Paper short abstract:

Following a case study on the emergence of Baumann’s ‘Grammars of Identity/Alterity’, this paper aims to shed light on the role of institutions and academic networks in the development of intellectual productions. It also envisages debating the suitability of researching contemporary anthropology

Paper long abstract:

The social sciences in general -and sociocultural anthropology in particular- seem to receive little or no attention in the history and sociology of science. In addition, recent theoretical developments in anthropology (and the social and institutional contexts where they take place) are rarely analyzed within the little historical research made about the field. I believe, nevertheless, that it is both possible and desirable to construct a historical-sociological narrative of contemporary anthropology.

Following that assumption, and framed within a sociology of academic networks, this paper aims to investigate a very recent chapter of the history of contemporary anthropology. It envisages showing how one author [Gerd Baumann] developed a research hypothesis [the 'grammars of identity/alterity'] through one transnational institution [EASA] after confronting with a process of boundary creation in Catalonia. Theoretically, this contribution to the panel aims to shed light on the role of institutions, academic networks and intellectual biographies in the development of intellectual productions. I also would like to contribute to a methodological debate with the colleagues about the suitability of researching recent theories and events in the history of anthropology.