Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.32458/ei.25.7

Anthropologist turned politician: Illustrating Hage’s concept of ethnographic vacillation

Dijana Šabić orcid.org/0000-0003-0313-0014 ; Entrepreneurship center Aktiva

Abstract

Exploring the concept of ethnographic vacillation which Hage identifies as a “state of constant movement between political participation and analytical observation” (Hage 2009), this paper aims at tackling the following questions: how does one write the (political) emotions into one’s ethnographic work? Should one do that at all? When does one stop being an engaged anthropologist and become a political activist with some knowledge of anthropology? And furthermore, to what extent should anthropologists even get engaged with the politics? In an attempt to answer these questions, I will critically examine my own position as an engaged anthropologist turned politician, following the notion that when one’s solely observant participation reaches a point at which the anthropologist deems it as - not enough, (s)he is welcome and often obliged to engage.

Keywords

applied anthropology, political engagement, anthropology of politics, activism

Hrčak ID:

247159

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/247159

Publication date:

10.12.2020.

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