture Chia-Ling HSU, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. 11h30 – 12h15: Bears, roosters, pheasants: The making of the emblematic animal. Gersande PASQUINI, PhD Student, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Enjeux Contemporains, Université Lumière Lyon2. 12h15 – 12h45 : Closing session Resume of the two days conferences and perspectives for the future. 12h45 – 14h30 : Lunch Break 14h30 – 16h: ANTHROPOLOGIST ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD Shuenn-Der YU, Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei – Taïwan. Shuenn Der YU, is scheduled to deliver a presentation on the subject of conducting research projects within the Korean context, with family members. 19h Formal Dinner Venue Dinner: Brasserie Le Sud, Maison Baucuse, 20, place Bellecour 69002 Lyon.

L'événement est ouvert à toute personne intéressée par le programme. Si vous souhaitez assister à certaines interventions, merci de vous inscrire auprès de salome.deboos@univ-lyon2.fr.