David Picherit | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research (original) (raw)

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TERRAIN, 2021

From Pablo Escobar to Phoolan Devi, myths featuring bandits (more or less socially-responsible) h... more From Pablo Escobar to Phoolan Devi, myths featuring bandits (more or less socially-responsible) have grown in popularity and reach and are disseminated through digital media. Constructed through processes of transcultural bricolage, these myths celebrate bandits, gangsters and mafia politicians, dead or alive, as effective weapons in the present. At the same time, they project an uncertain posthumous future for the bandit. In these myths, fact and fiction are fused to give birth to powerful fictional realities that exceed the life of these figures, giving them sometimes unexpected post-mortem careers. This introduction reveals how these fictional realities are elaborated through a process of ‘myth scripting’ that becomes constitutive of bandits’ authority. This concept is also our ethnographic object: we explore an everyday fabrication of seduction, fascination and terror indissociable from the bandits’ capacity to spur others to action that is essential to the criminal political economy.

TERRAIN, 2021

De Pablo Escobar à Phoolan Devi, les mythes de bandits plus ou moins sociaux se développent de ma... more De Pablo Escobar à Phoolan Devi, les mythes de bandits plus ou moins sociaux se développent de manière exponentielle et se répandent par le biais des médias numériques. Célébrant des bandits, des gangsters, des politiciens mafieux – morts ou vivants – à partir de bricolages transculturels, ces mythes constituent des armes effectives dans le présent immédiat mais aussi un rendez-vous avec une postérité incertaine. Fiction et faits semblent ainsi fusionner et donner naissance à des réalités fictionnelles puissantes qui débordent les vies présentes et post-mortem de ces figures. Cette introduction expose comment ces réalités fictionnelles sont concrètement élaborées par le biais d’« écritures scénarisées de mythes » qui sont pleinement constitutives de l’autorité de ces bandits. Ce concept théorique que nous développons est aussi un objet ethnographique : nous explorons empiriquement cette fabrique quotidienne de la séduction, de la fascination et de l’effroi, laquelle est indissociable de la capacité à faire agir autrui dans les économies politiques criminelles.

Que signifie l’injonction « restez à la maison » pour des travailleurs migrants ? « Restez à la m... more Que signifie l’injonction « restez à la maison » pour des travailleurs migrants ? « Restez à la maison » !
L’injonction de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) résonne désormais à travers le monde entier. Déclinée dans toutes les langues, elle s’impose comme le mot d’ordre planétaire de la gestion des populations pour lutter contre le Covid-19. Cette démarche top-down, basée sur des considérations principalement médicales, n’est pourtant pas sans conséquence pour les populations les plus pauvres.

Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 2020

Based on an ethnographic case study of the 2014 electoral process in a small town of the south In... more Based on an ethnographic case study of the 2014 electoral process in a small town of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, this article explores the tensions between the self-making of political entrepreneurs, the loyalties to political leaders and the everyday making of electoral manipulation. By looking at the Dalit henchmen of bosses-political candidates, it argues that electoral democracy is considered by henchmen as an issue of life and death: by performing electoral manipulation, they have the opportunity to appear as men of resources, capable of extraordinary actions, and to transform their precarious social and political positions.

The Wild East Criminal Political Economies in South Asia Edited by Barbara Harriss-White and Lucia Michelutti, 2019

This chapter offers insights into the material assemblage of red sanders smuggling, extending to ... more This chapter offers insights into the material assemblage of red sanders smuggling, extending to its recruitment and labour processes and the role of electoral democracy in determining hierarchies and structures of power. By following a number of smugglers/politicians’ career trajectories, it explores how electoral politics and the red sanders mafia are entangled in relations of intreccio. It also reveals how the regulation of red sanders smuggling is deeply entrenched in the economic, cultural and political history of Rayalaseema. The latter is further illustrated by the ways the mythical figure of Veerappan is used to negotiate labour, violence and justice in the region.

