Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter

Reflections on Research in and of Corporations
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84545-777-8
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 5, 262 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 385 g

Reihe: Studies in Public and Applied Anthropology

Businesses and other organizations are increasingly hiring anthropologists and other ethnographically-oriented social scientists as employees, consultants, and advisors. The nature of such work, as described in this volume, raises crucial questions about potential implications to disciplines of critical inquiry such as anthropology. In addressing these issues, the contributors explore how researchers encounter and engage sites of organizational practice in such roles as suppliers of consumer-insight for product design or marketing, or as advisors on work design or business and organizational strategies. The volume contributes to the emerging canon of corporate ethnography, appealing to practitioners who wish to advance their understanding of the practice of corporate ethnography and providing rich material to those interested in new applications of ethnographic work and the ongoing rethinking of the nature of ethnographic praxis.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cefkin, Melissa

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmenskultur, Corporate Governance
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. Business, anthropology and the growth of corporate ethnography

Melissa Cefkin

Encounters with corporate epistemologies Chapter 2. “My customers are different!” identity, difference and the political economy of design

Donna K. Flynn

Doing anthropology in organizational contexts

Chapter 3. Participatory ethnography at work: Practicing in the puzzle palaces of a large, complex healthcare organization

Chris Darrouzet, Helga Wild and Susann Wilkinson

Chapter 4. Working in corporate jungles: Reflections on ethnographic praxis in industry

Brigitte Jordan with Monique Lambert

Refractions of anthropological ways of being and knowing

Chapter 5. Writing on walls: The materiality of social memory in corporate research

Dawn Nafus and Ken Anderson

Chapter 6. The anthropologist as ontological choreographer

Francoise Brun-Cottan

Epistemologies, Part Two: Culture and the corporate encounter

Chapter 7. Emergent culture, slippery culture – conflicting conceptualizations of culture in commercial ethnography

Martin Ortlieb

Another look: commentaries from the academy and corporate research

Chapter 8. Insider trading: Engaging and valuing corporate ethnography

Jeanette Blomberg

Chapter 9. Emergent forms of life in corporate arenas

Michael M. J. Fischer

Notes on contributors

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Cefkin, Melissa
Melissa Cefkin is a cultural anthropologist with experience in research, management, teaching, and consulting for business and government. Currently based at IBM Research in the area of services research, she earned her PhD from Rice University and remains dedicated to pursuing a critical understanding of the intersections of anthropological practice within business and organizational settings.

Melissa Cefkin is a cultural anthropologist with experience in research, management, teaching, and consulting for business and government. Currently based at IBM Research in the area of services research, she earned her PhD from Rice University and remains dedicated to pursuing a critical understanding of the intersections of anthropological practice within business and organizational settings.