Policy Studies, Development, and Political Anthropology

In: The journal of modern African studies: a quarterly survey of politics, economics & related topics in contemporary Africa, Band 13, Heft 3, S. 367-381

Abstract

Policy research involves two acts of translation: translation of the problem from the world of reality and policy into the world of scientific method, and then a translation of the research results back into the world of reality and policy.1Since the political scientist, David Easton, commented critically in 1959 on the state of the study of politics by anthropologists,2 many interesting changes have taken place in the analyses of African politics – in fact, of politics of non-western societies in general.