What Kind of Being Is Anthrōpos? The Anthropology of the Contemporary. Paul Rabinow in Conversation With Reiner Keller

• Main Authors: Paul Rabinow, Reiner Keller
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: FQS 2016-01-01
• Series: Forum: Qualitative Social Research
• Subjects: anthropology; present, contemporary; Dewey; Foucault; Weber; experimentation; biotech; science studies; collaboration; enlightenment
• Online Access: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2542

American Anthropologist Paul RABINOW, known worldwide for his work on French philosopher Michel FOUCAULT as well as for his theoretical, conceptual and empirical work on emerging biosociality, has recently developed an anthropology of the contemporary that conceives of anthropology as a practice of studying how current relations of knowledge, thought, and care are given form within shifting relations of power. He argues that currently the dominant knowledge production practices, institutions, and venues for understanding things human in the 21st century are inadequate institutionally and epistemologically. In response, he has designed modes of experimentation and collaboration consisting in focused conceptual work and the exploration of new forms of case-based inquiry. The challenge is to produce knowledge in such a way that the work enhances us ethically, scientifically, politically, and ontologically. What concepts, venues, and forms are most pertinent for building a reflective relation to the present? The following interview invites to reflect on the "demands of the day" in current anthropological and social sciences research. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1601199