The Anthropology of Public Policy: Shifting Terrains

As we enter the twenty-first century, the terrain on which social policy is made is changing rapidly. This has resulted in anthropologists, in combination with other social scientists, giving serious attention to the impact of this new phase of globalization on changes in social and environmental policies. This review focuses on the ways in which anthropology as a field has contributed, and continues to contribute, to social policy research, practice, and advocacy in the current international context. Given the limited space allotted, we have selected the following six arenas of public policy for analysis and description: (a) links between globalization processes and policy on the national and local levels; (b) social welfare policy, including employment and family welfare survival strategies; (c) the impact of structural adjustment and economic restructuring on migration and labor force incorporation; (d) policies in the north and south related to global agriculture, social inequality, and the manipulations of some multinational corporations; (e) policies affecting sustainable agriculture; and (f) the role of anthropologists in examining the impact of political and economic hegemony on the environment.