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Book Chapter

Introduction: When Ethnography Goes Public

By

Didier Fassin

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Doi:

https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372875-001

Published:

May 2017

This content is made freely available by the publisher. It may not be redistributed or altered. All rights reserved.

The introduction discusses the necessity of thinking beyond fieldwork and writing, which represent the habitual way of considering the life of ethnographic research, to ask what happens after the publication of the research, or more precisely what is involved in the process of publicization of ethnography. A brief history of the public presence of ethnography and the debates it has raised in anthropology as well as sociology is presented. The project of a public ethnography is clearly distinguished from that of public sociology and public anthropology. The stakes and challenges of going public for the ethnographer are analyzed. The introduction ends with a presentation of the structure and chapters of the volume.

ethnography, publics, popularization, politicization, courage of truth

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Rosaldo

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When Natives Talk Back: Chicano Anthropology since the Late Sixties

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Said

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.

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New York

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Vintage Books

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Scheper-Hughes

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.

2000

. “

Ire in Ireland

.”

Ethnography

1

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1

:

117

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40

.

Turnbull

,

Colin

.

1972

.

The Mountain People

.

New York

:

Simon and Schuster

.

Vidich

,

Arthur

, and

Bensman

Joseph

.

(1958) 1968

.

Small Town in Mass Society: Class, Power, and Religion in a Rural Community

.

Princeton

:

Princeton University Press

.

Warner

,

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.

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Publics and Counterpublics

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Figures & Tables

If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography

If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography

Edited by

Duke University Press

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372875

Copyright:

This content is made freely available by the publisher. It may not be redistributed or altered. All rights reserved.

ISBN electronic:

978-0-8223-7287-5

Publication date:

2017

References

Asad

,

Talal

, ed.

1973

.

Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter

.

London

:

Ithaca Press

.

Borofsky

,

Rob

.

2011

.

Why a Public Anthropology?

Hawaii Pacific University, Center for a Public Anthropology

,

http://www.publicanthropology.org/books-book-series/why-a-public-anthropology/

.

Bourgois

,

Philippe

.

1996

.

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

.

Cambridge

:

Cambridge University Press

.

Brettell

,

Caroline

, ed.

1993

.

When They Read What We Write: The Politics of Ethnography

.

Westport, CT

:

Bergin and Garvey

.

Burawoy

,

Michael

.

2005

. “

For Public Sociology

.”

American Sociological Review

70

.

1

:

4

–

28

.

Chagnon

,

Napoleon

.

1968

.

Yanomamö: The Fierce People

.

New York

:

Holt McDougal

.

Clastres

,

Pierre

.

(1974) 1987

.

Society against the State: Essays in Political Anthropology

.

New York

:

Zone Books

.

Clifford

,

James

, and

Marcus

George

.

(1986) 2010

.

Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography

.

Berkeley

:

University of California Press

.

Debaene

,

Vincent

.

(2010) 2014

.

Far Afield: French Anthropology between Science and Literature

.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Eriksen

,

Thomas Hylland

.

2006

.

Engaging Anthropology: The Case for a Public Presence

.

Oxford

:

Berg

.

Farmer

,

Paul

.

1992

.

AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame

.

Berkeley

:

University of California Press

.

Foucault

,

Michel

.

1984

. “

Truth and Power

.” In

The Foucault Reader

, edited by

Rabinow

Paul

,

51

–

75

.

New York

:

Pantheon Books

.

Foucault

,

Michel

.

(2008) 2011

.

The Courage of Truth: Lectures at the College de France, 1983–1984

.

Houndmills, UK

:

Palgrave Macmillan

.

Goffman

,

Alice

.

2014

.

On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City

.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Graeber

,

David

.

2011

.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years

.

New York

:

Melville House

.

Habermas

Jürgen

.

1989

.

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society

.

Cambridge, MA

:

MIT Press

.

Holmes

,

Seth

.

2013

.

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States

.

Berkeley

:

University of California Press

.

Howell

,

Signe

.

2010

. “

Norwegian Academic Anthropologists in Public Spaces

.”

Current Anthropology

51

.

S2

:

269

–

77

.

Lévi-Strauss

,

Claude

.

(1955) 1992

.

Tristes tropiques

.

New York

:

Penguin Books

.

Lewis

,

Oscar

.

1966

.

La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—San Juan and New York

.

New York

:

Random House

.

MacClancy

,

Jeremy

.

1996

. “

Popularizing Anthropology

.” In

Popularizing Anthropology

, edited by

MacClancy

Jeremy

and

McDonaugh

Chris

,

1

–

57

.

London

:

Routledge

.

Malaurie

,

Jean

.

(1955) 1985

.

The Last Kings of Thule: With the Polar Eskimos, as They Face Their Destiny

.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Malinowski

,

Bronislaw

.

(1922) 2014

.

Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea

.

Abingdon, UK

:

Routledge

.

Mills

,

C. Wright

.

1959

.

The Sociological Imagination

.

New York

:

Oxford University Press

.

Piketty

,

Thomas

.

2014

.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

.

Cambridge, MA

:

Harvard University Press

.

Rosaldo

,

Renato

.

1986

. “

When Natives Talk Back: Chicano Anthropology since the Late Sixties

.” In

Renato Rosaldo Lecture Monograph Series 2

,

3

–

20

.

Tucson

:

University of Arizona Press

.

Said

,

Edward

.

1994

.

Representations of the Intellectual

.

New York

:

Vintage Books

.

Scheper-Hughes

Nancy

.

2000

. “

Ire in Ireland

.”

Ethnography

1

.

1

:

117

–

40

.

Turnbull

,

Colin

.

1972

.

The Mountain People

.

New York

:

Simon and Schuster

.

Vidich

,

Arthur

, and

Bensman

Joseph

.

(1958) 1968

.

Small Town in Mass Society: Class, Power, and Religion in a Rural Community

.

Princeton

:

Princeton University Press

.

Warner

,

Michael

.

2002

. “

Publics and Counterpublics

.”

Public Culture

14

.

1

:

49

–

90

.