Questo Forum prosegue il dibattito aperto da un precedente Forum di Anuac (vol. 5, n. 1, giugno 2... more Questo Forum prosegue il dibattito aperto da un precedente Forum di Anuac (vol. 5, n. 1, giugno 2016) sulle trasformazioni dell’accademia al tempo del neoliberismo e le relative conseguenze sul futuro dell’antropologia. Auspichiamo che queste ulteriori testimonianze e commenti inducano chi lavora e studia all’universita a formare una coalizione transnazionale capace di immaginare nuove visioni di universita. Il Forum presenta contributi di Virginia R. Dominguez, Sam Beck, Carl A. Maida, Martin A. Mills, Berardino Palumbo, Alan Smart, Ger Duijzings, Alexis M. Jordan & Shaheen M. Christie, Boone W. Shear, Alexander Koensler & Cristina Papa, e del Reclaiming Our University Movement.
The work that is represented here demonstrates the importance of what we do in learning to work i... more The work that is represented here demonstrates the importance of what we do in learning to work in professional settings of various sorts. Learning-in-context through experience and action is so essential that it is normalized and taken for granted, accepted as part of “the real world,” not needing explanation or intervention. The articles in this issue describe and explain learning-in-action. Each of the articles in this special issue demonstrates that no matter the style of teaching/learning and context, we must increasingly become aware of the unintended outcomes of the processes involved. The articles emphasize the simultaneity of work, learning, and teaching. The authors discuss how work experience is represented and the nature of reflection, the ways through which work confidence and competency are constructed in situated activities, and how work practice is transmitted by mentors and reproduced by novices through a process of transition.
What if we use theory and method to benefi t the people we study and with whom we partner to deve... more What if we use theory and method to benefi t the people we study and with whom we partner to develop an increasingly just world in which inequities are reduced and all people may believe in their ability to reach their potentials by having access to resources that are more or less equally available, distributed and accessible? Each in her or his way, the contributors to this 'Special Issue on Public Anthropology' provide example trajectories which move anthropologists in this direction.
Gypsy slavery (robie) in Romania is recorded from the 13th through the mid-19th century and paral... more Gypsy slavery (robie) in Romania is recorded from the 13th through the mid-19th century and parallels the formation of classes instrumental in the creation of Balkan and East European states. To this day the legacy of state formation and a class-based division of labor haunts ...
E xperiential learning in the form of internships and community service learning has become a ped... more E xperiential learning in the form of internships and community service learning has become a pedagogical movement in universities across the country (Harkavy 1997:5). While mostly used in universities to "support" classroom learning, I advocate for experience-based learning (EL) (see Dewey 1938). Employers view this type of learning crucial to entry level professional jobs. Academics cannot afford to view experience-based learning as antithetical to an academic agenda, nor merely as supportive or complementary to academic learning. Anthropology, in particular, has much to contribute to develop student competencies for the world of work. Our discipline's knowledge and concepts regarding field work can serve to enhance the learning that takes place when students engage in experience-based learning because we use "field work" to generate new knowledge. My argument here regards EL as important to the youth of the turn of the 21st century in making the transition from dependence on those who tell them how and what to think, toward having to sort things out for themselves. This is the transition from college to the world of work in which EL, supported by teacher/guides, plays a central role. How to locate or where to locate experience-based learning in universities has become controversial, because learning from experience is too often viewed as nonacademic work. Academics have had difficulty with assigning credit and a grade to EL courses for undergraduates and with viewing EL as an activity that is non-academic. One difficulty is based on the long-standing "ownership" that anthropology has taken over fieldwork methodologies and methods "unique" to its disciplinary endeavors. What this has meant, more in the past than in the present but still prevalent according to some of my colleagues, is that undergraduates should not gain access to the field for fear of "messing things up" with informants, "wrecking" the chances of good anthropological fieldwork to be done by "prepared" and "competent" field researchers after the students have left. Of course, this issue has not withstood the test of time, as other social science and humanities disciplines have assimilated field work as part of their tool kits and methods for generating knowledge and the insurgency of their undergraduate students in communities. There is something implicitly paternalistic about the idea of protecting people in communities from undergraduate students, as if community people have no power to fend for themselves and protect themselves from the "onslaught" of college students. By this time in the 21st century, we certainly cannot claim that the students will impact pristine communities. One other difficulty, more controversial and important, is related to the, often implicit, separation of theory from practice. This is the assumed order of learning progression and knowledge production to which universities adhere. Theory is given priority with research; then comes practice. The assumption here is that theory is applied or tested in practice, in "the real world." Giving power to theory production-inpractice takes a very different approach to educational practice that some have referred to as a "paradigm shift" (Kuhn 1970), with a focus on "knowing-in-action" (Schoen, 1983, 1987). Although some of us would prefer to give weight to practice-based theory production, theory and practice are inevitable united and as such our focus has to be on Society for the Anthropology of Work Executive Board
This is a biographical account of my work in Romania and the influence it had on my research that... more This is a biographical account of my work in Romania and the influence it had on my research that followed. I focus on the impact that my almost five years in Romania had on the framework and orientation of my anthropological practice that I employed in the United States. I suggest that anthropologists have a moral imperative we must carry out when we choose to conduct research among the most vulnerable in society. In doing so, we must also come to understand the conditions that have made them vulnerable in the first place (Nader 1969). I assert here that as anthropologists of the twenty-first century we no longer may stay on the sidelines, but we must engage our work as allies with the vulnerable, supporting them in their self-identified struggles for dignity, liberation, and sustainability as part of a unified global effort. This entails the transformation of participant observation into a participatory research approach.
