
Participant Observers
Anthropology, Colonial Development, and the Reinvention of Society in Britain
Freddy Foks(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 14. February 2023
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-0-520-39032-4 (ISBN)
Description
Social anthropology was at the forefront of debates about culture, society, and economic development in the British Empire. This book explores the discipline's rise in the interwar period, crisis amid decolonization, and ironic reemergence in the postwar metropole. Across the humanities and social sciences, activists and scholars used anthropological concepts forged in empire to rethink British society at midcentury. Participant Observers shows how colonial anthropology helped define the social imagination of postimperial Britain. Part institutional history of the discipline's formation, part cultural history of its impact, this is the first account of social anthropology's pivotal role in Britain's intellectual culture.
Reviews / Votes
"Fascinating and very readable." * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute * "Foks has produced an important work that refocuses our understanding of social anthropology during this fundamentally important period in world history."* H-Net Reviews * "This is a sophisticated and polished work, one that displays Foks' owndeeply impressive expertise on the inner workings of texts, scholars, and institutions."
* Journal of British Studies * "Recommended." * CHOICE *
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-39032-4 (9780520390324)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Freddy Foks
Participant Observers
Anthropology, Colonial Development, and the Reinvention of Society in Britain
E-Book
02/2023
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€33.99
Available for download
Person
Freddy Foks is Simon Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. He is a historian of modern Britain and its empire.
Content
Contents
Map
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Islands and Institutions
Anthropology in Britain and the British Empire in the First Decades of the Twentieth Century
2. Philanthropists and Imperialists
Indirect Rule, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rise of LSE Anthropology
3. Pencils, Schemes and Letters
Fieldwork and Pedagogy in 1930s Social Anthropology
4. Popularising the Field
Interwar Anthropologists on the Radio and in Literary Culture
5. From Kinship Studies to Community Studies
'Race Relations', the 'Traditional Working-Class Neighbourhood' and the 'Social Network' in
Post-war British Sociology
6. The Development Decades
The African Survey, the CSSRC and Three Approaches to Social Anthropology in the British Empire,
1935-1955
7. From Development Economics to the 'Moral Economy'
At the Margins of Anthropology, Economics and Social History in the 1950s and 1960s
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Map
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Islands and Institutions
Anthropology in Britain and the British Empire in the First Decades of the Twentieth Century
2. Philanthropists and Imperialists
Indirect Rule, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rise of LSE Anthropology
3. Pencils, Schemes and Letters
Fieldwork and Pedagogy in 1930s Social Anthropology
4. Popularising the Field
Interwar Anthropologists on the Radio and in Literary Culture
5. From Kinship Studies to Community Studies
'Race Relations', the 'Traditional Working-Class Neighbourhood' and the 'Social Network' in
Post-war British Sociology
6. The Development Decades
The African Survey, the CSSRC and Three Approaches to Social Anthropology in the British Empire,
1935-1955
7. From Development Economics to the 'Moral Economy'
At the Margins of Anthropology, Economics and Social History in the 1950s and 1960s
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index