The Business of Ethnography Strategic Exchanges, People and Organizations

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. 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 this 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 is a clarion call for anthropologists to rethink their discipline beyond traditional fieldwork sites.

Brian Moeran is Professor of Culture and Communication, Copenhagen Business School.