Applied anthropology

Applied anthropology uses anthropological theories and methods to address practical problems in settings such as health care, development, business, and public policy.

Medical anthropology: The study of how culture, society, and biology shape illness, healing, and health care. It applies ethnographic and comparative methods to health systems and health problems.
Ethnography: A research approach based on sustained observation and participation in social life. It provides detailed accounts of practices that applied work seeks to understand.
Daniel G. Brinton: An American anthropologist and physician who helped establish anthropology as a university discipline in the nineteenth century. His practical and public-facing anthropology illustrates early efforts to apply the discipline.
Academic anthropology: Anthropological research and teaching primarily conducted within academic institutions. It contrasts with work commissioned or organized to address immediate practical problems.
Development anthropology: The use of anthropological knowledge to analyze and shape development policies and projects. It examines how development interventions interact with local lives and institutions.
Participant observation: A method in which researchers take part in activities while observing and documenting them. It reveals how people navigate practical problems in everyday settings.
W. H. R. Rivers: A British physician and anthropologist known for field research and work on psychological medicine. His medical and ethnographic work linked anthropological inquiry with practical concerns.
Advocacy anthropology: Anthropological work that explicitly supports the rights or interests of particular groups. It makes political commitment more explicit than applied work’s broad range of roles.
Business anthropology: The application of anthropological research to organizations, markets, products, and workplaces. It brings ethnographic research into commercial decisions and organizational design.
Action research: A collaborative research approach in which inquiry and practical intervention inform one another. It offers a model for linking anthropological investigation with change.

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