Note sui dilemmi e le opportunità di un'antropologia applicata alle politiche pubbliche

Based on a biographical perspective, this article aims to discuss the dilemmas and the opportunities of an anthropological background applied to the field of public policies. In addition to critically questioning the idea of applied anthropology as mere “use” of the anthropological knowledges beyond the academia, I argue the importance of encouraging exchanges and intersection between ethnographic work and professional experiences. On the one hand, the article focuses on the new opportunities that such interchange can provide to the analysis of public policies. On the other hand, I discuss how extra-academic work makes us face a set of certain problems and dilemmas, only partially related to those of ethnographic experience. In fact, it forces us to embrace a broader range of skills, disciplinary languages and background, and demands in order to deeply negotiate our own role within different development projects and public/private institutions; to persuade officials, donors, policy-makers into the use to the anthropological critical contribution; to set up new strategies for addressing our reflective critical stance to the institutional structures and practices. Finally, I wish for the growth of the public recognition of applied anthropology in Italy, invoking the development of the anthropologists’ professional careers beyond the academia as well as a deeper engagement of the discipline in the making and implementation of public policies.