If Truth Be Told

Didier Fassin is James Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, a Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and the author and editor of many books, most recently, Prison Worlds: An Ethnography of the Carceral Condition.

• Introduction: When Ethnography Goes Public / Didier Fassin  1Part I. Strategies1. Gopher, Translator, and Trickster: The Ethnographer and the Media / Gabriella Coleman  192. What Is a Public Intervention? Speaking Truth to the Oppressed / Ghassan Hage  473. Before the Commission: Ethnography as Pubic Testimony / Kelly Gillespie  694. Addressing Policy-Oriented Audiences: Relevance and Persuasiveness / Manuela Ivone Cunha  96Part II. Engagements5. Serendipitous Involvement: Making Peace in the Geto / Federico Neiburg  1196. Tactical versus Critical: Indigenizing Public Ethnography / Lucas Bessire  1387. Experto Crede? A Legal and Political Conundrum / Jonathan Benthall  1608. Policy Ethnography as a Combat Sport: Analyzing the Welfare State against the Grain / Vincent Dubois  184Part III. Tensions9. Academic Freedom at Risk: The Occasional Worldliness of Scholarly Texts / Nadia Abu El-Haj  20510. Perils and Prospects of Going Public: Between Academia and Real Life / Unni Wikan  22811. Ethnography Prosecuted: Facing the Fabulation of Power / JoÃo Biehl  26112. How Publics Shape Ethnographers: Translating across Divided Audiences / Sherine Hamdy  287Epilogue: The Public Afterlife of Ethnography / Didier Fassin  311Contributors  345Index  349

"[A] must-read for every student of anthropology, policy maker and administrator trying to understand the complexities of the social world we inhabit."  - Sarbani Sharma (Anthropology Book Forum) "A stimulating collection of articles that illustrates, examines, and generates important questions about the project of public ethnography, and about public social science more generally. It deserves to be widely read." - Martyn Hammersley (Canadian Journal of Sociology) "If Truth Be Told offers thoughtful, reflexive accounts of the public afterlife of ethnography that will surely spark a range of productive exchanges among scholars invested in the public reach of social science research." - Colin Hastings, Leigha Comer, & Eric Mykhalovskiy (Forum: Qualitative Social Research) "In presenting some of the possibilities and challenges that 'going public' entails, this volume is essential reading for researchers embarking on public ethnography, and for departments and funders who encourage engagement beyond academia. If Truth Be Told is equally important for those who do not see their work as being particularly public-facing; any published work can take on a public afterlife beyond the author’s intentions." - Laura Haapio-Kirk (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute) "In this important new collection,Didier Fassin and his colleagues stake a powerful and innovative claim on the diverse landscape of anthropology’s history of public engagement." - Alyshia Galvez (American Ethnologist) "[This] book is a wonderful contribution that further helps to reflect upon the role of ethnography, and the constant challenges it must face when trying to go beyond academia and engage with wider audiences." - Sebastian Rojas Navarro (Sociological Research Online)