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Accepted Contribution:
Anthropology in an interdisciplinary future
David Lewis
(London School of Economics)
Anthropologists working outside the discipline will need to build better relationships with those working within the discipline if the continuing relevance of anthropology is to be assured in an increasingly interdisciplinary future.
Contribution long abstract:
Attempting to do anthropological work in spaces outside the discipline is in many ways an uncomfortable position to occupy, but it can also offer useful insights and opportunity for critical reflection. This contribution to the proposed round table reflects on my own journey from a first degree in social anthropology through PhD research in rural sociology to a university career in the interdisciplinary fields of social policy and development studies. In each of these fields, anthropology struggles for recognition, particularly alongside positivist economics and political science, raising important questions about (i) the need to challenge increasingly narrow understandings of what constitutes valid knowledge around understanding and shaping social change; and (ii) what anthropology as a discipline needs to do in order to ensure not only its survival as a viable subject area but also to broaden its relevance, influence, and appeal.