Book Review: Digital Cultures, Lived Stories and Virtual Reality by Thomas Maschio, Anthropology and Business Series. London and New York: Routledge

Authors

  • Wayne Fife

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v11i2.6781

Abstract

The author of this book, Thomas Maschio, has lived two anthropological lives; an earlier one as an academic anthropologist and a later one as an anthropologist running a company (Maschio Consulting) that specializes in the use of ethnographic research methods to help solve business problems and provide new kinds of information for business decisions. This combined background shows, as this volume is full of insights that translate both to the rough and tumble world of business practices and the more abstract world of academic understandings. This is to say that it offers readers insights into common social practices, such as the use of personal devices (for instance, smart phones) or the production of contemporary journalism, that can be utilized by both business practitioners and university-based researchers to think more about the ever-increasing role that digital technology is playing in our lives. As such, I could see this volume being used as a standard textbook in different kinds of social science or business courses, as well as being of interest to those who are simply curious about the intersection between business and anthropology or who want to gain a greater understanding of contemporary digital practices.

Author Biography

Wayne Fife

recently retired as Professor of Anthropology at Memorial University. His two latest books are Imaginary Worlds (2022) and Counting as a Qualitative Method (2020). He has conducted ethnographic, archival, and material culture research in Papua New Guinea, England, Spain, and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Newfoundland/Labrador. Fife has published numerous scholarly essays on the topics of education and social change, the politics of play, bureaucratic forms as social and economic borders, ethnographic research methods, art and other material forms, heritage and eco-tourism, archaeological sites and museums, implicit religion, nineteenth century missionaries, and national parks.

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Published

2022-12-06

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2022)

Section

Readers' Corner

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