Collaborative ethnographic methods
dismantling the ‘anthropological broom closet’?
Keywords:
anthropology, collaborative research, decolonization, politics of knowledge, Latin AmericaAbstract
Scholars and activists are increasingly carrying out collaborative research to respond to the asymmetrical privileges built into Western science by partnering with local communities and explicitly orienting their research towards their political aims. In this article, we examine this important shift, tracing the ways it intersects with other important trends in the field, especially the politics of knowledge and decolonization. We discuss the tendencies of collaborative research in Latin America to examine the context and political agendas of those involved and to show what is produced. We suggest that collaboration, like other seemingly progressive discourses like decolonization, can be the site of governance as well as liberation, as it is increasingly the norm for government agencies, research institutions, and non-governmental organizations to promote participatory methods to further their own agendas. Considering the dilemmas in our different research projects on indigenous politics in Bolivia, we urge careful analysis of the multiple and changing standpoints of our collaborators in order not to reconstruct essentialized notions of indigeneity. Ultimately, we see the need to acknowledge the tight spaces of negotiation that we all find ourselves drawn into when we undertake collaborative endeavors.References
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