Creative and pedagogical anthropologists

At the annual conference for the Swedish Association for anthropologists (SANT), with the theme “Culture, power and environment”, this last weekend, a discussion was raised about the role of anthropological knowledge. This is an interesting topic in itself. However, I was struck by the distinction made by one of the participats, between anthropologists at the one hand, and people with “creative work” at the other. What is anthropology if not a creative work? Would we have considered the work by for example Donna Haraway as ”outstanding” or ”brilliant” (see the Foreword for her book Simians, Cyborgs, and Women – The Reinvention of Nature), if she had not been just that - creative? The role of creativity has been given extensive attention by eco-feminists, and by historians of science, who use creativity to deconstruct categories.

Another discussion that made me think about the relationship between the research process and creativity, was the defense of a dissertation by a colleague. The discussant asked her whether the research process and analysis had really been performed in such a neat and organized manner as presented in the methodological chapter of the dissertation. Her reply was no. I believe that the desire to describe the research process as an orderly and linear practice, is an example of the overarching goal of science where facts (or reality) are discovered. We seldom write that we got ideas for pedagogical metaphors to make our arguments and findings understandable when presenting them in text or speech. Here I want to get back to the initial question – what is the role of anthropological or other sociological knowledge? I argue that in order to make our findings, conclusions and arguments understandable we need to be creative and pedagogical. My point of departure is that the role of anthropological knowledge is that it should attempt to “do something” with the audience, and that conclusions and arguments should be thought provoking since we are part of a world in the making. Then it is vital to consider research practices as highly creative.