Militancy as Relationship. (Un)Desirable Statuses and (im)Possible Positionings in Anthropology

The essay reflects on militancy as an ethnographic and relational anthropological dispositif. It explores the connection between the processual and relational character of anthropological knowledge production, ethnographic positioning and the researcher’s status with the aim of understanding the consequences of militancy for anthropological work. The nexus of militancy and research is at the center of extensive debate in anthropology. In most cases, however, militancy is investigated as an individual or collective identity, a closed category, or a self-declared attribute on the part of the researcher. Through the analysis of two ethnographic experiences in which I was (or was not) attributed the role of militant researcher and the consequences this had on positioning, constructing the research field, producing knowledge and public engagement, this paper sustains that militancy is, most of all, a relationship.