P2-05 Ethnographic Practices and Anthropological Theories of Multiculturalism and Diversity in South East Asian Subsidiaries of Transnational Organizations


Convenor

Mitchell W Sedgwick
Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science
contact: m.sedgwick@lse.ac.uk

Chair

Mitchell W Sedgwick
Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science

Discussant

Mitchell W Sedgwick
Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science


This panel engages the tangible effects of globalization through analysis of the complexly-interconnected social worlds of formal organizational settings. The focus is upon the problems and opportunities of multiculturalism and diversity in recently-emerging work environments in South East Asia. Our concerns include the emotional, intellectual and ideological flow of new types of ‘work experience’ in the lives of individual actors and, in turn, may include the effects of their experience on local communities. The ethnographic research informing our discussions is focused upon South East Asia-based subsidiaries/offices of major transnational organizations: for instance, industrial corporations, banks, government agencies. (Examples of ethnographic sites directly related to the panel theme might include South Korean industrial production subsidiaries in Indonesia, Japanese bank subsidiaries in Thailand, Australian aid agency operations in Laos, etc.)

Through analysis of the ‘hothouse’ conditions of cross-cultural work environments, we seek to unpack ethnographically the complexities generated by differences in ethnicity, race, religion, educational background and, of course, language. (These ‘problems’ overlap with, and we also look forward to considering in the panel, differences based on gender, sexual orientation and/or disability). The panel engages ethnographically with a wide range of sociological conditions at diverse sites, but an area of continuity across all the case studies is the structural dominance of the originating ‘international’ entity over the local space — local factory, office or development project — in which the ethnographic work will have been conducted.

Case studies are confined to the South East Asian context, but we also invite theoretically-oriented papers addressing our overarching theme by scholars whose ethnographic work engages other regions of the world.

IUAES2015 panel session #9
17 July 2015, 11.00 – 12.30 hrs.

Programme

P2-05-A1
Why and How Rule through Consent is Possible:
Managerial Control in a Japanese supermarket in Hong Kong
Heung Wah WONG

P2-05-A2
Experiencing Different Forms of Diversity between More Diverse and Less Diverse Societies
Yukimi SHIMODA

P2-05-A3
Applying Western Management Principles and Technologies to Agricultural Extension Services in Lao PDR: Ethnographic stories of interface, resistance and adaptation
Peter CASE
John CONNELL
Michael JONES

P2-05-A4
Socializing Chineseness:
Cambodia’s Ethnic Chinese Communities as Method
Shihlun Allen CHEN

Commentary
Mitchell W SEDGWICK