Organisational Anthropology: Doing Ethnography in and Among Complex Organisations

Organisational Anthropology: Doing Ethnography in and Among Complex Organisations

Organisational Anthropology , newly published in paperback, is a pioneering analysis of doing ethnographic fieldwork in different types of complex organisations. The book focuses on the process of initiating contact, establishing rapport and gaining the trust of the organisation's members. The contributors work from the premise that doing fieldwork in an organisation shares essential characteristics with fieldwork in more ‘classical’ anthropological environments, but that it also poses some particular challenges to the ethnographer. These include the ideological or financial interests of the organisations, protection of resources and competition between organisations. Organisational Anthropology brings together and highlights crucial aspects of doing anthropology in contemporary complex settings, and will have wide appeal to students, researchers and academics in anthropology and organisation studies. Christina Garsten is Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University and Chair of the Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (Score) at Stockholm University and Stockholm School of Economics. She is the author of Workplace Vagabonds: Career and Community in Changing Worlds of Work (2008) and co-editor of Ethical Dilemmas in Management Organizing (2009), Transnational Accountability (2008) and Transparency in a New Global Order (2008). Anette Nyqvist is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University and holds a research position at Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (Score) at Stockholm University and Stockholm School of Economics. She is the author of Opening the Orange Envelope: Risk and Responsibility in the Remaking of Sweden’s National Pension System (2008).