Introduction: What are pretty words?

Funding agencies and institutions are increasingly requiring researchers to involve communities and make their work more broadly accessible. The problem is that researchers new to health equity research, and sometimes even people who have engaged in this work for a while, may not sufficiently appreciate the challenges and systemic institutional transformations that must occur to achieve equity. To make pretty words meaningful requires a return to the transformative power and potential that was originally imbued in the concept of equity. The implementation of pretty words as a process that requires a relational framework and a commitment beyond ink on paper is central to our intervention. This special section of Annals of Anthropological Practice opens up a critical dialogue about “pretty words,” or concepts like “community-engaged research” and “diversity” that win grants and check the boxes for inclusion, but risk becoming hollow without ongoing conversations between researchers and communities. As anthropologists who study health, we are both skeptical and appreciative of the “pretty words” that characterize our efforts toward developing interdisciplinary research that seeks to build equity and address community health concerns. The power of pretty words can only be activated through reflection that leads to action, but this requires a commitment beyond the institutional expectations and individual rewards of research as usual. The essays in this special section cover diverse topics, but all are conjoined in their pursuit of not just critiquing pretty words, but outlining meaningful ways forward to reclaim the radical potential embedded in these concepts.