Abstract
The Department of Sanitation in New York City is a mayoral agency with a key role in municipal government, but it also has the attributes of a powerful corporation. With an annual budget in excess of a billion dollars, it hires, monitors, and replaces private vendors and contractors for a host of essential services, balances the often conflicting demands of several unions, and answers to a watchful but perpetually critical public. As the Department's anthropologist-in-residence since 2006, my work has included consulting, advocacy, collaboration, education, and organizing various projects focused on the interface between Sanitation and that larger public. These efforts have helped me understand the urban environment from the perspective of those who keep it clean, while also letting me become intimately acquainted with the complex dynamics of a workforce that is generally scorned even while it is fundamental to the well-being of the metropolis it serves. This paper considers the model of anthropologist-in-residence as I've structured it within the DSNY, discusses contributions to an anthropology of organizations, and explores the possibility of similar relationships between anthropologists and other public and private institutions.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