Monde Commun, 2019

Acteurs historiques et incontournables des migrations du travail en Inde, les recruteurs de main-... more Acteurs historiques et incontournables des migrations du travail en Inde, les recruteurs de main-d’œuvre (maistri) demeurent pourtant largement méconnus. S’intéresser à ceux qui font circuler la main-d’œuvre, à leur quotidien et à la complexité des liens sociaux déployés à travers les espaces de migration et de travail, permet d’appréhender les infrastructures qui facilitent les mobilités dans l’Inde néolibérale.
Comment ces maistri façonnent-ils les migrations saisonnières de travailleurs manuels en Inde rurale ? De quelles manières arpentent-ils eux-mêmes ces espaces ruraux ? Quels sont leurs espoirs et leurs ambitions ? Comment négocient-ils avec les différents acteurs de la migration ?

les mythes de « bandits » morts ou vivants se répandent aujourd'hui de manière instantanée par le... more les mythes de « bandits » morts ou vivants se répandent aujourd'hui de manière instantanée par le biais des médias numériques. Des épopées traditionnelles, des vidéos, des photos, des musiques, ou encore des applications et des jeux vidéo sont bricolés pour célébrer des bandits plus ou moins sociaux, mais aussi des gangsters, des révolutionnaires et des politiciens mafieux. Ces bricolages transculturels et in situ, effectués par une multitude de « scénaristes »dont les protagonistes eux-mêmes -, participent d'une écriture nouvelle des mythes de bandits.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2018

Why and how do labour migrant brokers engage with henchmen of bosses, small-time criminals and vi... more Why and how do labour migrant brokers engage with henchmen of bosses, small-time criminals and violent politicians? What significance do labour brokers’ political relations have in the fabric of labour circulation? This article argues for migration brokerage to be examined along a broad continuum of brokerage to explore the local fabric of labour circulation in the Indian construction sector. Considering migration brokerage as part of a broader landscape of brokerage firstly allows look at how migration brokers concretely navigate the worlds of labour and politics to pursue their activities and to further their own agendas. It secondly offers insight into how the everyday relations between migrant brokers and henchmen of bosses shape the lives of migrant labourers in the urban construction sector. Based on a detailed ethnography of the relation between a Dalit labour maistri and a Dalit henchman of a boss in a context of violent criminal political economy, this article explores the roles of Dalit politics in shaping the Dalit fabric of labour circulation and labour broker’s trajectories in South India. It further looks at the ambivalent production and mobilisation of Dalit identities in the making of an ideal Dalit migrant labourer.

This paper explores how young male Dalit labourers negotiate the changes and continuities of labo... more This paper explores how young male Dalit labourers negotiate the changes and continuities of labour relations in the construction industry, and power relations in rural Telangana in southern India. It looks at the fluidity between three segments of the classes of labour, namely debt-bonded, unskilled/self-employed and educated labourers. It examines how Dalit youths' experiences and representations of labour circulation and political clientelism shape and are shaped by the articulation between the construction industry and rural leaders, and by class, family, caste and generational relations in the village. Two points are made. First, circulation at the bottom of the labour hierarchy prevents labourers (even educated ones) to accumulate capital and participate in collective action: rather, the total lack of protection at work has brought about renewed and graded forms of dependence and political clientelism. Second, circulation serves as a locus that fosters and segments young male Dalit labourers' quests for respect, but hinders them from getting involved in political competition against rural leaders.

This paper explores the relations between the trajectories of Dalit assertion and of faction poli... more This paper explores the relations between the
trajectories of Dalit assertion and of faction politics in
contemporary Rayalaseema in rural Andhra Pradesh.
Based on a case study of a local hybrid alliance between
a Dalit NGO and a Dalit agricultural labour union, it
examines how Dalit organisations deal with the state
and politics at village and town levels in a context of
economic and political insecurities. It shows how the
decline of Dalit collective forms of mobilisation in the
2000s has reinforced feelings of disempowerment
among Dalit activists who look at goondaism and
bossism as concrete and direct modes of assertion. The
article then investigates the ambivalent relations
between Dalit agenda, individual social mobility and
dependence on faction leaders.

The Crisis of Microcredit, Oct 2015

Edited by Guérin Isabelle, Labie Marc and Servet Jean-Michel. pp.170-186.

Published in Gooptu, Nandini and Parry, Jonathan P. (Eds), Persistence of Poverty in India, New D... more Published in Gooptu, Nandini and Parry, Jonathan P. (Eds), Persistence of Poverty in India, New Delhi: Social Sciences Press, 2014.
This chapter examines the dynamic of how poverty is reproduced among labour migrants through the interplay between labour migration, development, and power in rural Telangana, AP. Based on a case study of seasonal labour migrants, it argues that the articulation between labour migration of Madigas (characterized by lack of protection at work, debt, and segmentation of labour markets) and the anti-poverty programmes (cornered and unequally redistributed by rural leaders) leads to the reformulation of dependencies and micro-hierarchies of caste and class, and to the perpetuation of poverty among these labourers.

