Introduction: Public Anthropology
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Introduction: Public Anthropology Sam Beck Cornell University What if we use theory and method to benefi t nomic and political issues; and confl ict and the people we study and with whom we part- misunderstanding between and among societ- ner to develop an increasingly just world in ies through mediation. The intent of this issue which inequities are reduced and all people is to provide a roadmap for anthropologists may believe in their ability to reach their po- seeking a larger role in society that we can tentials by having access to resources that are name ‘Public Anthropology’. Very much like more or less equally available, distributed and any concept, there is no one defi nition that lim- accessible? Each in her or his way, the contribu- its this idea’s meaning. Public anthropology is tors to this ‘Special Issue on Public Anthropol- fertile ground for anthropologists to explore ogy’ provide example trajectories which move opportunities for involvement and engage- anthropologists in this direction. ment inside and outside the discipline, and In responding to an article on public sociol- inside and outside their objects of research. ogy by Burawoy (2005), Aranowitz indicated What all share is the idea that local groups and the importance of public engagement and its communities should be able to control their origins based on a discourse of the ‘public’ in own well-being and quality of life with the participatory democracy. While we are far from sophistication of corporate or governmental reaching what appears to be a utopian dream, institutions. Central to this work is a method there are anthropologists who are working to- that takes us away from a solely enquiry-based wards such a goal. Li le disagreement appears methodology and towards one that is dialogic within the discipline about the aim of anthro- and change oriented.1 This is an anthropology pology as an intellectual discipline constructed that requires people at the local level to be to benefi t humankind, an issue most recently full participants in research and publications. broached by a number of people engaged in Cammarota put it this way: ‘the researcher is thinking about ‘public scholarship’ in general consistently changing his or her questions and (Mitchell 2008). perspectives via the collective input of com- Despite periodic deviations that move an- munity members, while the community learns thropology away from its tacit ethical centre, through the researcher’s involvement’ (2008: anthropology in the fi rst part of the twenty- 46). Knowledge, in this approach, becomes a fi rst century has returned to constructing an public good in its ‘orientation and application intellectual discipline that is not only con- that furthers the general vitality of the mar- cerned with historical processes, political eco- ginalized community’ (2008: 48). Moreover, nomic forces and conditions, or discourse ethics here, as Pels noted, is not something that analysis, but in addition involves itself in is tacked on, but is ‘internal to our research’ shaping the direction of present and future do- (2005: 96). mestic and international politics; activist agen- The thrust and movement towards con- das of local communities; the general public’s necting anthropology to real world contexts, deeper understanding of sociocultural, eco- conditions and processes occur episodically Anthropology in Action, 16, 2 (2009): 1–13 © Berghahn Books and the Association for Anthropology in Action doi:10.3167/aia.2009.160201 AiA | Sam Beck in the history of the discipline and though we discipline never existed and at present cannot can make linkages to produce a linear history exist without publics.5 Field and Fox asserted which demonstrates the formation of a ‘tradi- that ‘most anthropology has been “engaged” tion’ for and of a public anthropology, by do- and public in intention’ (2007: 4). This is par- ing only this we miss the very nature of what is ticularly true, at least since the Second World pressing anthropology into the public domain War, as the mission of the academy changed at this particular moment. Borofsky and oth- dramatically and as universities increasingly ers in academic circles have defi ned the public were penetrated by what Giroux called the anthropologist as one who ‘engages issues ‘military-industrial-academic complex (2007) and audiences beyond today’s self-imposed and pernicious ‘audit culture’ (Strathern 2000). disciplinary boundaries’ (2000; reproduced in This is not to assert that the academic and his Public Anthropology website) by writing, universities were ever independent of publics publishing or speaking in public media. Many (see Bender 1997, Boren 2001). However, it is other anthropologists use public anthropolo- with which publics, how and with what in- gy’s theories and methods in a broader sense tensity public engagement occurs that defi nes that reach beyond the academic form of public a public anthropology and diff erentiates it anthropology. Borofsky put the focus ‘on con- from other anthropological practices, theories