Description
Book SynopsisThis book offers keen insight and useful lessons underscoring the value of practice to theory. Conceived by two anthropologists who lead consulting practices, McCabe and Briody selected contributors to explore how cultural change happens in a variety of consumer and organizational contexts. The 12 case studies illustrate the explanatory potential and the problem-solving strengths of assemblage theory, and the role of human agency in provoking cultural change. The case studies are compelling due to connections between the case narratives and graphics, and researcher engagement in the pragmatics of implementationboth of which shape and encourage learning. This volume will be markedly useful to practitioners engaged in research and implementation. It will also appeal to students and faculty in a variety of fields including anthropology, business management, marketing, sociology, cultural studies, and industrial design.
Trade ReviewIn examining consumption in multiple parts of the world from multiple vantage points, Cultural Change from a Business Anthropology Perspective makes assemblages of usual silos and demonstrates how anthropologists conceive and influence design of products, technology, or policy near and afar. This volume theorizes how we, along with ideas, objects and built environments, are actors in outcomes. In so doing, the authors theorize trajectories of change and create space to contest and guide. A must read for anyone who contemplates present and future consumption. -- Rita Denny, PhD, Practica Group
Maryann McCabe and Elizabeth K. Briody present us with an outstanding approach of the study of cultural change at the everyday level that is not only academically enlightening but has intriguing applied potential. Through the lenses of business anthropology and globalization, the contributors of this book analyze the design, marketing, buying, and selling of products and services, as well as the considerable impacts of using them—contemporary anthropology at its best. -- Alexander Ervin, University of Saskatchewan; author of Cultural Transformations and Globalization: Theory, Development, and Social Change
Maryann McCabe and Elizabeth K. Briody are two of the most insightful and inspiring researchers in the field of business anthropology. In assembling this excellent collection of case studies they have demonstrated definitively that research in business and commercial settings is not only useful for the non-academic world, it also contributes significantly to academic research in anthropology. Anthropologists understand culture change—the theme of this book—better than any other social scientists or business specialists. This book demonstrates this expertise by presenting significant contributions to this field in a series of fascinating research efforts by leading business anthropologists. The studies in this collection will delight academics as well as practitioners in the business world who need above all to understand how social change occurs in order to stay abreast of the marketplace. It will also show students of anthropology the rich opportunities for exploring opportunities in the business world as a rich field sites for significant research into the nature of humanity. -- William O. Beeman, University of Minnesota
McCabe and Briody have created a cohesive collection of ethnographic cases that focus on cultural change through the lens of production and consumption. The chapters describe the interaction among consumers, corporations and nonprofit organizations in locations including the U.S., China, India, Cambodia and Nigeria. Using assemblage theory as the guiding theoretical perspective, the book is a valuable contribution to business anthropology and the anthropological study of global consumer society. -- Ann T. Jordan, University of North Texas
Table of ContentsChapter 1: I Hope When She Grows Up, She Will Have a Job with a Pen: Drip Irrigation and Hope in Cambodia, Emilie Hitch Chapter 2: A New Playing Field: Technology Disruption in Higher Education in the U.S., Marijke Rijsberman Chapter 3: Changing Culture through Technology Adoption: Promoting Tablet Use at a Public University, Henry D. Delcore Chapter 4: Enchanted Objects, Social Robots, and the Internet of Things: Exploring the Role of Design in Innovation and Cultural Change, Christine Miller Chapter 5: The Changing Nature of Everyday Practice: Smart Devices as Disruptive Agents of Cultural Change, Jennifer Watts-Englert, Margaret H. Szymanski and Patricia Wall Chapter 6: Technology Metaphors and Impediments to Technology Use at the Base of the Pyramid in India, Arundhati Bhattacharyya and Russell W. Belk Chapter 7: The Enigma of Innovation: Changing Practices of Non-Alcoholic Beverage Consumption in China, Dominique Desjeux and Ma Jingjing Chapter 8: Relationship Building: Nigerian Entrepreneurs, Business Networks, and Chinese Counterparts, U. Ejiro O. Onomake Chapter 9: Designing Disruption: The Neoliberal Nonprofit Industry Makes Room for Holistic Approaches, Kevin M. Newton Chapter 10: Organizational Change from the Inside: Negotiating the Dual Identity of Employee and Ethnographer, Shane Pahl, Angela Ramer and Jo Aiken
