How people shape their lives, express their emotions and create their places: The Lisbon 2011 SIEF Congress

The 10th Congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) took place in Lisbon in April 2011, under the theme “People make places: ways of feeling the world.” The congress evolved around the ways in which people construct their views, opinions, values and practices and how these are constantly being re-negotiated and re-interpreted in various creative forms. It comprised three sub-themes: “Shaping lives,” “Creativity and emotions,” “Ecology and ethics.” The texts compiled in this dossier reflect this thematic organization, making visible the rich variety of subjects of the introductory talk and the keynote speeches of several well-known social scientists, historians and ethnologists that in this way contributed to the academic quality of this event.