Problematization of Researching the Organizational Culture of a Scientific Institution from an Anthropological Perspective: The Case of the Archaeological Institute
Keywords:
organizational culture, anthropology of science, ethnography, scientific institution, Archaeological InstituteAbstract
This paper problematizes the study of a scientific institution’s organizational culture from the perspective of the anthropology of science, using the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade as its example. The research draws on one year of participant observation, twenty-one semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees of various ranks and sectors, and an analysis of institutional documents. Organizational culture is treated here not as the final object of study but as an analytical prism through which the functioning of a contemporary scientific institution is examined amid the transformation of science. The thesis is that such research meets resistance because the institution understands itself primarily as a space of rational knowledge production, and therefore does not recognize its own organizational culture as a relevant dimension of its functioning. The paper shows what the anthropology of science gains when such a humanities institution is studied from within: the obstacles to research, from the lack of recognition of anthropology as a discipline to resistance toward particular questions, become ethnographic material on the limits of legitimate knowledge.
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