Allen Batteau

Allen Batteau

Allen W. Batteau is a cultural anthropologist, professor at Wayne State University's Department of Anthropology, and former director of the University's Institute for Information Technology and Culture. He is the author of "The Anthropology of Aviation and Flight Safety" (Human Organization), "Anthropological Approaches to Culture, Aviation, and Flight Safety" (Human Factors in Aerospace Safety), and numerous other books and articles including Technology and Culture (2010, Waveland Press). A certified private pilot, his research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the US Air Force, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, and numerous other corporate and international bodies. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

Organizational culture, disasters, flight safety.  

Education

• AB, 1968, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland OH, 1964-65 | Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1965-1968
• M.A., Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1973
• Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1978
• Private Pilot Certificate (single engine, land), June 15, 2006

Selected publications

Scholarly books published

Authored

• 1990 The Invention of Appalachia. Tucson. University of Arizona Press
• 2009 Technology and Culture. Waveland Press
• 2015 Dragon in the Cockpit. By Jing Hyung-Sing and Allen Batteau. Aldershot. Ashgate

Chapters published

Authored/co-authored

• 2012 The World of Finance. In Companion to Organizational Anthropology, ed. by Anne Jordan and Douglas Caulkins. Wiley-Blackwell. Pp 381-398
• 2012 The Changing Rhetoric of Corporate Culture. In Companion to Organizational Anthropology, ed. by Anne Jordan and Douglas Caulkins. Wiley-Blackwell. Pp 56-74
• 2011 Negations and Ambiguities in the Cultures of Organization. In Alvesson, Mats, ed. Classics in Critical Management Studies, pages 235-249
• 2005 Qualitative Research Methods. In Swanson, Richard A., and Elwood F. Holton III (eds.) Research in Organizations: Foundations and Methods of Inquiry. Berrett-Koehler Publishers: San Francisco (authored by Christine Miller, Pamela Crespin, and Allen Batteau.)
• 1999 The Social Architecture of Community Computing. In Barbara Cherry, ed., Universal Service in Context. New York, Lawrence Erlbaum
• 1983 The Transformation of Dependency. In Appalachia and America: Autonomy and Regional Dependency, pages 1-13
• 1983 Rituals of Dependence in Appalachian Kentucky. In Appalachia and America: Autonomy and Regional Dependence, pages 142-167

Editorships of books/proceedings

• 1983 Appalachia and America: Autonomy and Regional Dependence. Edited by Allen Batteau. Lexington. University Press of Kentucky
• 1996 Social Science Computing Review. v. 14, #1 (1996) Special issue on "Social Aspects of the National Information Infrastructure."

Journal articles published

Refereed journals

• 2014 The Ethical Epistemes of Anthropology and Economics. Journal of Business Anthropology Special Issue 1, 96-115. (co-author, Bradley Trainor)
• 2012 Horizons of Business Anthropology in a World of Flexible Rationalization. Journal of Business Anthropology, v. I, #1, pp. 72-90. (co-author, Carolyn E. Psenka)
• 2011 Creating a Culture of Cybersecurity. International Journal of Business Anthropology. V. 1, #2
• 2009 Technological Peripheralization. Science, Technology, and Human Values, v 35, #3, 1-21
• 2003 Un Siglo de Desastres Industrialies: una extensión de la antropología Frazierana. In Bueno, Carmen, y María Josefa Santos, eds., Nuevas tecnologías y cultura. Anthropos 12, 211-228
• 2002 Anthropological Approaches to Culture, Aviation, and Flight Safety. Human Factors and Aerospace Safety. 2(2), 147-171
• 2001 The Anthropology of Aviation and Flight Safety. Human Organization 60(3), 201-211
• 2001 A Report from the Internet2 “Sociotechnical Summit.” Social Science Computing Review 19(1), 100-105
• 2000 Negations and Ambiguities in the Cultures of Organization. American Anthropologist 102(4), 726-740. Reprinted, 2011, in Mats Alvesson, ed., Classics in Critical Management Studies. London. Edward Elgar
• 1996 Digital Society, Analog Theory. Social Science Computing Review, v. 14, #1, pp. 84-85
• 1983 Mosbys and Broomsedge: The Semantics of Class in an Appalachian Kinship System. American Ethnologist 9, #3, pages 445-466
• 1981 Appalachia as a Metropolitan Problem. Social Analysis #7, pages 3-23
• 1981 An Agenda for Irrelevance: A Review Essay on Malcolm Chapman's The Gaelic Vision in Scottish Culture. Appalachian Journal 8, #3, pages 212-216
• 1980 Appalachia and the Concept of Culture: A Theory of Shared Misunderstandings. Appalachian Journal 7, ##1-2, pages 9-31. Reprinted in Bruce Ehrgood and Bruce Kuhre, eds., Appalachia: Social Context Past and Present. 3rd and subsequent editions. Dubuque. Kendall-Hunt