This article examines seasonal labour migrants' social and spatial engagement with contemporary t... more This article examines seasonal labour migrants' social and spatial engagement with contemporary transformations in labour migration patterns, State policies and development issues in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This state is at the forefront of the neo-liberal policies that have been rolled out in India since the 1990s.

This article is interested in the roles played by the social mobility of labour middlemen of low-... more This article is interested in the roles played by the social mobility of labour middlemen of low-castes for seasonal labour from the district of Mahabunagar, Andhra Pradesh, in
the changing unfree labour relations in villages. This study focuses on the maistris and the social relations in the village that sanction bondage and the upward mobility of the gollas.
By going outside the work site, it undertakes to explore the changing social relations of recruitment involved in
the bondage of the workers to the maistris, starting from the villages where they operate.

[

TERRAIN, 2021

From Pablo Escobar to Phoolan Devi, myths featuring bandits (more or less socially-responsible) h... more From Pablo Escobar to Phoolan Devi, myths featuring bandits (more or less socially-responsible) have grown in popularity and reach and are disseminated through digital media. Constructed through processes of transcultural bricolage, these myths celebrate bandits, gangsters and mafia politicians, dead or alive, as effective weapons in the present. At the same time, they project an uncertain posthumous future for the bandit. In these myths, fact and fiction are fused to give birth to powerful fictional realities that exceed the life of these figures, giving them sometimes unexpected post-mortem careers. This introduction reveals how these fictional realities are elaborated through a process of ‘myth scripting’ that becomes constitutive of bandits’ authority. This concept is also our ethnographic object: we explore an everyday fabrication of seduction, fascination and terror indissociable from the bandits’ capacity to spur others to action that is essential to the criminal political economy.

TERRAIN, 2021

De Pablo Escobar à Phoolan Devi, les mythes de bandits plus ou moins sociaux se développent de ma... more De Pablo Escobar à Phoolan Devi, les mythes de bandits plus ou moins sociaux se développent de manière exponentielle et se répandent par le biais des médias numériques. Célébrant des bandits, des gangsters, des politiciens mafieux – morts ou vivants – à partir de bricolages transculturels, ces mythes constituent des armes effectives dans le présent immédiat mais aussi un rendez-vous avec une postérité incertaine. Fiction et faits semblent ainsi fusionner et donner naissance à des réalités fictionnelles puissantes qui débordent les vies présentes et post-mortem de ces figures. Cette introduction expose comment ces réalités fictionnelles sont concrètement élaborées par le biais d’« écritures scénarisées de mythes » qui sont pleinement constitutives de l’autorité de ces bandits. Ce concept théorique que nous développons est aussi un objet ethnographique : nous explorons empiriquement cette fabrique quotidienne de la séduction, de la fascination et de l’effroi, laquelle est indissociable de la capacité à faire agir autrui dans les économies politiques criminelles.

Que signifie l’injonction « restez à la maison » pour des travailleurs migrants ? « Restez à la m... more Que signifie l’injonction « restez à la maison » pour des travailleurs migrants ? « Restez à la maison » !
L’injonction de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) résonne désormais à travers le monde entier. Déclinée dans toutes les langues, elle s’impose comme le mot d’ordre planétaire de la gestion des populations pour lutter contre le Covid-19. Cette démarche top-down, basée sur des considérations principalement médicales, n’est pourtant pas sans conséquence pour les populations les plus pauvres.

Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 2020

Based on an ethnographic case study of the 2014 electoral process in a small town of the south In... more Based on an ethnographic case study of the 2014 electoral process in a small town of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, this article explores the tensions between the self-making of political entrepreneurs, the loyalties to political leaders and the everyday making of electoral manipulation. By looking at the Dalit henchmen of bosses-political candidates, it argues that electoral democracy is considered by henchmen as an issue of life and death: by performing electoral manipulation, they have the opportunity to appear as men of resources, capable of extraordinary actions, and to transform their precarious social and political positions.

