LSE Anthropology, we are proud to announce, came first in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) out of 26 submissions across Anthropology and Development Studies. We had the highest number of books and/or articles assessed as ‘world leading’, and our impact was assessed as being outstanding in its reach and significance.
Read our impact case studies here.
The contributions of Professor Bear and the Covid and Care research group have affected how issues of equality, the importance of co-production and socially grounded policy interventions have been taken up by the UK government over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially via the work of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B).
Professor James’s research on consumer debt challenges common assumptions about indebtedness, demonstrating how the structures propping up ‘credit apartheid’ in South Africa disadvantage its victims by enabling creditors to secure repayment with such ease that they have virtually no risk of default. She works with human rights NGO The Black Sash to pursue reforms for the better regulation (and reduced cost) of credit, and to educate poor consumers about the risks involved.
Professor Shah – together with Dr Jens Lerche of SOAS – led a team of researchers investigating awareness and understanding of the economic and social oppression of Adivasis and Dalits in India. They revealed the socio-economic processes that perpetuate the oppression and disproportionate poverty among the worst-off groups, and helped to shape new policies supporting collective action for these people.
Our environment was judged to be conducive to excellent research while also being inclusive and egalitarian. Our approach to research is to produce world-leading work that pioneers new theory and fields of study, while also achieving significant impact on public debates and policy. At the same time we retain our close-knit and cohesive departmental culture. Encouraging both teamwork and individual investigations, we are committed to our discipline’s practices of cross-cultural comparison and the ethnographic method, and use our research to inform our teaching, inspiring the next generation of investigators.
We carry out ethnographic research in diverse settings: urban America, rural China, the Peruvian Amazon, villages and cities in South Asia, Indonesia, London... the list goes on. The department is famous for innovative theory and for the pivotal contributions it has made -and continues to make- to core anthropological debates.
Read our REF 2021 Research Themes