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Social Anthropology and the Shifting Discourses about Immigrants in Norway

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Engaged Anthropology

Part of the book series: Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference ((ATSIAD))

Abstract

Norwegian anthropologists have taken active part in public discourse about migrant minorities since the 1970s. They have given interviews, written articles and books for the general reader, and have often intervened in ongoing debates on minority rights, migration policy and cultural diversity. This chapter analyses a shift in the general public reception of anthropological interventions in this field, arguing that, whereas anthropological perspectives were largely welcomed and engaged with in a constructive way in the 1990s, the public attitude has been increasingly hostile since the early 2000s. This shift indicates a broader shift towards a less charitable and positive view of cultural diversity, where anthropologists are increasingly seen as apologists for an objectionable, moral relativism.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the editors for valuable comments on this chapter. His research is funded by the ERC Advanced Grant ‘Overheating: The three crises of globalisation’, grant number 295843.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1091 Blindern, Oslo, Norway

    Thomas Hylland Eriksen

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  1. Thomas Hylland Eriksen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Tone Bringa

  2. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Synnøve Bendixsen

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Eriksen, T.H. (2016). Social Anthropology and the Shifting Discourses about Immigrants in Norway. In: Bringa, T., Bendixsen, S. (eds) Engaged Anthropology. Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40484-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40484-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40483-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40484-4

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