Non-refereed journals

• 2015 Anthropology Coming of Age: Keynote for International Conference of Business Anthropology, Guangzhou, China, May 19, 2012. Practicing Anthropology 37(1), 5-9
• 2001 Aggressive Technology in a Century of Industrial Disasters. Practicing Anthropology 23(4), 28-32
• 2000 Cultural Change in the Organization. Air Force Journal of Logistics 24, #3, pp. 16-20. (With Major Cassie Barlow, PhD)
• 1997 Is your Organization Prepared for New Technology? Air Force Journal of Logistics, 21, #3, pp. 24-29. (With Captain Cassie Barlow, Ph.D.)

Papers published in conference proceedings

Refereed papers

• 2015 “Problèmes attrayants”, dynamiques des réseaux, et le libre flux de l’information dans un monde technologique. Colloquium at Université Paris V, “Les techniques et la globalisation: échanges, réseaux et espionage industriel au XXe siècle. Ed. by Larissa Zhakarova. April, 2015
• 2012 “Sweet Problems” Network Dynamics, and the Free Flow of Information in a Technological World. Colloquium at Université Paris V, “Les techniques et la globalisation: échanges, réseaux et espionage industriel au XXe siècle
• 2007 Organizational And Professional Identity And Collective Response To Extreme Events. Paper presented at the European Group for Organizational Studies, Bergen, Norway (with Jon Brewster, Margaret Karadjoff, and Lamees Sweis)
• 2007 Organizational Culture and Agency Coordination in Disaster Response. Annual Hazards and Disasters Research Meeting, University of Colorado, July 12, 2007. (with Dale Brandenburg, Matt Seeger, and Tara Eaton)
• 2005 The Anthropological Problem of Large-scale, Complex Organizations. Society for Applied Anthropology, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 2005. (Co-author, Pamela Crespin.)
• 2005 Locking up the Organization: Rhetorical involution in a hospital emergency room and the devaluation of physician identity. European Group on Organizational Studies, Berlin, July 3, 2005. (Co-author Margaret Karadjoff.)
• 2004 The Dynamics of Technological Peripheralization. European Group on Organizational Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia, July 3, 2004
• 2003 Corporate Charisma: Technology and the Consecration of Monopoly. European Group on Organizational Studies, Copenhagen, July 5, 2003
• 2002 The Poetics of Organizational Complexity. European Group on Organizational Studies, Barcelona, July 2, 2002
• 1985 A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. In The Many Faces of Appalachia: Proceedings of the 7th Annual Appalachian Studies Conference, ed. by Sam Gray
• 1984 The Sacrifice of Nature: A Study in the Social Production of Consciousness. In Patricia Beaver and B. Purrington, eds., Cultural Adaptations to Mountain Environments. Southern Anthropological Society Proceedings #17, University of Georgia Press, pp. 94-106
• 1982 The Contradictions of a Kinship Community. In Carol Stack and Robert Hall, eds., Holding on to the Land and the Lord. Southern Anthropological Society Proceedings #15, University of Georgia Press, pages 25-40

Book reviews published

Academic journals (recent reviews only)

• Rethinking Commodification, ed. by Martha Ertman Joan C. Williams. Reviewed for American Anthropologist
• Worked Over: The Corporate Sabotage of an American Community. By Dimitra Doukas. Reviewed
• for Industrial Relations (2004), v 59-4, 814-815
• Seldom Ask, Never Tell. By Anita Puckett. Reviewed for American Anthropologist (2003), v 104

