Anthropology’s World

Life in a Twenty-First Century Discipline

Ulf Hannerz

In this masterly, state of the art work, Ulf Hannerz maps the contemporary social world of anthropologists and its relation to the wider world in which they carry out their work.

Raising fundamental questions such as ‘What is anthropology really about?’, ‘How does the public understand, or misunderstand, anthropology?’ and ‘What and where do anthropologists study now, and for whom do they write?’ Hannerz invites anthropologists to think again about where their discipline is going.

Full of insights and practical advice from Hannerz’s long experience at the top of the discipline, this book is essential for all anthropologists who want their craft to survive and develop in a volatile world, and contribute to new understandings of its ever-changing diversity and interconnections.
 

Contents

1. Introduction: in the world, and a world in itself
2. Editing anthropology: two experiences in space and time
3. Diversity is our business
4. Field worries: studying down, up, sideways, through, backward, forward, early or later, away and at home
5. Making the world transparent
6. Flat world and the Tower of Babel: linguistic practices in a global discipline
7. Before and after: exploring the usable past
8. And next, briefly: toward 2050
Notes
References
Index
 

About the Author

Ulf Hannerz is Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University and a former Chair of the European Association of Social Anthropologists. His books include Cultural Complexity (1992), Transnational Connections (1996) and Foreign News (2004).