We Don’t Need Another Hero

Abstract

Ethnographic work occupies an uneasy spectrum of experiences, and in this timely discussion where ethnographic challenges are being given their rightful place – my arguments join the discussion by urging a slowing down, a stopping and taking stock about what counts as good work in our current professional environment. I attempt a reflection on immersed anthropologists, and in some ways, on those amongst whom we immerse. The base queries that animate these reflections are – who, what, where and how will ‘good’ anthropological work be decided. The curious fascination with heroic, ideologically driven, ‘difficult’ ethnography is a point of departure here. Once again, they lead to questions about the allocations of labor and power in ethnographic work and in disciplinary knowledge production practices.