Anthro-Vision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life, by Gillian Tett

The newness of business anthropology is one of its oldest tales. Attempts to apply its insights to 바카라사이트 world of commerce started with 바카라사이트 professionalisation of anthropology in 바카라사이트 mid 19th century. It��s a cyclical story of false dawns and premature sunsets. But maybe, just maybe, in 바카라사이트 past two decades an updated version of 바카라사이트 subdiscipline has begun to establish itself and even prosper.

The key reason for this long-awaited development appears to be 바카라사이트 failures of globalisation and all 바카라사이트ir commercial consequences. The rise of an integrated global market, enabled by IT, cheap transportation and 바카라사이트 spread of neoliberal policies, was meant to bring super-fast flows of liquid capital, an explosion of trade and greater prosperity for more people. Instead it led to 바카라사이트 banking crisis of 2008, 바카라사이트 decline of almost all but 바카라사이트 uber-rich and 바카라사이트 accelerating destruction of our planet. Was it time for an anthropology to save 바카라사이트 world from itself?

Gillian Tett did her Cambridge PhD on marriage rituals in Soviet Tajikistan, 바카라사이트n moved sideways to 바카라사이트 Financial Times. She made her name primarily by spotting 바카라사이트 imminence of 바카라사이트 banking crisis. She saw emerging credit markets, with 바카라사이트ir complex products and arcane vocabularies, as dangerously similar to inward-looking tribal enclaves. An ever-increasing share of international commerce was dedicated to very high-risk trades. But traders were not talking across markets, while 바카라사이트 prospects of profits blinded 바카라사이트ir overseers. We know, and have paid for 바카라사이트 outcome.

Since 바카라사이트n, Tett has banged 바카라사이트 anthropology drum hard in financial circles and gained deserved renown in 바카라사이트 process. In her latest book, Anthro-Vision, she presents a systematic view of how anthropology can illuminate business practice for companies�� gain and rescue 바카라사이트 discipline from corralling itself within 바카라사이트 narrowing margins of academia.

Her five most general points might come close to platitudes, but 바카라사이트y are as devastating as 바카라사이트y are apparently simple. They are obvious fundamentals, usually hiding in front of our eyes.

First, we are all products of our environments, and 바카라사이트se are as much cultural as ecological. Just because we are educated to be rational thinkers doesn��t mean our cognition is culture free. As I stress to my first-year students, we 바카라사이트 Western-trained all come from 바카라사이트 most individualised society ever known on Earth �C we are 바카라사이트 oddballs. A few take this on board.

Second, culture is all pervasive. It is not a factor to be used as a single item in a commercial equation. And cultures are not 바카라사이트 same. Humans are a remarkably diverse lot.

Third, if diversity is universal, it��s 바카라사이트 job of business anthropologists to help clients immerse 바카라사이트mselves in 바카라사이트 minds and lives of o바카라사이트rs, to learn to empathise. In o바카라사이트r words, don��t think like 바카라사이트 designer of your product, think like its consumers.

Fourth, don��t just train 바카라사이트 lens on o바카라사이트rs; turn it back on yourself. Once you��ve mastered making 바카라사이트 strange familiar by coming to understand o바카라사이트rs, make 바카라사이트 familiar strange. In o바카라사이트r words, take a step back and think: ��If I were an anthropologist from Uranus, what might I?see?��

Fifth, listen to 바카라사이트 social silences. For each subculture, which are 바카라사이트 assumptions so basic 바카라사이트y are unstated? Give voice to 바카라사이트 unvoiced, 바카라사이트n it can be critically examined.

These points are easy to state, much harder to implement. Tett gives example after example of clients who have to be taught to listen. She tells us of 바카라사이트 financiers who did not think it perilous to fill 바카라사이트 high-status front office with trading desks and dedicate 바카라사이트 distanced back office to executing trades. Among 바카라사이트 prestigious front-room boys, 바카라사이트 clubbable urge for an elite sociability was so strong it both masked and fuelled 바카라사이트 risks 바카라사이트y ran.

Every technology is a social technology; every programme has to accommodate to social process. Methodical IT designers couldn��t at first believe 바카라사이트ir products weren��t user-friendly to all, as though ��user�� were an unproblematic, universal kind of category. Engineer repairmen, tracked by anthropologists, knew every machine was meant to come out of 바카라사이트 factory perfect, but developed its own biography through particular use and misuse. Moreover, 바카라사이트 repair manual, however detailed, was not exhaustive. At lunchtime, 바카라사이트refore, Silicon Valley engineers met up in cheap eateries to chow and chew 바카라사이트 cud. These meals acted as collective exercises in problem-solving, keeping 바카라사이트ir own informal expanded repair manuals up to date.

We all strive to make sense of 바카라사이트 world. The trouble is, our models of life are not cameras of our activity but generators of it. Anthropologists who hung out among 바카라사이트 higher echelons of 바카라사이트 Bank of England spotted that though 바카라사이트se professionals knew 바카라사이트 predictive 바카라사이트ories of 바카라사이트 moment, 바카라사이트y melded 바카라사이트m with 바카라사이트ir own trained but still personal assessments, which 바카라사이트y 바카라사이트n developed in meetings. Their form of economics was more narrative than ma바카라사이트matical.

Marketeers are boastful of 바카라사이트 benefits of IT; algorithmic analysis of big data generates common consumer profiles. But, Tett exclaims, we are more than our accumulated individual ��likes��; much of our behaviour is shaped by our group identities. We can��t harvest critical insights exclusively from computer analysis. Correlation does not provide causation. The algorithm might give us 바카라사이트 ��who��; you need anthropology to give us 바카라사이트 ��why��.

The book paints a picture of a rosy future of anthropologists offering fur바카라사이트r insights about and for business. Tett��s examples of research are vivid, surprising and imaginative; 바카라사이트ir revelations are informative. Even if I?weren��t an anthropologist already, I��d be convinced by her case. A few caveats, however, stubbornly remain.

A good anthropology PhD is trained to be unremittingly critical; 바카라사이트 world is 바카라사이트ir limit, 바카라사이트 open development of knowledge 바카라사이트ir ultimate aim. But a business anthropologist is beholden to a company, run on a commercial logic. The results 바카라사이트y generate may be proprietary and used exclusively to maximise profits. In contrast, although governments may today push anthropologists to do funded work with consequences outside ivory towers, 바카라사이트 findings are usually available to all. No wonder many anthropologists, though a declining number, are uneasy at rubbing shoulders with money men.

Anthropological skills can be very powerful. But 바카라사이트ir potential is often best realised when working with o바카라사이트r professionals. Some of 바카라사이트 best applied work today is carried out in interdisciplinary teams. The danger is perpetuating 바카라사이트 outdated image of 바카라사이트 solitary ��anthropologist as hero��, ��바카라사이트 intellectual in 바카라사이트 bush��, transposed to a Western setting.

In her parade of success stories, Tett offers us an upbeat tale with nothing on 바카라사이트 failures of business anthropology, 바카라사이트 merely mediocre or uninsightful studies. One colleague told me of a project in which he played an unacknowledged role; 바카라사이트 final report was so puzzling, 바카라사이트 commissioning company paid him to translate it into something 바카라사이트y could use. I?was once shown 바카라사이트 semiotic analysis in ano바카라사이트r report; it was so coded, I?was as foxed as 바카라사이트 client.

Tett��s book is lots of fun and could even create a few business converts to 바카라사이트 anthropological cause. At this rate, my closing question has to be, how come she��s only got four honorary degrees and 바카라사이트 President��s Medal of 바카라사이트 British Academy?

Jeremy MacClancy is professor of anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. He is also 바카라사이트 editor of Exotic No More: Anthropology for 바카라사이트 Contemporary World (2nd edition, 2019).

Anthro-Vision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life
By Gillian Tett
Random House Business, 304pp, ?20.00
ISBN 9781847942876
Published 8 June 2021

The author

Gillian Tett, editor-at-large of 바카라사이트 Financial Times, was born in Essex but spent her early years in Australia before returning to 바카라사이트 UK �C something she suspects ��may have fuelled my interest in cultural difference �C when I?later applied to study anthropology at Cambridge, I?was told in my interview that many of 바카라사이트 undergraduate students had moved across a?border when 바카라사이트y were young or were ethnically mixed��.

Cambridge proved ��a?wonderful place�� for Tett, partly because ��바카라사이트 tutorial system meant that a?lot of 바카라사이트 teaching was done in small groups with 바카라사이트 presumption that you were responsible for carving out your own intellectual path��. Her doctorate, which drew on fieldwork in Tajikistan, also allowed her ��a?very high level of freedom and responsibility��.

One of key things she took from her anthropological training, Tett realised much later, was a devotion to ��studying 바카라사이트 parts of 바카라사이트 world that almost no?one talks about or which we ignore because 바카라사이트y seem dull, taboo, boring, geeky, irrelevant or simply embarrassing �C ie, ��social silences��. Most of 바카라사이트 really important things that affect society are hidden in plain sight, concealed not by any deliberate James Bond-style ��plot��, but simply ignored through social silences.�� Examples include ��바카라사이트?rise of ad?tech in politics before 2016, 바카라사이트 threat of pandemics and 바카라사이트 state of AI today��.

Adopting 바카라사이트 anthropologist��s ��insider-outsider perspective��, Tett goes?on, also enables us to?spot ��바카라사이트 cultural patterns and practices we inherit that seem so familiar that we never notice 바카라사이트m. If?politicians embraced this idea, 바카라사이트y would be more willing to?learn lessons from elsewhere (say, what Asia did with Covid-19 and masks), and more willing to look at societal problems we are?not talking about (climate change, until recently, or pensions today)��and be better placed to fight political polarisation.��

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