Episode 18 - Anna Kim: Fieldwork with Respect

Ethnography Atelier Podcast

In this episode with Anna Kim, we discuss some principles around doing fieldwork with respect, especially in settings and populations with low economic resources. Our conversation focuses on how we approach such places and people in ways that declutter our cultural assumptions and appreciate them in their own terms, or closer to that, thus potentially generating more appropriate and impactful insights.

Anna Kim is an Associate Professor in Management for Sustainability and Peter Brojde Faculty Scholar in Entrepreneurship at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. She holds a Ph.D. in management studies from the University of Cambridge. Before her academic career, Anna worked for Oxfam International and other international development agencies. Her research interests include organizing for sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and linguistic inclusiveness in organizations. She has explored such topics through ethnographic and qualitative studies in various places, many characterized by resource constraints. These include tea and coffee producer organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nepal, as well as start-ups in post-industrial Detroit.

Further information

• Koo, E. J. & Kim, A. (2024) "Linguistic Inclusiveness in Organizations: A Russophone Bank in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan.” Academy of Management Journal, doi: 10.5465/amj.2020.1226.
• Kim, S. & Kim, A. (2022) "Going viral or growing like an oak tree? Towards sustainable local development through entrepreneurship." Academy of Management Journal, 65 (5): 1709–1746.
• Kim, A., Bansal, P., & Haugh, H. (2019) “No time like the present: How a present time perspective can foster sustainable development.” Academy of Management Journal, 62 (2): 607–634.