Philosophy on Fieldwork: Case Studies in Anthropological Analysis

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.