Anthropology Put to Work

Description

How do anthropologists work today and how will they work in future? While some anthropologists have recently called for a new "public" or "engaged" anthropology, profound changes have already occurred, leading to new kinds of work for a large number of anthropologists. The image of anthropologists "reaching out" from protected academic positions to a vaguely defined "public" is out of touch with the working conditions of these anthropologists, especially those junior and untenured. The papers in this volume show that anthropology is put to work in diverse ways today. They indicate that the new conditions of anthropological work require significant departures from canonical principles of cultural anthropology, such as replacing ethnographic rapport with multiple forms of collaboration. This volume's goal is to help graduate students and early-career scholars accept these changes without feeling something essential to anthropology has been lost. There really is no other choice for most young anthropologists.

Les Field is Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico. Richard G. Fox is President Emeritus, Wenner-Gren Foundation and an Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

'An eye opener: Field, Fox and their contributors convincingly demonstrate to interested laypersons, to students, and to established academics from all fields how young anthropologists today pursue their profession in a whole range of creative new ways.' Andre Gingrich, University of Vienna and Austrian Academy of Sciences 'Readers of these essays on the 'work' of anthropology will not agree with all of them. But they will find them all refreshingly free of moral grandstanding, disarmingly modest in their claims and yet also challenging of many of our most cherished assumptions about the discipline.' Joel S. Kahn, La Trobe University, Australia 'Anthropology Put to Work charts a clear course of action for engagement and collaboration within the context of contemporary anthropological work. Students, young professionals, and seasoned practitioners alike will no doubt find this volume inspiring.' Luke Eric Lassiter, Marshall University Graduate College, USA 'Richard G. Fox (...) and Les Field have edited an interesting and stimulating book, which shows different alternatives on how anthropology is put to work. (...) The book is a timely contribution to the current debate anthropologists have about their place in society as well as their future in a world exposed to a quickening pace of transformation.' Fernando Monge, UNED, Spain