Construction of anthropological knowledge and ethnographic co-research. Problems and challenges

• Main Author: Elena L. Achilli
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Buenos Aires 2017-09-01
• Series: Cuadernos de Antropología Social
• Subjects: Conocimientos antropológicos; Debates; Coinvestigación etnográfica; Modalidad grupal; Desafíos contemporáneos
• Online Access: http://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/CAS/article/view/3795

Discussing anthropological knowledge construction processes entails reflecting upon different connected dimensions. Epistemological and theoretical-methodological  positionings with different political consequences are intertwined. In addition, institutional conditions and the socio-historical context in which certain local and global disciplinary trends are inscribed must be taken into account. This paper looks into the processes of socio-anthropological research I have participated in over the last decades with schools, teachers, teacher unions, indigenous peoples and groups in conditions of structural poverty. I will particularly focus on the modalities of ethnographic co-research that we have implemented in several projects. I will attempt to show some of the theoretical-methodological potentialities that ethnography contributes to group/collective processes of research as well as limits in its development. Finally, I will mention some of the contemporary challenges anthropological knowledge faces in present Latin America.