The Wild East Criminal Political Economies in South Asia Edited by Barbara Harriss-White and Lucia Michelutti, 2019

This chapter offers insights into the material assemblage of red sanders smuggling, extending to ... more This chapter offers insights into the material assemblage of red sanders smuggling, extending to its recruitment and labour processes and the role of electoral democracy in determining hierarchies and structures of power. By following a number of smugglers/politicians’ career trajectories, it explores how electoral politics and the red sanders mafia are entangled in relations of intreccio. It also reveals how the regulation of red sanders smuggling is deeply entrenched in the economic, cultural and political history of Rayalaseema. The latter is further illustrated by the ways the mythical figure of Veerappan is used to negotiate labour, violence and justice in the region.

Monde Commun, 2019

Acteurs historiques et incontournables des migrations du travail en Inde, les recruteurs de main-... more Acteurs historiques et incontournables des migrations du travail en Inde, les recruteurs de main-d’œuvre (maistri) demeurent pourtant largement méconnus. S’intéresser à ceux qui font circuler la main-d’œuvre, à leur quotidien et à la complexité des liens sociaux déployés à travers les espaces de migration et de travail, permet d’appréhender les infrastructures qui facilitent les mobilités dans l’Inde néolibérale.
Comment ces maistri façonnent-ils les migrations saisonnières de travailleurs manuels en Inde rurale ? De quelles manières arpentent-ils eux-mêmes ces espaces ruraux ? Quels sont leurs espoirs et leurs ambitions ? Comment négocient-ils avec les différents acteurs de la migration ?

les mythes de « bandits » morts ou vivants se répandent aujourd'hui de manière instantanée par le... more les mythes de « bandits » morts ou vivants se répandent aujourd'hui de manière instantanée par le biais des médias numériques. Des épopées traditionnelles, des vidéos, des photos, des musiques, ou encore des applications et des jeux vidéo sont bricolés pour célébrer des bandits plus ou moins sociaux, mais aussi des gangsters, des révolutionnaires et des politiciens mafieux. Ces bricolages transculturels et in situ, effectués par une multitude de « scénaristes »dont les protagonistes eux-mêmes -, participent d'une écriture nouvelle des mythes de bandits.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2018

Why and how do labour migrant brokers engage with henchmen of bosses, small-time criminals and vi... more Why and how do labour migrant brokers engage with henchmen of bosses, small-time criminals and violent politicians? What significance do labour brokers’ political relations have in the fabric of labour circulation? This article argues for migration brokerage to be examined along a broad continuum of brokerage to explore the local fabric of labour circulation in the Indian construction sector. Considering migration brokerage as part of a broader landscape of brokerage firstly allows look at how migration brokers concretely navigate the worlds of labour and politics to pursue their activities and to further their own agendas. It secondly offers insight into how the everyday relations between migrant brokers and henchmen of bosses shape the lives of migrant labourers in the urban construction sector. Based on a detailed ethnography of the relation between a Dalit labour maistri and a Dalit henchman of a boss in a context of violent criminal political economy, this article explores the roles of Dalit politics in shaping the Dalit fabric of labour circulation and labour broker’s trajectories in South India. It further looks at the ambivalent production and mobilisation of Dalit identities in the making of an ideal Dalit migrant labourer.

This paper explores how young male Dalit labourers negotiate the changes and continuities of labo... more This paper explores how young male Dalit labourers negotiate the changes and continuities of labour relations in the construction industry, and power relations in rural Telangana in southern India. It looks at the fluidity between three segments of the classes of labour, namely debt-bonded, unskilled/self-employed and educated labourers. It examines how Dalit youths' experiences and representations of labour circulation and political clientelism shape and are shaped by the articulation between the construction industry and rural leaders, and by class, family, caste and generational relations in the village. Two points are made. First, circulation at the bottom of the labour hierarchy prevents labourers (even educated ones) to accumulate capital and participate in collective action: rather, the total lack of protection at work has brought about renewed and graded forms of dependence and political clientelism. Second, circulation serves as a locus that fosters and segments young male Dalit labourers' quests for respect, but hinders them from getting involved in political competition against rural leaders.

This paper explores the relations between the trajectories of Dalit assertion and of faction poli... more This paper explores the relations between the
trajectories of Dalit assertion and of faction politics in
contemporary Rayalaseema in rural Andhra Pradesh.
Based on a case study of a local hybrid alliance between
a Dalit NGO and a Dalit agricultural labour union, it
examines how Dalit organisations deal with the state
and politics at village and town levels in a context of
economic and political insecurities. It shows how the
decline of Dalit collective forms of mobilisation in the
2000s has reinforced feelings of disempowerment
among Dalit activists who look at goondaism and
bossism as concrete and direct modes of assertion. The
article then investigates the ambivalent relations
between Dalit agenda, individual social mobility and
dependence on faction leaders.

