Emma Gilberthorpe

The 2019 Association of Social Anthropologists conference will provide a forum for an international community of anthropologists to debate and advance anthropological research on the impact of global agendas. Anthropological Perspectives on Global Challenges will focus on how, in the context of intense environmental, technological and social change, anthropologists perceive, respond to and interpret the global agendas embedded in the Global Challenges. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which articulates the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals, advocates a model of ‘human development’ that proposes universal ‘global’ challenges that require a one-sided mode of response. The Agenda is propelled by intervention over cooperation and now defines the international research environment. Research must be problem-led, policy-relevant, interdisciplinary and impact-driven, characteristics that not only jar with the classical theoretical and methodological approach of anthropologists, but that also raise critical questions for the discipline. How might we challenge the substantive nature of the Agenda by applying our critical, enquiry-driven approach to its vision of progress? In what ways are sustainability, livelihood security, climate change, multinational activity and multilateral aid perceived and responded to at the grassroots? ASA 2019 will provide the forum for international discussion across the broad spectrum of anthropological knowledge to draw out new perspectives on how anthropology might shape and be shaped by global agendas.