The strategic use of epistemological positions in a power-laden arena

Anthropological expertise in asylum cases in the UK

Bibliographic Data

ID12890138
AuthorsMarkus V Hoehne (0000-0003-0979-7186, Leipzig University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume12
Issue3
Pages253-271
Publication date2016-07-13
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Law in Context (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-5523 • E-ISSN: 1744-5531
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1744552316000136
OpenAlexW2467812257
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited38

This paper deals with social anthropologists serving as expert witnesses in asylum proceedings in the UK. It argues that it is not a fundamental epistemological divide, but rather massive power differentials that characterise the relationship between social anthropologists and legal practitioners in this context. Within a narrow framework provided by the law, which focuses on ‘true facts’ and ‘objective evidence’, social anthropologists have to position themselves, and they often must do so somewhere along a spectrum from positivist to post-positivist positions (regarding, for example, such concepts as ‘culture’ and ‘identity’). This, as well as their subordinate position in the context of the proceedings, sits uneasily with the professional, moral and ethical standards of their discipline. Engagement as an expert, therefore, comes with certain costs for social anthropologists that range from having to bend one's own epistemological perspective to the risk of being ‘demolished’ as an expert (and beyond) in sometimes implicitly politicised asylum decisions

Aesthetics · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Identity (music · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Position (finance · Positivism · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

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