The Crisis of Microcredit, Oct 2015

Edited by Guérin Isabelle, Labie Marc and Servet Jean-Michel. pp.170-186.

Published in Gooptu, Nandini and Parry, Jonathan P. (Eds), Persistence of Poverty in India, New D... more Published in Gooptu, Nandini and Parry, Jonathan P. (Eds), Persistence of Poverty in India, New Delhi: Social Sciences Press, 2014.
This chapter examines the dynamic of how poverty is reproduced among labour migrants through the interplay between labour migration, development, and power in rural Telangana, AP. Based on a case study of seasonal labour migrants, it argues that the articulation between labour migration of Madigas (characterized by lack of protection at work, debt, and segmentation of labour markets) and the anti-poverty programmes (cornered and unequally redistributed by rural leaders) leads to the reformulation of dependencies and micro-hierarchies of caste and class, and to the perpetuation of poverty among these labourers.

This article examines seasonal labour migrants' social and spatial engagement with contemporary t... more This article examines seasonal labour migrants' social and spatial engagement with contemporary transformations in labour migration patterns, State policies and development issues in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This state is at the forefront of the neo-liberal policies that have been rolled out in India since the 1990s.

This article is interested in the roles played by the social mobility of labour middlemen of low-... more This article is interested in the roles played by the social mobility of labour middlemen of low-castes for seasonal labour from the district of Mahabunagar, Andhra Pradesh, in
the changing unfree labour relations in villages. This study focuses on the maistris and the social relations in the village that sanction bondage and the upward mobility of the gollas.
By going outside the work site, it undertakes to explore the changing social relations of recruitment involved in
the bondage of the workers to the maistris, starting from the villages where they operate.

Mafia Raj. The rule of Bosses, 2024

‘Mafia’ has become an indigenous term in the Indian subcontinent. Like Italian mobsters, the Sou... more ‘Mafia’ has become an indigenous term in the Indian subcontinent. Like Italian mobsters, the South Asian ‘gangster politicians’ and violent entrepreneurs are known for inflicting brutal violence while simultaneously upholding vigilante justice—inspiring fear and fantasy. But the term also refers to the diffuse spheres of crime, business and politics operating within a shadow world that is popularly referred to as the rule of the mafia, or ‘Mafia Raj’.

Through intimate stories of the lives of powerful and aspiring bosses in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh—a rookie neta from Dhaka, a self-styled leader of the poor in Punjab, a henchman from Chittoor, small-time brokers in Lahore, a female don in western UP, a political bigshot in Nawabganj, and a legendary figure in the blood-ridden politics of South India—this book illustrates their personal struggles for sovereignty on their move up the ladder of success.
Ethnographically tracing the distinctive cultural milieu that such stories emerge from, the authors theorize what they call ‘the art of bossing’, providing nuanced ideas about crime, corruption and the lure of the strongman across the world.

Monde Commun 3, 2019

Les migrants, citoyens d’un monde en mouvement L’universitaire camerounais à New York, le tra... more Les migrants, citoyens d’un monde en mouvement

L’universitaire camerounais à New York, le trader français à Londres, l’ouvrier népalais à Doha… sont autant de figures contemporaines de la mobilité. Le numéro 3 de Monde commun met en évidence la dimension ordinaire, sans être anodine, de la migration. Au-delà de la singularité de chacune des situations, considérer ensemble cette multitude migrante – plus de 250 millions de personnes vivant hors de leur pays de naissance – invite à penser le monde à partir des sites et situations de rencontre, cohabitation, coprésence, conflit ou collaboration. Ce numéro intègre les migrations de travailleurs à l’intérieur d’un vaste pays, comme c'est le cas en Inde, ou la migration comme devenir qui traverse la vie de celles et ceux qui aspirent au déplacement. Tous ces mouvements redessinent les frontières, qu’elles soient géopolitiques, sociales, culturelles. Comment les migrations s’inscrivent-elles durablement dans le tissu social ? Comment les sociétés fonctionnent-elles avec l’ouverture au monde et la mobilité comme principe ?

