Committed anthropology, public-oriented anthropologies and decoloniality. Ethnographic challenges and decolonisation of methodology.

Authors

  • Juan Carlos Gimeno Martín Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  • Angeles Castaño Madroñal Universidad de Seville

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5216/o.v16i2.37084

Keywords:

committed anthropology, publicly-oriented anthropology, decoloniality, anthropological knowledge.

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The trends and new theoretical-methodological perspectives interwoven by committed anthropologies have opened a debate about the role of anthropology with regard social movements and the defence of cultural diversity against globalisation. Among these trends, plural publicly-oriented anthropologies are built around the notion of commitment to social movements in the contemporary political struggle against the ethnocidal tendencies of globalisation. These anthropologies work from a decolonial perspective that sees the decolonisation of ethnographic methodology and anthropological production as an inescapable necessity; the commitment is to transfer anthropological knowledge with the subjects of said knowledge. This paper examines the main arguments and the proposals that have been set forth to overcome tensions and chasms between these committed anthropological trends and to construct a true decolonialised anthropological discipline. Dialogue within the diversity of world anthropologies which, always from a situated perspective, create knowledge, in contrast with the autism and prophylaxis of scientific elitism.

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Author Biographies

Juan Carlos Gimeno Martín, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Juan Carlos Gimeno Martín is Doctor in Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and Professor of Anthropology at the UAM. Currently is Head of Department of Social Anthropology and Spanish Philosophical Thought (UAM) . He has conducted fieldwork in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba and the Western Sahara. Among his books are: The controversy of development (co-published, Los libros de la Catarata, 1999), Neoliberalism, NGOs and indigenous peoples in Latin America (co-published, SEPHA, 2005), Knowledge. Development and Social transformations (co-published, SEPHA, 2007), Socio-cultural transformations of a revolutionary project: the Saharawi people's struggle for liberation (Collection Monographs, No. 43. 2007, available at: http://www.globalcult.org.ve/ monografias.htm), and knowledge of the world. Epistemic diversity in Latin America (co-published, Los libros de la Catarata, 2010). Among recent articles stand out: "Putting anthropology in value" (New Trends in Anthropology Magazine, 2011) and "Critical Reflections on the margins on the production of knowledge to transformative action" (CUHSO, 2012). He is currently principal investigator of the project I + D + i (2013-2015): Consolidation and decline of Spanish colonial rule in Western Sahara (Tarfalla-Ifni-Sahara: 1956-1976). As a result of this project, along with Francesco Correale, Juan Carlos Gimeno has recently edited the bilingual French / Spanish monograph: Western Sahara: memoires, culture, histories, in Les Cahiers de l`Emam. Études sur le Monde Arabe et sur le Méditerranée .Nº 24,25, 2015.

Angeles Castaño Madroñal, Universidad de Seville

Ángeles Castaño Madroñal has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Seville (Spain) where she currently holds a tenure position in the Department of Social Anthropology. She has conducted studies about immigration in Andalusia, social exclusion processes, cultural adaptation and racism, inter-ethnic relations in border contexts, identity processes and cultural heritage on the Spanish-Portuguese border and interculturality and cultural heritage of Andalusia. Her studies focus on narratives, imaginaries, discourses and practices, the discourses of power and the coloniality of policies. Her recent research includes Managing Internactional Urban Migration-Turkey, Italy, Spain (MIUM_TIE), funded by the External Actions of The European Community programme: Promotion of the Civil Society Dialogue Between EU and Turkey (2008-2009) coordinated by University of Koç (Istanbul) directed by Ahmet Içduigü; The Semantic Of Tolerance And (Anti-)Racism In Europe: Public Bodies And Civil Society On A Comparative Perspective. (TOLERACE) Funded by the EU 7Framework Programme 2010/2013, coordinated by CES (University of Coimbra), directed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos; Patrimonio cultural e Interculturalidad. Nuevos sentidos en los procesos de patrimonialización en Andalucía, funded in 2014 by the PatrimoniUN-10 programme of the CIE-Campus of International Excellence in Heritage of the University of Jaen. She is member (period: 2014-2016) of the UNESCO/UFGD Chair (Universidade Federal Grande Dourados, Brazil) in Cultural Diversity, Gender and Borders (Diversidade Cultural, Género e Fronteiras), directed by prof. Losandro Antonio Tedeschi. She is also member of the Research Group for the Study of Sociocultural Identities in Andalusia (GEISA), pertaining to the Andalusia Research Plan (SEJ-149), since 1991. Since 2014 Ángeles Castaño Madroñal is the coordinator of the University of Seville’s Study Group for Development - ICoDeS Medi-Africa. Until recently she was a patron of the CEPAIM Foundation in 2008-2015. And she has been scientific advisor to the Sevilla Acoge Foundation since 2005.

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Published

2016-11-04

How to Cite

GIMENO MARTÍN, Juan Carlos; CASTAÑO MADROÑAL, Angeles. Committed anthropology, public-oriented anthropologies and decoloniality. Ethnographic challenges and decolonisation of methodology. OPSIS, Goiânia, v. 16, n. 2, p. 262–279, 2016. DOI: 10.5216/o.v16i2.37084. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufcat.edu.br/index.php/Opsis/article/view/37084. Acesso em: 13 jun. 2026.

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2016): Dossiê Descolonizar as Ciências Humanas: campos de pesquisas, desafios analíticos e resistências - Parte 2 jul/dez. 2016

Section

Dossiê Descolonizar as Ciências Humanas: campos de pesquisas, desafios analíticos e resistências Parte 2

License

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