Anthropology Communicates
A VIRTUAL WEBINAR SERIES ORGANISED BY THE RAI’S ANTHROPOLOGY OF POLICY AND PRACTICE COMMITTEE
Thursday 10 June 2021, 3.00-5.00pm (BST)
Anthropology Communicates: with Corporations
With confirmed panel speakers:
Catherine Dolan (SOAS, University of London)
Rebecca Prentice (University of Sussex)
Dinah Rajak (University of Sussex)
chaired by Richard Axelby (SOAS)
Anthropologists often criticise corporations for contributing to the harmful environmental and social conditions we face today. However, anthropologists are also increasingly confronted with the moral ambiguity of the corporate form, as business asserts responsibility for all manner of global development concerns, from climate change and poverty, to disease and worker welfare.
What is the appropriate evaluative stance for anthropologists working with corporations, which on the one hand often shift costs onto workers and the environment while on the other hand claim to move beyond the imperative of shareholder value to prioritise the wellbeing of the many rather than the few? How should anthropologists engage with corporations that pledge to tackle global crises of environmental sustainability, gender inequality, and labour rights?
This panel discusses the role anthropology can play in shaping the possibilities and futures of corporate practice. Based on research with corporations in fashion, consumer goods and extractive industries, we explore what, if any, the ethical limits to anthropology’s cooperation with business are, and how anthropologists can preserve independence and avoid co-optation when entering research collaborations with corporations
This event will be held on Zoom. To register please go here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvdumpqDooGdTEr51bbznyCFpEirEPliAJ
