Anthropological Optimism: Engaging the Power of What Could Go Right

223 Pages·2023·7.503 MB·English

by  Anna J. Willow

ANTHROPOLOGICAL OPTIMISM
This book theorizes the roles of optimism in anthropological thinking, research,
writing, and practice. It sets out to explore optimism’s origins and implications,
its conceptual and practical value, and its capacity to contribute to contemporary
anthropological aims. In an era of extensive ecological disruption and social dis-
tress, this volume contemplates how an optimistic anthropology can energize the
discipline while also contributing to bettering the lives, communities, and envi-
ronments of those we study. It brings together scholars diverse in background,
career stage, and theoretical approach in a collective attempt to comprehend
the myriad intersections of anthropology and optimism. The challenges of the
COVID-19 pandemic have recently underscored the larger, longer-term catas-
trophes of climate change, ecosystemic collapse, social injustice, and antipathy
toward scientific knowledge and those who produce it. In this context, exceed-
ingly few anthropologists feel comfortable observing and documenting passively
while their research communities face unrelenting waves of (un)natural disasters.
We need to act. But we also need to hope. Discontent with the state of the world
and cultural anthropology’s turn to increasingly positive, future-oriented, and
engaged work have converged to unleash a courageously optimistic anthropol-
ogy. This book is a timely springboard for this impactful and emergent approach.
Anna J. Willow is Professor of Anthropology at The Ohio State University, USA.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL
OPTIMISM
Engaging the Power of What Could
Go Right
Edited by Anna J. Willow
Designed cover image: sutthiphorn phanchart, Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Anna J. Willow
The right of Anna Willow to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Willow, Anna J., editor.
Title: Anthropological optimism : engaging the power of what could go right
/ edited by Anna J. Willow.
Description: First Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022046075 (print) | LCCN 2022046076 (ebook) | ISBN
9781032386430 (Hardback) | ISBN 9781032386447 (Paperback) | ISBN
9781003346036 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Applied anthropology. | Optimism.
Classification: LCC GN397.5 .A652 2023 (print) | LCC GN397.5 (ebook) |
DDC 301--dc23/eng/20221024
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022046075
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022046076
ISBN: 978-1-032-38643-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-38644-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-34603-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/b23231
Typeset in Bembo
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
For my mom,
because we can always find hope.

CONTENTS
List of Contributors ix
Foreword xiii
Joel Robbins
Introduction: Why Optimism? 1
Anna J. Willow
1 A World Made Safe for (Future) Difference:
Anthropology and Utopian Possibility 29
Samuel Gerald Collins
2 Vertiginous Optimism: Optimistic Orientations in a
Field of Chronic Crisis 46
Daniel M. Knight
3 “Moving on and Moving Up”: Productive Angles
of Exploring Optimism 62
Kelly A. Yotebieng
4 Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Planting Optimism
in a Disrupted Ecology 71
Mankei Tam
5 Indigenous Optimism in the Colonialcene 88
Natasha Myhal and Clint Carroll
viii Contents
6 Putting the Pieces in Place: Optimistic Futuring in
Transition Culture 104
Anna J. Willow
7 Optimism at Scale: Exploring Everyday Activism in
Atlanta’s Alternative Food Networks 117
Hilary B. King
8 Fusing Outrage and Hope into Acts of Resistance,
Volunteerism, and Allyships 131
Patricia Widener and Gail Choate
9 Optimistic Anthropology in the Work of Systems
Changemakers 147
Alison Gold
10 China 2060: Envisioning a Human-Centered Approach
to Energy Transition 164
Bryan Tilt
11 Doing Anthropology Forward: Emerging Technologies
and Possible Futures 177
Sarah Pink
Afterword: Optimism as Capacity 192
Rebecca Bryant
Index 197
CONTRIBUTORS
Rebecca Bryant is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University
who studies forced migration, borders, and unrecognized states. Through those
subjects, she investigates the state and sovereignty, with a special focus on tempo-
rality, historicities, and the future. Much of Bryant’s ethnographic work focuses
on ethnic conflict and displacement, border practices, post-conflict reconcilia-
tion, and contested sovereignty on both sides of the Cyprus Green Line and in
Turkey. She studied Philosophy (BA) and Cultural Anthropology (MA, PhD) at
the University of Chicago and has held teaching and research positions at the
London School of Economics, George Mason University, and the American
University in Cairo.
Clint Carroll is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the
University of Colorado Boulder. He received his doctorate from the University
of California Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management,
and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona in Anthropology and
American Indian Studies. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, he works at the
intersections of Indigenous studies, anthropology, and political ecology. His first
book, Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental Governance
(University of Minnesota Press, 2015), explores how tribal natural resource man-
agers navigate the material and structural conditions of settler colonialism, and
how recent efforts in cultural revitalization inform such practices through tra-
ditional Cherokee governance and local environmental knowledge. He is an
active member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and
the Society for Applied Anthropology. He also serves on the editorial boards for
Cultural Anthropology and Environment and Society.