March 11, 2011

Brian McKenna on Gillian Tett

More people need to read the new article about Gillian Tett by Brian McKenna.  Just my opinion, but here's a selection to give you a taste:
Tett is absolutely correct that anthropologists (and indeed all academics) need to project themselves more forcefully into the culture. “Anthropologists are well trained to absorb information, not project it.”

They have to “emit."

Tett is doing very important work. She writes from a privileged place in a glamorous and competitive world. At the same time she tests the limits of what is possible. Whether or not she goes far enough is a question to ponder. But all of us must ask ourselves the same question, "How far do each of us go in a hierarchical environment?" As Bourdieu might say, we are all limited by the habitus and the dominant cultural discourse of our own contexts. Tett, like all of us, is shaped by her everyday environment and has constraints on what she is able to write, without censor or self-censor.
Check out the rest at Counterpunch, here.


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