A purely agricultural subsistence economy in contemporary Poiana can no longer survive. Most hous... more A purely agricultural subsistence economy in contemporary Poiana can no longer survive. Most households attempt to produce only enough agro-pastoral products for their own needs. This strategy in part contradicts state attempts to motivate those with private land to produce for state markets, but on the whole the state has been successful in Poiana. It has been able to obtain both industrial labor and agricultural products. Where mechanization and centralized decision-making concerning production are not possible, indirect pressures for production and traditional means of cultivation can bring about similar results. The peasant's laborextensive methods of production, state production incentives, smaller estates, and wage labor all increase the potential of production for the market. Each household, for example, is able to raise at least one cow for the market. Thus the extensive use of private labor can be profitable for the state in regions where mechanization, on a cost-accou...
Calling for major reform in medical education, the Carnegie Institute report 'Educating Physician... more Calling for major reform in medical education, the Carnegie Institute report 'Educating Physicians' espoused the importance of assisting student trainees in forming their professional identities. Here, we consider the question: At what educational stage should future physicians begin this process? The literature suggests that the process begins when students matriculate in medical school; we posit, however, that premedical students can begin their proto-professional development as college undergraduates. We describe here the pedagogy of Cornell University's urban semester program (USP), which enables college students to participate in shadowing experiences as part of an integrated structured study programme. USP students report improved communicative competency, changes in their perceptions and attitudes toward medical practice, and powerful influences on their personal and professional development upon completion of the programme. We suggest the solution to the question of 'When and under what conditions should shadowing take place?' is to utilize a structure that combines the exposure of college students to the professional environment with a didactic and self-reflective curriculum, thereby supporting students in their early professional development. We conclude that
A pedagogical movement of sorts has been developing over the past several years whereby college s... more A pedagogical movement of sorts has been developing over the past several years whereby college students engage in off-campus and out-of-classroom activities for a particular kind of learning experience. This approach, here referred to as community service-learning, has ...
Questo Forum prosegue il dibattito aperto da un precedente Forum di Anuac (vol. 5, n. 1, giugno 2... more Questo Forum prosegue il dibattito aperto da un precedente Forum di Anuac (vol. 5, n. 1, giugno 2016) sulle trasformazioni dell’accademia al tempo del neoliberismo e le relative conseguenze sul futuro dell’antropologia. Auspichiamo che queste ulteriori testimonianze e commenti inducano chi lavora e studia all’universita a formare una coalizione transnazionale capace di immaginare nuove visioni di universita. Il Forum presenta contributi di Virginia R. Dominguez, Sam Beck, Carl A. Maida, Martin A. Mills, Berardino Palumbo, Alan Smart, Ger Duijzings, Alexis M. Jordan & Shaheen M. Christie, Boone W. Shear, Alexander Koensler & Cristina Papa, e del Reclaiming Our University Movement.
The work that is represented here demonstrates the importance of what we do in learning to work i... more The work that is represented here demonstrates the importance of what we do in learning to work in professional settings of various sorts. Learning-in-context through experience and action is so essential that it is normalized and taken for granted, accepted as part of “the real world,” not needing explanation or intervention. The articles in this issue describe and explain learning-in-action. Each of the articles in this special issue demonstrates that no matter the style of teaching/learning and context, we must increasingly become aware of the unintended outcomes of the processes involved. The articles emphasize the simultaneity of work, learning, and teaching. The authors discuss how work experience is represented and the nature of reflection, the ways through which work confidence and competency are constructed in situated activities, and how work practice is transmitted by mentors and reproduced by novices through a process of transition.
What if we use theory and method to benefi t the people we study and with whom we partner to deve... more What if we use theory and method to benefi t the people we study and with whom we partner to develop an increasingly just world in which inequities are reduced and all people may believe in their ability to reach their potentials by having access to resources that are more or less equally available, distributed and accessible? Each in her or his way, the contributors to this 'Special Issue on Public Anthropology' provide example trajectories which move anthropologists in this direction.
Gypsy slavery (robie) in Romania is recorded from the 13th through the mid-19th century and paral... more Gypsy slavery (robie) in Romania is recorded from the 13th through the mid-19th century and parallels the formation of classes instrumental in the creation of Balkan and East European states. To this day the legacy of state formation and a class-based division of labor haunts ...
