ANTROPOLOGISKE KRUMSPRING I ET VIDENSSAMFUND: Om at lave feltarbejde i en agora

Resumé

Taking its point of departure in their recent fieldwork, the authors explore the concept of

knowledge in two different ways. How is scientific knowledge conceived in the debate

surrounding the passage of the new Danish legislation on universities? And how is it

possible to work with knowledge in the form of humanistic research as object of

anthropological enquiry? In anthropology, knowledge, in relation to research has

especially been studied regarding the natural sciences, i.e. in laboratories. The authors

see this as a logical consequence of the development in anthropological method and

theory, where the anthropological object has increasingly been defined as an object with

a specific physical integrity – that is, as tied to a group of people and/or a physical place.

This discussion finds an interesting parallel in the debate of the new act. Scientific

knowledge is by some humanistic researchers understood as a solitary process where

demands from larger society, as well as from the institutional community are considered

restrictive, a factor that potentially pollutes the otherwise pure science. Thereby science

is perceived as a relatively autonomous field in society – quite similar to the classic

notion of culture. Arguing for an actor-network, dialogic notion of the anthropological

field, i.p. as an agora, requires a “rhizomatic” form of knowledge for humanistic research

in general and anthropological research in particular.