Engaged Anthropology, Development and the Meanings of Violence with Dr Lyndsay McLean

In this episode of Field Notes: The Sussex Anthropology Podcast, Sana Batool speaks with Dr Lyndsay McLean about engaged anthropology, international development, feminist research and social justice.Drawing on more than two decades of work across academic, practitioner and consultancy spaces, Lyndsay reflects on what anthropology can bring to development practice: a deeper attention to context, lived experience, language, power and the meanings people give to violence, harm and recovery. The conversation moves through her own non-linear route into anthropology, her work in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the importance of participatory research when working on sensitive subjects such as gender-based violence, discrimination and wellbeing.Together, Sana and Lyndsay ask what it means to do anthropology that is critical but also useful; careful but engaged; rooted in people’s everyday worlds rather than only in institutional categories or donor language.