Anarchist Anthropology: Towards a Non-Linear Practice | Laney Lenox
Channel: Anarchism Research Group Loughborough
Date: 2022-06-27

In this presentation given as part of the Anarchist Studies Network panels at the 2021 Political Studies Association conference, Laney Lenox (Ulster University) explores anarchist anthropological practice and a democratic approach to ethnographic research.

The Anarchist Studies Network is a specialist group of the Political Studies Association: https://anarchiststudiesnetwork.org/

"Influenced by existential anthropology (Michael Jackson and Albert Piette) and diffractive methodological practice as conceptualized by Donna Haraway and Karen Barad, we argue for an anarchic ethnographic practice through participatory research, narrative construction, and co-production of knowledge. In discussing our similar methodological approaches to different areas of research, we explain the importance of understanding one’s own political stance and researching from it. That is, if one wants to work towards a more egalitarian, feminist, and socially just world, the research methods employed must reflect this in their central ethos. This anarchist ethnography allows us to create research that de-constructs hierarchal prioritization of knowledge and values process divorced from the need to reach positivistic conclusions. Through prioritizing process, this type of ethnography adopts a sense of slowness through dialogue style interviews, participant feedback, and walking auto-ethnography. This ‘slow’ ethnographic practice allows for more pluralistic and nuanced understandings that contribute to a broader tradition of non-linear practice and understanding as acts of resistance and de-centralization. In incorporating understandings of democracy and anarchy as understood by Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Rancière, and Markus Lundström, we build a framework for incorporating participatory democratic and anarchic practice into the research process itself. This is aided by considering how each element of the research might be conducted diffractively, from reading literature to conducting fieldwork. We argue that slowness is in and of itself a form of resisting neoliberalism by rejecting the pace of production, productivity, commodification, and consumption that global capitalism demands."

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#anarchism #anthropology #ethnography #democracy