Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes reflections on the definition of the field of the public anthropology as an engaged anthropology that has powerful theoretical-methodological tools for the generation of a rigorous knowledge on relevant public themes, with an approach from and for the practice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper proposes some considerations from my doctoral research on the Lorca earthquakes (Murcia, Spain, 2011) framed in the theoretical and practical contributions of the anthropology of disasters. Approaching disasters from an anthropological perspective means unmasking their processual, social and cultural aspects, trying to analyse vulnerability and capture perceptions of risk. The subject itself requires some sense of responsibility and encourages the search for recommendations for disaster management. This contributes to making the anthropology of disasters a public anthropology.

What does it mean to do public anthropology? The relationship between theory and practice and between academic anthropologists and applied anthropologists involves various connections and mediations, being fictitious and unrealistic the theory/practice and pure anthropology/applied anthropology separations (Giménez Romero, 1999). There is a difference between applied anthropology, that is oriented towards applying theoretical knowledge to practice, and engaged anthropology, that is a committed anthropology. Public anthropology may or may not be applied, but it is always engaged.

Based on this premise, in order to define what public anthropology is, it is proposed to reflect on the following aspects and the corresponding competences: 1) theoretical rigour; 2) presence in debates; 2) commitment to social transformation; 3) inclusion of knowledges; 4) social imagination; 5) broad audience; 6) accessible language; 7) assumption of the risk of going public.