Research Information System
in: Curiosity and Commitment: Perspectives on the Transformation of European Universities,, Arantes Lydia Maria,Eisch-Angus Katharina,Pöttler Burkhard,Verhovsek Johann, Editor, Graz University, Graz, pp.43-60, 2024
Over the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in community-engaged research in academia, as evidenced by the popularization of fields such as community archaeology, indigenous geography, studies in social well-being and sustainable development. In this essay, I take this new moment of scholarly reflexivity and activism in social sciences as an occasion to revisit the significance of applied research in contemporary anthropology. I discuss the legitimacy and effectiveness of applied anthropology in engaging with the current social reality while also pointing to the ethico-political issues involved in this sub-discipline. I am primarily concerned with how to reconcile research with advocacy and action without reproducing and creating new forms of asymmetries between the researcher and the researched.
KEYWORDS:
Applied anthropology, action research, participatory methods, cultural critique, academic neoliberalization