In springtime, I have the habit of kicking my anthropology students out of the classroom and into the world to study. I send my undergrads out to study Plymouthian society and culture.
I do this for three main reasons:
My first objective is to give students a real opportunity to practice and hone the research skills that make anthropologists such sensitive observers of daily life. Needlessly said, these are the skills they will take with them to their future careers.
Secondly, by engaging in real research, my students contribute to an ambitious project to offer a holistic, ethnographic portrait of 21st century Plymouth. Over the past decade, British anthropologists have become increasingly interested in doing research at (and of) home. Rising ethnic tensions, intensifying neoliberalism and social-inequality, and growing nationalist populism have made Britain a particularly puzzling place for anthropologists. But while the bustling, cosmopolitan streets of London and the declining industrial towns of the North have garnered much ethnographic attention, the South West remains inexplicably ignored.