1st Edition

Anthropology and Activism New Contexts, New Conversations

Edited By Anna J Willow, Kelly A Yotebieng Copyright 2020
    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book offers a comprehensive and current look at the complex relationship between anthropology and activism. Activism has become a vibrant research topic within anthropology. Many scholars now embrace their own roles as engaged social actors, which has compelled reflexive attention to the anthropology/activism intersection and its implications. With contributions by emerging scholars as well as leading activist anthropologists, this volume illuminates the diverse ways in which the anthropology/activism relationship is being navigated. Chapters touch on key areas including environment and extraction, food sustainability and security, migration and human rights, health disparities and healthcare access, class and gender identities and empowerment, and the defense of democracy. Case studies (drawn mainly from North America) encourage readers to think through their own experiences and expectations and will serve as durable documentation of how movements develop and change. This timely survey of the activist anthropological landscape is valuable reading in an era of widely perceived ecological and political crisis, where disinterested data collection increasingly appears to be a luxury that neither the discipline nor the world can afford.

    Introduction: Doing Good Anthropology

    Anna J. Willow and Kelly A. Yotebieng

    Part One: Anthropology OF Activism

    1. Environmental Justice in White Working-Class Communities: A Chemo-Social Perspective

    Richard Bargielski

    2. GMO-Free Activism in Rural Southern Oregon: Motivations, Ideologies, and Values

    Rebecka Daye

    3. Social Justice, Trauma-Informed Care, and "Liberation Acupuncture": Exploring the Activism of the Peoples Organization of Community Acupuncture

    Suzanne Morrissey and Olivia Hagmann

    4. Engaged Ethnography in a Resident-Activist Environmental Justice Community

    Michael Still

    Comments on Anthropology OF Activism

    Dana E. Powell

    Part Two: Anthropology AS Activism

    5. All I Can Do: Why Activists (and Anthropologists) Act

    Anna J. Willow

    6. In Our Own Backyard: Navigating Research and Activism in Southeast Florida

    Eileen Smith-Cavros and Patricia Widener

    7. "I’d Never Thought about This Before": Anthropology of Cross-Disability Activism as Activism

    Sarah Elizabeth Morrow, Elizabeth A. Winter, and Jodi A. Allison

    8. "You Must Tell Our Stories!": Moving Toward Applied Anthropology and Beyond in the Groningen Gas Field

    Elisabeth N. Moolenaar

    Comments on Anthropology AS Activism

    Barbara Rose Johnston

    Part Three: Anthropology AND Activism

    9. We are Tired of Telling Our Stories: Finding Our "Situated Usefulness" Through Activism in Anthropology

    Kelly A. Yotebieng

    10. Anthropology and Conflict Transformation: Promises and Dilemmas of Worldview Translation

    Brenda Fitzpatrick

    11. Challenges of "Communiversity" Organizing in Trumplandia

    Mark Schuller

    12. Academic and Activist Collaboration in Turbulent Times: Responding to Immigrant Policing in Central Florida

    Nolan Kline, Mary Vickers, Jeannie Economos, and Chris Furino

    Comments on Anthropology AND Activism

    Shirley J. Fiske

    Afterword

    Stephen L. Schensul

    Biography

    Anna J. Willow is a Professor of Anthropology at the Ohio State University, USA. Her recent books include ExtrACTION: Impacts, Engagements, and Alternative Futures (2017, co-edited with Kirk Jalbert, David Casagrande, and Stephanie Paladino) and Understanding ExtrACTIVISM: Culture and Power in Natural Resource Disputes (2018).

    Kelly A. Yotebieng completed her PhD in the Ohio State University’s Department of Anthropology. She currently consults full-time with the World Bank and various UN agencies.