Sommaire

GRAND ENTRETIEN
Marc Augé
DOSSIER
De la circulation cosmopolite à l’émigration forcée : expérience d’un chercheur vénézuélien
Par Rigas Arvanitis et Arnoldo Pirela
Migrants maliens et paradiplomatie : entre politisation et marginalisation
Par Sadio Soukouna
Circuler pour faire migrer en Inde rurale
Par David Picherit
La famille Belhoumi, miroir de l’immigration algérienne en France
Par Stéphane Beaud
CAHIER PHOTOGRAPHIQUE
Ghorban, né un jour qui n’existe pas
Par Olivier Jobard
SI LOIN, SI PROCHE
Le migrant en devenir : transformation sociale, émigration de travail et gouvernance dans le nord-est de la Chine
Par Biao Xiang
PRISE DE PAROLE
Dans nos maisons
Par Marie Cosnay
FAIRE DE L'ANTHROPOLOGIE
Un anthropologue avec accent : approche autoethnographique
Par Shahram Khosravi

Stanford University Press, 2018

"Mafia" has become an indigenous South Asian term. Like Italian mobsters, the South Asian "gangst... more "Mafia" has become an indigenous South Asian term. Like Italian mobsters, the South Asian "gangster politicians" are known for inflicting brutal violence while simultaneously upholding vigilante justice—inspiring fear and fantasy. But the term also refers to the diffuse spheres of crime, business, and politics operating within a shadow world that is popularly referred to as the rule of the mafia, or "Mafia Raj."

Through intimate stories of the lives of powerful and aspiring bosses in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, this book illustrates their personal struggles for sovereignty as they climb the ladder of success. Ethnographically tracing the particularities of the South Asian case, the authors theorize what they call "the art of bossing," providing nuanced ideas about crime, corruption, and the lure of the strongman across the world.

Terrain, 2021

De Pablo Escobar à Phoolan Devi, les bandits morts ou vivants ne cessent d’alimenter l’imaginaire... more De Pablo Escobar à Phoolan Devi, les bandits morts ou vivants ne cessent d’alimenter l’imaginaire collectif. Les scénaristes de ces multiples récits circulant désormais à l’échelle du globe en sont souvent les protagonistes eux-mêmes, soucieux de contrôler leur image de marque dans une économie numérique mondialisée. Ce numéro explore les processus de fabrication des icônes du banditisme, et leur articulation aux pratiques concrètes des brigands d’aujourd’hui dans des économies de la prédation. En croquant une bande de truands ambivalents venus des quatre coins du monde, il interroge les formes charismatiques contemporaines de la violence et de l’autorité.

Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 2020

Despite official reports and widespread popular accounts of electoral fraud, manipulation, and vi... more Despite official reports and widespread popular accounts of electoral fraud, manipulation, and violence in India and Pakistan, this topic has not been systematically addressed by the scholarly literature. This special issue explores how electoral malpractices are performed across a variety of settings (villages, small towns and cities) in criminalised political contexts. Our in-depth ethnographic studies of the electoral seasons show how fraud and manipulation of electoral processes are a diffuse and pervasive assemblage of practices, discourses and representations which shape and are shaped by local modes of governance and by the idea of free and fair elections.

Monde commun n°3, 2019

Des anthropologues dans la cité L'anthropologie trouve sa pertinence dans sa capacité à rendre le... more Des anthropologues dans la cité L'anthropologie trouve sa pertinence dans sa capacité à rendre le chaos du monde un peu plus intelligible. Elle est pourtant trop peu visible aux yeux du public et dans le monde médiatique où elle reste contingentée, malgré ses évolutions diverses, à l'étude des sociétés « exotiques » voire « primitives ». Le projet Monde commun : Des anthropologues dans la cité veut rompre cette distance artificiellement entretenue. Il met en oeuvre une anthropologie publique, qu'on nommera, selon les cas, impliquée ou engagée, coopérative ou citoyenne. Ancrée dans l'enquête de terrain, généraliste, ouverte et pluridisciplinaire, à l'écoute du monde qui l'entoure et de ses enjeux contemporains, celle-ci explore de nouveaux modes de dialogue, d'écriture et d'interprétation. Ni savoir « militant » au service d'une cause, ni savoir « expert » au service d'un pouvoir, l'anthropologie publique naît dans la société et y revient. Elle en est partie prenante et elle la réfléchit. Elle en est un ouvroir autant qu'un miroir.