Rage as a Method: Beyond Hope in the Field

Journal article

To speak of methods is to speak of the tools through which knowledge is gathered and produced. Yet, method can also be understood as a mode of engagement that shapes what becomes perceptible and how we reproduce political worlds. Fieldwork, then, is at once the application of techniques to make sense of a research problem, but also, ultimately, an encounter that rearranges our intellectual expectations and affective dispositions alike. This note develops a discussion around one such rearrangement: from hope to rage, both as a lament that developed in the field and as a proposition that could help us think about how knowledge is produced under conditions of closure, repetition, and the exhaustion of hope.

Authors: Rai, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Political and Legal Anthropology Review
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 1
• Article number: e70056
• Publication date: 2026-05-08
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-22
• DOI: 10.1111/plar.70056
• EISSN: 1555-2934
• ISSN: 1081-6976
• Language: English
• Keywords: hope; proscription; method; fieldwork; India; rage