versations with broad audiences about broad and methods. And this is something for which concerns’.2 Cox perceives public anthropol- anthropology must account. Moreover, the ogy ‘to be an anthropology of the public that discipline must recognize it as a central com- disrupts the traditional academy–community ponent of professional practice and not allow dichotomy by locating the intellectual and po- it to be marginalized as applied anthropology litical strategies necessary to eff ectively address had been, similarly locking out public anthro- social concerns with the dialogues that occur pologists as somehow less valued, and forcing in the public sphere as well as in disciplin- their sub-discipline like a minority position to ary based discussions – loosening the hinged reinvent itself, perhaps by creating a ‘Public border that artifi cially separate the two’ (2009: Anthropology Association’. Nor should an- 53). Her position radicalizes Borofsky’s under- thropology place public anthropology within a standing of public anthropology. Yet both per- stratifi ed, hierarchical division of labour in the spectives, for me, are not enough. I believe that discipline, a condition against which Singer public anthropology must include not only or warned us (2000). just conversations, dialogues or discussions.3 In her work as an employee of a Detroit The articles in this Special Issue are a start of homeless shelter for young women, with whom a larger project that seeks to demonstrate how she identifi es as being involved in the same far the reach of a broad Public Anthropology struggle and with whom she worked, Cox presently exists in the discipline. This is a sign indicates that the young women ‘have shown of vigour in anthropology because this kind me one way to explode public anthropology to of anthropology breaks down the barriers that accommodate co-theorising and co-authorship isolate anthropologists in a discourse limited through performance’ (2009: 60). Smith’s no- to themselves. tions complement those identifi ed by Cox. Her I follow Burawoy’s inclusive direction for approach moves research into the hands of ‘public sociology’ by advocating for a public an- those we normally research (2007). Her work thropology among other anthropologies.4 It is entailed working with her own people, the not as if anthropology, academic anthropology Maori of New Zealand. She critiques Western (‘professional’ in Burawoy’s terms) in particu- knowledge production and suggests research lar, has ever been independent of publics. The based on developing indigenous people’s re- 2 | Introduction: Public Anthropology | AiA search capacities, with outsiders invited to fare of all those aff ected by their work’ (see the participate in research that the people identify American Anthropology Association’s Code of and determine – a very diff erent sort of public Ethics). At present, we are confl icted because anthropology. This kind of research confi rms nationalism, expressed as patriotism, brought the capacity and power of local-level knowl- some anthropologists to position themselves edge production, legitimizing people’s own as participants in what they might consider a perceptions of their culture. ‘just war’, or understand the work in which The American Anthropology Association they are engaged as protecting vulnerable West- (AAA) did recognize public anthropology in ern, especially American, interests.7 a unique way in the November 1986 amended Anthropologists study processes and is- ‘Principles of Professional Responsibility’, fi rst sues aff ecting general human welfare and adapted by the Council of the American An- conditions. It is safe to say that not all anthro- thropological Association in May 1971 (see pologists do this, especially where contractual h p://www.aaanet.org/stmts/ethnstmnt.htm), arrangements may vitiate the ethical stance which claimed public engagement as a central quoted above. This is not to say that other tenet of what anthropologists were ethically practitioners of anthropology, who do not see obliged to do. themselves as applied anthropologists, are Public anthropology has implications for ‘pure’ in the work they do, especially when theory, method and methodologies. The con- carrying out fi eldwork, as they generate the troversy that brewed regarding the engage- data they use to increase their credibility in the ment of anthropology with military purposes discipline. I can safely say that many of us of- is an example (see Glenn 2007, Griffi n 2007, ten work in grey areas, even when we try hard Vine 2007), one that is, in many ways, not so to protect and safeguard ‘our people’. new (Wolf and Jorgensen 1970, Price 2005; also The AAA backed away from forms of ethi- see Wakin 1992). How anthropologists partici- cal engagements with ‘research populations’. pated in the Vietnam War anticipated what is In 1986 the AAA statement on ethics was now happening in the Middle East and Central an expression of what was deemed essen- Asia. This particular issue raises into relief a tial to the practice of anthropology that had set of values, professional practices and ethi- moral implications.