Culture as Contested Field

Abstract

With the introduction of the distinction between the analytical and empirical field, this chapter initiates a new vocabulary tied to an anthropology of learning. I argue that researchers engage differently with the two fields. That distinction is particularly recognisable within the analytical field of organisational culture, where participants engage in ongoing fights over culture concepts. The different conceptualisations of culture create, in part, what is perceived as meaningful materials in the empirical field. I exemplify with three different perspectives on a small Italian tourist organisation in Sardinia. In order for the analytical field to move beyond deconstructions and denouncements of the culture concept, I argue a new focus on learning in relation to space-time-mattering with ethnographic subjects is needed. This entails an emphasis on the researcher's learning processes in the empirical field, rather than forceful discussions in the analytical field.