Paper short abstract:

The paper compares two collaborative research projects (one on decentralization in Peru, the other on big data and the waste management in the UK) focusing on modes of collaboration, challenges of translation between disciplines and negotiations around the possibilities of registering ‘impact’.

Paper long abstract:

The paper will draw on two collaborative research projects, comparing the modes of collaboration, the challenges of translation between disciplines and the negotiations around the possibilities of registering 'impact'. One project was conducted in Peru in a team of anthropological researchers with divergent training and experience. Our topic was decentralization and political experimentation. A key focus was the role of technical knowledge in contemporary government practice, specifically the role of engineering expertise and professional consultancy in public infrastructural development projects. The other research project looked specifically at the social composition and the social effects of 'big data'. Again this was a team project in which anthropologists, sociologists and STS scholars worked to engage three different fields in which 'big data' plays a role: genomic science, offices of national statistics, and municipal waste management. As with the Peruvian case, the anthropological input was primarily engaged with regional government policy initiatives. In this project we staged 'collaboratories', conversations that aimed to go beyond established social science methods (such as focus groups and/or interviews). The paper will consider the possibilities and limitations of these collaborations for the generation and deployment of anthropological knowledge, and the 'otherings' that disciplinary knowledge produces.