Working in Liminal States: Fluidity and Transformation in Organizations

Abstract

This special issue of the Journal of Business Anthropology grew out of a panel, “Liminality and Crossing Boundaries in Applied Anthropology,” held at the 2013 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. The authors presented papers seeking to explore how business anthropologists continually operate in and across boundaries and work in liminal states and spaces. They called on the fruitful concept of liminality to make sense of their work because business anthropologists are enmeshed in complex material assemblages with diverse actors, products, and markets, discourses, and ideologies. The session led to a renewed consideration of liminality and of how embracing liminal space and time affords anthropologists opportunity to collaborate with others, act within multiple realities, and be change agents in organizations where they are working and/or consulting.