Papers presented

Invited and/or refereed internationally or nationally

• 2014 Indigenous Communities and Enterprise Re-Configurations in the Global Economy. European Association of Social Anthropology, Tallinn, Estonia, August 2014
• 2014 Ethnographic modeling of modern urban imaginaries: architecture, transportation, neighborhoods. Society for Cultural Anthropology, Detroit, Michigan, May 10, 2014
• 2014 Regional Imaginaries and Transportation Development. T2M (Transport, Traffic, and Mobility), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 21, 2014
• 2013 Imagining Mobility Futures. American Anthropological Association, Chicago, Illinois, November 2013
• 2012 Pushing Past a Methodological Border: An Interdisciplinary and Team-Based Approach to Disaster Research. American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, November 2012. Co-author, Tara Eaton
• 2012 How Technologies Think. Department of Anthropology, University College London, October 24, 2012
• 2012 Anthropology Coming of Age. Keynote Address at the International Conference of Business Anthropology, Guangzhou, China, May 29, 2012
• 2012 Flexible Rationalization and Neoliberal World Order. European Group on Organizational Studies, Helsinki, Finland, July 5, 2012. Co-author, Carolyn E. Psenka
• 2011 Horizons of Business Anthropology in a World of Flexible Accumulation. American Anthropological Association, Montreal, Canada. Co-author, Carolyn E. Psenka
• 2010 Ethnographic Challenges of New Organizational forms. Society for Applied Anthropology, Merida. March 26
• 2010 Why Methods Matter. American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, Louisiana. November
• 2009 The Ethnography of Deindustrialization. American Anthropological Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December, 2009
• 2008 Coordination in Disaster Response. E-Government Conference, Montreal, Canada. May, 2008
• 2004 e-México: una vision social: The Internet as a Government Program in Mexico. Society for Applied Anthropology, Dallas, Texas, April 3, 2004
• 2004 Lines and Spirals: The Development of Civil Aviation in the United States, 1919-1979. Presented at a workshop on the Technological Peripheries of Large-Scale, Tightly Coupled Systems, Mexico City, March 10, 2004
• 2003 A Perfect Report: Culture and NASA’s Analysis of the Columbia Space Shuttle Tragedy. American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, November 2003
• 2003 Corporate Charisma: Technology and the Consecration of Monopoly. European Group on Organizational Studies, Copenhagen, July 5, 2003. Also presented at the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Florence, Italy, July 9, 2003
• 2003 Aviation’s Cultural and Technological Networks and Peripheries. International Civil Aviation Organization Seminar on Cultural Factors in Aviation Safety. Mexico City. March 5, 2003
• 2002 Fabricating Differences: The Poetics of Organizational Complexity. European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Barcelona, July 5, 2002
• 2002 Cultural Integration and Differentiation in the North American Automotive Industry: An Overview. Society for Applied Anthropology, Atlanta Georgia, March 9, 2002
• 2001 Human Factors in Large Scale Technological Systems. With Carolyn Psenka and Alex Perez. Human Issues in Aviation Safety, Toulouse, France, September 28, 2001
• 2001 Anthropological Approaches to Risk Management. Society for Applied Anthropology, Merida, Mèxico, March 28, 2001. (with Carolyn Psenka)
• 2000 Tools for Understanding Corporate Culture and CRM. Flight Safety Conference 2000, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC, December 5, 2000
• 2000 A Century of Industrial Disasters. International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. Beijing, PRC, August 2000
• 2000 Listening for Safety: Subtle Cues, Robust Results. Wings of Change Conference, sponsored by International Air Travel Association, Santiago de Chile, March 2000. (with Carolyn Psenka)
• 1999 The Making of a Reference Model of Change Management. American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings. Chicago, Illinois. (with Carolyn Psenka)
• 1999 Missing Links. How Automotive Supply Chains Can Pull Together. International, October 1999 Conference on Electronic Commerce Technologies
• 1996 Como Vencer la Resistencia a la Introduccion de Tecnologia. Paper presented at the 8th annual Symposium of ADIAT (Asociacion Mexicana de Directivos de la Investigacion Aplicada y el Desarrollo Tecnologico). November 8, 1996
• 1995 The Social Architecture of Community Computing. Conference on Universal Service in Context: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Communications Media Center, New York Law School, December 6, 1995
• 1995 The Social Construction of Personhood and Self in Cyberspace. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC
• 1994 The Social Construction of Universal Access: Advocacy and Engineering on the Infobahn. Paper presented at a session titled An Anthropological Expedition to the Electronic Frontier, at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Atlanta, GA
• 1992 The Technological Imperative and the Politics of Engineering. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, CA
• 1991 IDEF: Engineering Models in the Anthropological Highlands. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, IL