E xperiential learning in the form of internships and community service learning has become a ped... more E xperiential learning in the form of internships and community service learning has become a pedagogical movement in universities across the country (Harkavy 1997:5). While mostly used in universities to "support" classroom learning, I advocate for experience-based learning (EL) (see Dewey 1938). Employers view this type of learning crucial to entry level professional jobs. Academics cannot afford to view experience-based learning as antithetical to an academic agenda, nor merely as supportive or complementary to academic learning. Anthropology, in particular, has much to contribute to develop student competencies for the world of work. Our discipline's knowledge and concepts regarding field work can serve to enhance the learning that takes place when students engage in experience-based learning because we use "field work" to generate new knowledge. My argument here regards EL as important to the youth of the turn of the 21st century in making the transition from dependence on those who tell them how and what to think, toward having to sort things out for themselves. This is the transition from college to the world of work in which EL, supported by teacher/guides, plays a central role. How to locate or where to locate experience-based learning in universities has become controversial, because learning from experience is too often viewed as nonacademic work. Academics have had difficulty with assigning credit and a grade to EL courses for undergraduates and with viewing EL as an activity that is non-academic. One difficulty is based on the long-standing "ownership" that anthropology has taken over fieldwork methodologies and methods "unique" to its disciplinary endeavors. What this has meant, more in the past than in the present but still prevalent according to some of my colleagues, is that undergraduates should not gain access to the field for fear of "messing things up" with informants, "wrecking" the chances of good anthropological fieldwork to be done by "prepared" and "competent" field researchers after the students have left. Of course, this issue has not withstood the test of time, as other social science and humanities disciplines have assimilated field work as part of their tool kits and methods for generating knowledge and the insurgency of their undergraduate students in communities. There is something implicitly paternalistic about the idea of protecting people in communities from undergraduate students, as if community people have no power to fend for themselves and protect themselves from the "onslaught" of college students. By this time in the 21st century, we certainly cannot claim that the students will impact pristine communities. One other difficulty, more controversial and important, is related to the, often implicit, separation of theory from practice. This is the assumed order of learning progression and knowledge production to which universities adhere. Theory is given priority with research; then comes practice. The assumption here is that theory is applied or tested in practice, in "the real world." Giving power to theory production-inpractice takes a very different approach to educational practice that some have referred to as a "paradigm shift" (Kuhn 1970), with a focus on "knowing-in-action" (Schoen, 1983, 1987). Although some of us would prefer to give weight to practice-based theory production, theory and practice are inevitable united and as such our focus has to be on Society for the Anthropology of Work Executive Board
This is a biographical account of my work in Romania and the influence it had on my research that... more This is a biographical account of my work in Romania and the influence it had on my research that followed. I focus on the impact that my almost five years in Romania had on the framework and orientation of my anthropological practice that I employed in the United States. I suggest that anthropologists have a moral imperative we must carry out when we choose to conduct research among the most vulnerable in society. In doing so, we must also come to understand the conditions that have made them vulnerable in the first place (Nader 1969). I assert here that as anthropologists of the twenty-first century we no longer may stay on the sidelines, but we must engage our work as allies with the vulnerable, supporting them in their self-identified struggles for dignity, liberation, and sustainability as part of a unified global effort. This entails the transformation of participant observation into a participatory research approach.
A purely agricultural subsistence economy in contemporary Poiana can no longer survive. Most hous... more A purely agricultural subsistence economy in contemporary Poiana can no longer survive. Most households attempt to produce only enough agro-pastoral products for their own needs. This strategy in part contradicts state attempts to motivate those with private land to produce for state markets, but on the whole the state has been successful in Poiana. It has been able to obtain both industrial labor and agricultural products. Where mechanization and centralized decision-making concerning production are not possible, indirect pressures for production and traditional means of cultivation can bring about similar results. The peasant's laborextensive methods of production, state production incentives, smaller estates, and wage labor all increase the potential of production for the market. Each household, for example, is able to raise at least one cow for the market. Thus the extensive use of private labor can be profitable for the state in regions where mechanization, on a cost-accou...
Calling for major reform in medical education, the Carnegie Institute report 'Educating Physician... more Calling for major reform in medical education, the Carnegie Institute report 'Educating Physicians' espoused the importance of assisting student trainees in forming their professional identities. Here, we consider the question: At what educational stage should future physicians begin this process? The literature suggests that the process begins when students matriculate in medical school; we posit, however, that premedical students can begin their proto-professional development as college undergraduates. We describe here the pedagogy of Cornell University's urban semester program (USP), which enables college students to participate in shadowing experiences as part of an integrated structured study programme. USP students report improved communicative competency, changes in their perceptions and attitudes toward medical practice, and powerful influences on their personal and professional development upon completion of the programme. We suggest the solution to the question of 'When and under what conditions should shadowing take place?' is to utilize a structure that combines the exposure of college students to the professional environment with a didactic and self-reflective curriculum, thereby supporting students in their early professional development. We conclude that
A pedagogical movement of sorts has been developing over the past several years whereby college s... more A pedagogical movement of sorts has been developing over the past several years whereby college students engage in off-campus and out-of-classroom activities for a particular kind of learning experience. This approach, here referred to as community service-learning, has ...
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