Reflexive collaboration: Building pluri-ethnographic partnerships in an Ecuadorian bank

Abstract

This article illustrates the value of reflexive dialogue regarding foundational assumptions about ontologies of culture and cultural change, as well as regarding key methodological and epistemological tensions at critical junctures in the research process, in a collaborative ethnographic study undertaken by Ecuador’s largest banking institution in partnership with a team of university anthropologists. While acknowledging the importance of ethnographic positionality and the complexity of organizational interests in business anthropology, the case highlights the role and power of consciously positioned reflexivity and dialogue to overcome tensions, build trust, and ultimately reach cultural insights that are products of an inclusive and pluri-ethnographic approach as opposed to a more hierarchical, or “othering,” para-ethnographic perspective. The case demonstrates how this approach requires attention not only to divergences and convergences between academic anthropologists and corporate culture workers but also to multiple positionalities within organizations themselves that inflect understandings of cultural ontologies and ethnographic epistemologies.