Proshant Chakraborty

This lecture will take place on the Zoom channel of this course: https://gu-se.zoom.us/j/64929412642 .

Today's PowerPoint slides: 1.anthro-public-eye-slides-h22.pdf

In this lecture we will first look at how contemporary anthropologists have framed the relationship between the discipline and the public sphere. This includes questions of both, how we define anthropology (in both past and present times) and how we define the “public.”

We will begin by looking at Thomas Eriksen's call for more public presence of anthropologists in contemporary debates. Eriksen provides a brief historical account of how some of the earliest and influential thinkers in anthropology were actually public intellectuals who wrote about the diversity of human societies and advanced a generalized knowledge paradigm of human evolution in the late 19th century. He then looks at the institutionalization of anthropology in the first few decades of the 20th century, particularly in North America. He then argues that scholars like Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead did a lot to disseminate anthropological ideas among the general public—particularly Mead's popular writings. Eriksen then diagnoses what he thinks are some of the reasons why anthropology lost its place in the public sphere.

We will then look at the "debate" (if we can call it that) between Rob Borofsky and Merrill Singer as a particular illustration of what public anthropology is or is not. Like Eriksen, Borofsky also advocates for the public presence of anthropology, what he influentially calls “public anthropology.” However, Singer critiques this idea of "public anthropology" because it can lead to a false division or hierarchy between theoretical and applied anthropology, and even argues that applied anthropologists have long been part of public discourse and practice, which routines calls for "public" engagement often miss out.

Following these discussions, we will look at the texts by Malinowski, Cunha and Dubois as illustrations of particular anthropological engagements with publics—though a very specific public domain, ie, policy and practice (also relevant for our workshop on writing a policy brief). We will look at these empirical cases, which range from colonial southern Africa in the 1920s, to Portuguese prisons in the 1980s and the French bureaucracy in the 1990s, to see how anthropologists actually participate(d) in public processes and discussions on the ground.

During this lecture, we will have two discussions in the breakout rooms (10 min each). Below are some of the questions you can discuss (choose at least 2 questions).

Discussion 1:

Critics often say that the professionalization of anthropology has led to its fading relevance. What are your opinions about this? What are the differences between professional and academic research?
Eriksen's discussions on public anthropology, by his own admission, focuses on the Anglophone (ie, English-speaking) world. What do you think this excludes?
Despite advocating broadening the understanding of anthropology, do these discussions miss out other relevant fields, eg, sociology, critical race, gender and ethnicity studies?

Discussion 2:

Should anthropology be popular? Or should it be useful?
What are the challenges that anthropology/anthropologists face?
Conversely, what contemporary challenges can anthropology address?
Who or what are included and excluded in “public” anthropology? (E.g., interdisciplinary social sciences; cultural studies; race, ethnicity and gender studies)

Readings:

Cunha, MI 2017. Chapter 4: Addressing policy-oriented audiences, in Fassin, ed., If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography

Dubois, V. 2017. Chapter 8: Policy ethnography as a combat sport, in Fassin, ed., If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography

Malinowski, B. 1929. Practical anthropology. Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute 2:1, 22-38. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.ub.gu.se/stable/1155162 Links to an external site. .

Suggested Readings (not mandatory - will be discussed during the lecture):

Eriksen, Thomas H. 2020. Engaging Anthropology: The Case for a Public Presence (Chapters 1 & 2). (Link).

Borofsky, Robert. 2000. Public Anthropology: Where to? What next? ( Link ).

Singer, Merrill. 2000. Why I am not a public anthropologist. ( Link ).