“Communities,” Anthropology and the Politics of Stakeholding: The Challenges of an Inorganic Activist Anthropology

Abstract

This paper draws on my experiences creating and implementing the South Carolina Migrant Farmworker Resource Project, an activist endeavor with an anthropological approach. My discussion of the project focuses on the difficulties of managing stakeholder interests while working among various community organizations and simultaneously accessing the input of the community to be served. I use community in quotes to problematize assumptions and to question what makes a community, if not self-defined. Challenges in definition, collaboration, planning, implementation, and sustainability are examined through a critique of inorganic, participatory research and the difficulties of trying to engage in applied anthropology.