Invited seminars or lectures presented in the last five years

• 2013 How Technologies Think. Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City. March 11-15, 2013
• 2011 A Dialogue of Form and Functionality. Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, October 21, 2011
• 2009 What Can Chinese Science Learn from Western Science and Technology Studies? Presented to Republic of China National Space Organization, Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, ROC, June 4, 2009
• 2006 Corporate Charisma. The Technological Ideal and the Consecration of Monopoly. Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, February 27, 2006
• 2006 Corporate Culture and Change Management. Proyecto Gobierno Alto Desempeño, Monterrey, Mexico
• 2005 Research in Information Technology and Culture. Presented to the faculty research seminar of the School of Information and Library Science, Wayne State University, February 25, 2005
• 2003 The Technological Peripheries of Large-Scale, Tightly Coupled Systems. Presented at La Universidad Iberoamericana, March 3, 2003. Also presented at National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Republic of China, October 17, 2002; at National Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PRC, October 24, 2002; and at National Aviation University, Kyiv, Ukraine, November 14, 2002. Also presented at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France, October 15, 2003
• 2003 Children of Daedalus. Humanities Center Seminar, Wayne State University, January 19, 2003
• 2002 Technology and Citizenship. Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. November 15, 2002. Repeated on November, 2003
• 2001 Progress of the e-curriculum Pilot. Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable Conference, March 8, 2001. (with Judith Fleck)
• 2000 La Antropologia Negocios en la Contexto Ejecutivo. Universidad Iberoamericana. Mexico City. June 19-23, 2000
• 2000 Research Planning Workshop. Universidad Iberoamericana. Mexico City. June 19-23, 2000
• 2000 Competitiveness and Social Responsibility. Universidad Nacional Autonomia de Mèxico. June 23, 2000
• 1998 SIM-CFITTM: A Prototype of the Death Spiral in Controlled Flight Into Terrain. Presented at a Workshop on Social Systems Interactions in Aviation Safety. September 10, 1998
• 1998 Social Systems Interactions in Aviation Safety. Workshop held at Wayne State University, September 10, 1998
• 1998 What is Safety Culture? Presented at a workshop on Social Systems Interactions in Aviation Safety. Wayne State University. September 10, 1998
• 1998 Cultural Assessment Methodologies. Seminar presented at Universidad IberoAmericana, November 5, 1998
• 1998 La Cultural en las Organizaciones. Seminar presented at Universidad IberoAmericana, March 19, 1998
• 1997 Supplying Places: The US / Canada / Mexico Automotive Supply Industry. Presented jointly at Chrysler Corporation and at Wayne State University, with Dr. Carmen Bueno. April 1997
• 1996 La Aceptacion de la Tecnologia como un Factor de Competitividad en las Empresas. Seminar for ADIAT (Asociacion Mexicana de Directivos de la Investigacion Aplicada y el Desarrollo Tecnologico). November 6, 1996
• 1996 Reflections in Appalachia. Presentation at the Center for Appalachian Studies, University of Kentucky. January 24, 1996
• 1996 Technology in Organizations. Seminar presented at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social, Mexico City, March 11, 1996
• 1996 Business Anthropology: Challenges and Opportunities. Seminar presented at University of Memphis, December 4, 1995. The same paper was presented at Howard University on February 9, 1996

Other creative and scholarly work

• 2008 Identity Constructing Reality Constructing Identity. WSU Anthropology Museum. With Tamara Bray and Brian Kritzman
• 2006 “Anthropology and Human-Computer Interaction.” Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction
• 2006 “Christmas in Appalachia.” Encyclopedia of Appalachia
• 2006 “Journalism of the Mine Wars.” Encyclopedia of Appalachia
• 2000 Anthropology with an Altitude. Anthropology News, November 2000
• 1999 RAPTR: Final Report. Submitted to USAF Research Laboratories. Available from DTIC
• 1999 Cultural Contexts of Flight Automation and Aviation Safety. Report of an interdisciplinary workshop on social systems interactions and aviation safety, held at Wayne State University on September 10, 1998
• 1996 Culture, Society, and Advanced Information Technology. A report on a workshop, June 1-2, 1995, prepared for the National Science Foundation
• 1995 FRAME/WORK: Human Issues in Information Technology. Final Report of a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research project. Prepared for the Armstrong Human Resources Laboratory
• 1995 Tools for Information Empowerment. Final Report of a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project. Prepared for the National Science Foundation
• 1994 FRAME/WORK: Human Issues in Information Technology. Final Report of a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Project. Prepared for the Armstrong Human Resources Laboratory
• 1987 Federal Spending: An Illinois Handbook. Washington DC. The Institute for Illinois

Note: All of these reports represented collaborative efforts among multiple individuals on projects where Allen Batteau was the project director or principal investigator, and hence had overall responsibility for the content and submission of the report.