Lecture 10: Recap
Introducing Culture:
An anthropological understanding of cultures is advantageous for business
because cultural production and knowledge means that businesses can invent,
advertise, market and change according to the ways in which consumers live,
what they believe and what they want
Business anthropology is about how culture shapes business and how business
shapes culture
Ethnography:
A research method and what anthropologists write
The practice of ethnography involves participant observation (fieldwork), where
the anthropologist lives and works with a group of people for an extended
amount of time to try to understand different ways of living and being in the
world through living with people and engaging with their everyday lives
Key Anthropologists:
Bronislaw Malinowski
Mary Douglas
Clifford Geertz
The Business of Culture:
Market appropriately and spotting the gaps for new products are possible with a
business anthropology perspective
Persons, Products and Meaning:
People relate to goods and things as vehicles for relationships with other people
E.g. Daniel Miller’s work on shopping in London
Being at home:
The home and its boundaries is not only a really fruitful place to carry out
ethnographic fieldwork, but an understanding of this particular space is
important for business and the designing of products
Design Anthropology:
Better understanding of how people use products and the kinds of spontaneous
innovations that can be commercialised
E.g. participatory design and how innovation is conceived of in the context of
design ethnography – through issues such as disruptive realism
Organisational Culture:
Geert Hofstede
When a businesses organisational culture is at odds with its outward face to the
public, there can be catastrophic outcomes for a business
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):
‘People, Planet and Profit’ – or the social, the environmental and the economic
Who decides when a business is actually ethical or not?
People will demand some level of social responsibility from business
Finance and Banking:
Chris Gregory – standardisation of value
Introducing Culture:
An anthropological understanding of cultures is advantageous for business
because cultural production and knowledge means that businesses can invent,
advertise, market and change according to the ways in which consumers live,
what they believe and what they want
Business anthropology is about how culture shapes business and how business
shapes culture
Ethnography:
A research method and what anthropologists write
The practice of ethnography involves participant observation (fieldwork), where
the anthropologist lives and works with a group of people for an extended
amount of time to try to understand different ways of living and being in the
world through living with people and engaging with their everyday lives
Key Anthropologists:
Bronislaw Malinowski
Mary Douglas
Clifford Geertz
The Business of Culture:
Market appropriately and spotting the gaps for new products are possible with a
business anthropology perspective
Persons, Products and Meaning:
People relate to goods and things as vehicles for relationships with other people
E.g. Daniel Miller’s work on shopping in London
Being at home:
The home and its boundaries is not only a really fruitful place to carry out
ethnographic fieldwork, but an understanding of this particular space is
important for business and the designing of products
Design Anthropology:
Better understanding of how people use products and the kinds of spontaneous
innovations that can be commercialised
E.g. participatory design and how innovation is conceived of in the context of
design ethnography – through issues such as disruptive realism
Organisational Culture:
Geert Hofstede
When a businesses organisational culture is at odds with its outward face to the
public, there can be catastrophic outcomes for a business
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):
‘People, Planet and Profit’ – or the social, the environmental and the economic
Who decides when a business is actually ethical or not?
People will demand some level of social responsibility from business
Finance and Banking:
Chris Gregory – standardisation of value
