Thinking Through the Body in 'Action Anthropolgy'

I write this paper in a spirit of exploration inspired by Richard Shusterman’s work on somaesthetics to give language to what I have always known or, more precisely, felt yet struggled to adequately express about my practice as an ‘action anthropologist’. Bringing somaesthetic theory and philosophy to bear on Sol Tax’s proposal for action-oriented praxis in anthropology, I suggest that Tax’s description of action – as “a program of probing, listening, learning, giving in” – shows how the possibility of change in action research arises from, and returns us to, the somatic conditions of people’s self-empowerment and social agency.