Making Uncommon Sense of Laudable Research

In Australia, research resourcing might come from parties dedicated to addressing issues in the public interest, such as smoking cessation and alcohol regulation. The associations researchers have with those parties are regarded in quite different terms than, say, a research relationship that is forged with the tobacco or alcohol industries themselves. Agreeing to work with the latter ‘bad’ players would indubitably raise the liveliest of suspicions among fellow researchers, while associations with the former ‘good’ players are often regarded as in the service of good academic citizenship that helps bring about positive changes to the world, something that is often a key moral, as well as funding and publications, driver for researchers. We argue that such polar classification bears anthropological inspection and a radical rethink. The consequences of not so doing risk shutting down areas in which anthropological enquiry is urgently needed.