“Calling it a Crisis”: Modes of Creative Labour and Magic in an Elite Architect Company

In recent years we have seen a resurfacing of magic as an analytical category in anthropological literature, with particular emphasis on modern forms of occultism and witchcraft. Magic has yet to prove itself a useful analytical tool within the anthropology of organizations, and this article aims at understanding everyday work processes through the concepts of myth and magic. The discussion is based on empirical data from an internationally acclaimed architect company based in Norway, with a particular focus on a period of downsizing in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008. The architects try to uphold an egalitarian, social-democratic ideology of creativity within a capitalist system and make use of a range of magical practices in order to succeed. The article shows how narrative flexibility transforms the brutality of downsizing into a mode of creative labour, and concludes that the internal dynamic between risk taking and risk reducing is inherent in both magical practices and capitalist systems

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Studentarbeid i sosialt arbeid (bachelorgrad) - Høgskolen i Bodø, 200

Sketching with Knives: Architects & The Confidence Theory of Magic

‘Isn't gravity wonderful? That's the magic trick in a way'. The Malinowskian ‘confidence theory of magic’ (1935) points to how a person, through the ritual act, becomes empowered to believe he can master nature's obstacles, and thus become equipped to undertake tasks from which he would otherwise shrink. The relation between creativity, magic and professional confidence is investigated through ethnographic fieldwork in the internationally renowned architecture company, Snøhetta, based in Oslo and New York. Crafting magic is performed by architects posing as digital experts of software technology and model making, and ritual experts who voice spells and formulas to guide the creative processes throughout competition phases. Inspired by the works of Malinowski (1922, 1935, 1948), Firth (1939) and Gell (1992), this article explores the phenomenon of magical capitalism as it enters the domain of competition and creative collaboration in organizations

"Calling it a Crisis : Modes of Creativity, Work and Magic in an Elite Architect Company

In recent years we have seen a resurfacing of magic as an analytical category in anthropological literature, with particular emphasis on modern forms of occultism and witchcraft. Magic has yet to prove itself a useful analytical tool within the anthropolog y of organizations, and this article aims at understanding everyday work processes through the concepts of myth and magic. The discussion is based on empirical data from an internationally acclaimed architect company based in Norway, with a particular focu s on a period of downsizing in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008. The architects try to uphold an egalitarian, social - democratic ideology of creativity within a capitalist system and make use of a range of magical practices in order to s ucceed. The article shows how narrative flexibility transforms the brutality of downsizing into a mode of creative labour, and concludes that the internal dynamic between risk taking and risk reducing is inherent in both magical practices and capitalist systems