Crafting an Engaged Urban Anthropology

Abstract

There has been a growing recognition within anthropology over the past two decades about the need to more seriously engage with topics and issues that are of more direct relevance to the everyday realities of the general public. By producing knowledge that is useful for solving real-world social problems and making research more accessible to non-academic audiences, anthropology, according to these appeals, can play a greater role in influencing matters of societal concern. In parallel,as more and more regions around the world are witnessing accelerating rates of urban growth, we have also seen a garnering of scholarly interest to link anthropology with challenges related to city life.