How do we teach analysis in anthropology and other field-based sciences?
How can we engage analytically and interrogatively with philosophical
ideas and concepts in our fieldwork? And how can students learn to
engage critical ideas from philosophy to better understand the worlds
they study?
Philosophy on Fieldwork provides "show-don't-tell" answers to these
questions. In twenty-six "master class" chapters, philosophy meets
anthropological critique as leading anthropologists introduce the
thinking of one foundational philosopher - from a variety of Western
traditions and beyond - and apply this critically to an ethnographic
case. Nils Bubandt, Thomas Schwarz Wentzer and the contributors to this
volume reveal how the encounter between philosophy and fieldwork is
fertile ground for analytical insight to emerge. Equally, the
philosophical concepts employed are critically explored for their
potential to be thought "otherwise" through their frictional encounter
with the worlds in the field, allowing non-Western and non-elite life
experience and ontologies to "speak back" to both anthropology and
philosophy.
This is a unique and concrete guidebook to social analysis. It answers
the critical need for a "how-to" textbook in fieldwork-based analysis as
each chapter demonstrates how the ideas of a specific philosopher can be
interrogatively applied to a concrete analytical case study. The
straightforward pedagogy of Philosophy on Fieldwork makes this an
accessible volume and a must-read for both students and seasoned
fieldworkers interested in exploring the contentious middle ground
between philosophy and anthropology.
