The Business of Ethnography: Strategic Exchanges, People and Organizations

Description

Can an anthropologist help us understand the world of business? Armed with this question, veteran anthropologist Brian Moeran embarks on an in-depth study of cultural production and creative industries in Japan. At once the blundering ethnographer and shrewd observer, Moeran is able to shed light not only on social behavior and human relations in general but, more specifically, on the importance of strategic exchange to all business practices. Moeran's fieldwork, rooted in participant-observation of business life in communities and corporations, leads him to an original theory of how business operates. Culture is not all-powerful, Moeran shows. Instead, social structures strongly influence behavior. At the heart of Moeran's analysis is a firm belief in fieldwork and ethnography - terms much bandied about in business, management and cultural studies, but rarely undertaken in depth. The Business of Ethnography not only provides a useful methodology for people studying or wishing to understand business, but also acts as a clarion call for anthropologists to rethink their discipline beyond traditional fieldwork sites.

Brian Moeran is Professor of Culture and Communication, Copenhagen Business School. He is the author of numerous books and articles.

'A fascinating account of the relationships between artefacts, on the hand, and organsiations and society on the other...The implications represent a major challenge to some current theories of organisation.' EBF Magazine 'Personal relations and social connections increasingly characterize the world of interaction among brand managers, marketers and advertisers. With unusual clarity and perceptiveness, Brian Moeran details the nature and implications of such relations from his advertising and fieldwork experience in Japan. This book is pioneering in its approach, and will be required reading for academics interested in the subject, as well as for marketers and advertisers. 'Timothy Malefyt, Director of Cultural Discoveries, BBDO Advertising 'Ethnography is a very multifaceted enterprise now, and it is moving into new settings. Brian Moeran draws very effectively on key concepts to portray variations in his own field engagements, and after we have enjoyed it as a good read, his new book will help us organize our debates over relationships in the field. From a village of potters to the world of advertising, we move here in always stimulating company.' Ulf Hannerz, Dept of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. 'An incisive, in-depth understanding of Japanese business relations -- by someone who really knows.' Koichiro Naganuma, CEO, ADK, Japan