Applications of Anthropology: Professional Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century

Applications of Anthropology: Professional Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century. Sarah Pink, ed. New York: Berghahn, 2006. 244 pp.

Anthropological approaches and ethnographic methods are increasingly important to industry and the public sector in the 21st century. Each of the ten chapters in this edited volume by Sarah Pink reflects on the development of applied anthropology in the United Kingdom as a particularly British sociocultural and political experience. Written by a generation of U.K. applied anthropologists speaking from decades of experience, this book is a welcome addition to the literature published in the United States and elsewhere on the careers of practicing and applied anthropologists. Useful in graduate applied anthropology courses, it would also interest undergraduates and mid-life career changers in specific anthropological careers. Most importantly, it is a healthy reflection on the role and identity differentiations anthropologists create influenced by discourses of heritage, power, and authenticity.

Two fascinating chapters on the history of applied anthropology in the United Kingdom (Susan Wright and David Mills) are followed by four sections on careers in industry, media, law, and the public sector. Specific careers include consumer ethnographies (Simon Roberts), design anthropology (Adam Drazin), international development (Maia Green),...