Urbanities, Vol. 3 · No 2 · November 2013 © 2013 Urbanities DISCUSSIONS AND COMMENTS Forum on ‘Urban Anthropology’ Anthropological research in urban settings – often referred to as ‘urban anthropology’, for short – and its attendant ethnographically-based findings are increasingly attracting attention from anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike, including other professionals and decision-makers. In view of its growing importance, this Issue of Urbanities carries a Forum on the topic, which we hope will be of interest to our readers. This Forum opens with the reproduction of an essay by Giuliana B. Prato and Italo Pardo recently published in the UNESCO Encyclopaedia EOLSS, which forms the basis for the discussion that follows in the form of comments and reflections by a number of scholars, in alphabetical order. This special section of Urbanities closes with a brief Report on a round-table Conference on ‘Placing Urban Anthropology: Synchronic and Diachronic Reflections’ held last September at the University of Fribourg and the transcript of the Address given by the Rector of that University during the Conference. 79 Urbanities, Vol. 3 · No 2 · November 2013 © 2013 Urbanities ‘Urban Anthropology’1 Giuliana B. Prato and Italo Pardo (University of Kent, U.K.)
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[email protected] Established academic disciplinary distinctions led early anthropologists to study tribal societies, or village communities, while ignoring the city as a field of research. Thus, urban research became established in some academic disciplines, particularly sociology, but struggled to achieve such a status in anthropology. Over the years, historical events and geo-political changes have stimulated anthropologists to address processes of urbanization in developing countries; yet, urban research in western industrial societies continued to be left out of the mainstream disciplinary agenda.