Critical Journeys

Reviews / Votes

'The contributors offer succinct, professional biographies which remind us what reflexivity, in its most helpful sense, contributes. This volume will inspire intending anthropologists by example, reassure new fieldworkers that others have thrived on serendipity, and remind established anthropologists how uncertainly they set out, and how much their own journeys have owed to their local co-workers.' Richard Fardon, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK 'Critical Journeys brings reflexivity back as a powerful theoretical insight and methodological tool, far removed from self-indulgent navel-gazing. Each author presents an ethnography of ethnographic practice, treating seriously for what would seem to be the first time the role played by assistants and others, as well as the informants in co-producing anthropological knowledge. The volume will stand the test of time and should be essential reading for those undertaking fieldwork for the first time, and for all anthropologists seeking to understand the discipline's relation to the world it inhabits.' Marcus Banks, University of Oxford, UK 'Taken together, the papers reveal insights into the making of anthropologists through their engagement with the field and in the production of texts from their fieldwork...I enjoyed the balance and the sense of vibrancy displayed in this book. It contributes usefully to a body of knowledge that will assist teachers, and especially postgraduate students, in the central task of relating fieldwork to text.' Anthropological Forum '...good reading... One of the aims of the book is to demonstrate that there is 'never just one way of being an anthropologist' (p. 13), and in this it succeeds.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute