What’s it to ya’: Ethnography in and out of the Corporate World
Todd Harple, Intel Corporation
The work of all anthropologists is to express the voices (and concerns) of people, their practices, cultures and ideas. In a very real sense, as anthropologists we are involved in a process of curation — translating our experiences with/of/about other people into something meaningful for our audiences, regardless of whom they might be. Increasingly, anthropologists are engaging with corporations. More than a decade has passed since I began practicing, applying, and perhaps most aptly working anthropology. During that time my experiences have involved not only the traditional academic and museum engagements, but also hybrid-engagements (corporate museums), consulting, and ultimately work fully under the corporate umbrella. Anthropology has come a long way in its relationship to the corporate world. The roles of anthropologists have varied from academic curiosities, to antagonistic commentators, to PR-buffering consultants and liability-limiters to full-time/full-fledged employees of large scale organizations filling any number of roles outside of the Ivory Tower. Each engagement, and indeed for many of us, multiple simultaneous engagements, create new methodological (and moral and ethical) challenges. This paper will focus largely on the anthropologist’s engagement in business from the perspective of high-tech industry. Interestingly, the last decade has seen the application of skills, tools, and practices of and inspired by anthropologists becoming part of the mainstream. In some respects, the late arrival of anthropologists to this area has caused a crisis of identity for anthropologists in industry forcing a constant re-justification of our skills and qualifications not only within industry, but also towards our academic counterparts.
