Building Momentum for the JBA (original) (raw)

2014, Journal of Business Anthropology

In the last regular issue (Fall 2013), Editor Brian Moeran reached out to JBA readers with the call and challenge: "Just Be Active!" His idea is both highly relevant and relatively straightforward. He seeks ongoing dialogue and exchange among the journal's authors and readers, using the journal as a platform. The JBA offers a continuum of possibilities from opinion pieces to essays to full-length articles associated with the area of business anthropology. Writers can submit case studies, field reports, book reviews, as well as theoretical, methodological and practice-oriented pieces. All is beautifully laid out on the JBA website where readers and prospective authors can get much more information. I have heard some discussion about the potentially-limiting nature of the journal's title. The argument goes that "business anthropology" is a somewhat narrow field of study, which has likely affected the number of submissions and leads one or two correspondents to argue for business ethnography, rather than anthropology. Au contraire! As Moeran indicated (p.119): "…download statistics suggest that articles in the JBA are being read by thousands." The issue, therefore, is neither one of size, nor of focus. The JBA is still in its relative infancy and requires ongoing efforts to raise awareness about it. So many fascinating issues and topics are ripe for examination-in consumer matters, product design, technology, organizational culture and change, finance, advertising,