Within anthropology, as somewhere else within the human sciences, there's a tendency to divide wisdom making into separate poles: conceptual (theory) vs. empirical (ethnography). In Theory should be greater than It Used to Be, Dominic Boyer, James D. Faubion, and George E. Marcus argue that we have to take a step again from the idea that we all know what conception is to enquire how theory—a subject of suggestions, of analytic perform, of medium of worth, ideology—operates in anthropology and comparable fields at the present time. they've got assembled a extraordinary staff of students to diagnose the nation of the theory-ethnography divide in anthropology this day and to discover substitute modes of analytical and pedagogical practice.

Continuing the methodological insights supplied in Fieldwork isn't What It Used to Be, the individuals to this quantity locate that now's an optimum time to mirror at the prestige of concept with regards to ethnographic examine in anthropology and kindred disciplines. jointly they have interaction with questions akin to, What passes for thought in anthropology and the human sciences at the present time and why? what's theory's relation to ethnography? How are scholars expert to spot and appreciate anthropological theorization and the way do they perform theoretical paintings of their later occupation levels? What theoretical experiments, languages, and associations can be found to the human sciences? all through, the editors and authors ponder concept in useful phrases, instead of as an amorphous set of principles, an esoteric discourse of energy, a norm of highbrow lifestyles, or an infinitely contestable canon of texts. a quick editorial afterword explores replacement ethics and associations of pedagogy and coaching in theory.

Contributors: Andrea Ballestero, Rice college; Dominic Boyer, Rice collage; Lisa Breglia, George Mason college; Jessica Marie Falcone, Kansas country college; James D. Faubion, Rice college; Kim Fortun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Andreas Glaeser, college of Chicago; Cymene Howe, Rice collage; Jamer Hunt, Parsons the recent institution for layout and the Institute of layout in Umea, Sweden; George E. Marcus, collage of California, Irvine; Townsend Middleton, college of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Deepa S. Reddy, collage of Houston–Clear Lake; Kaushik Sunder Rajan, collage of Chicago