Ab 01/2013 Teil des Zusatzverbundes „Kulturelle Dynamiken der Bedrohungskonstitution"

PhD thesis

1. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Gabriele Alex

2. Term: 2011-2015

3. Researcher: Maximilian Priester-Lasch

4. Research Location: Pune District, Maharashtra, India

5. Outline: The city of Pune is situated in the west of the Indian subcontinent and is with it's 3.5 million inhabitants the second largest city in the state of Maharashtra. The city is renowned as a hub of mechanical engineering, automobile, automotive and IT-Industries. With thousands of </span>(mostly western) expropriates and students from all over India and abroad Pune is one of the booming cities of India and a place for rapid cultural change.

This project explores a process of acculturation at a Indo-German engine parts manufacturing plant in Pune District that resulted out of the </span>german company's accquisition of a business unit of an indian „industrial lineage firm“ and led to social and organizational change.

Using ethnographic methods, it examines which orders were perceived to be under threat from the perspective of the different groups involved as well as “when” and “how”. It looks at how the various status groups (i.e. workers, managers, and executives) dealt with the changes to the "normal"/"proper" order and especially which kinds of emotions were attached to these changes. Furthermore, the project questions the role that these emotions played in the internal and external communication of threat perceptions. It analyses the ways in which the conflict influenced the creation of new boundaries between groups as well as how individuals assigned themselves to groups or were assigned to them by others as part of the identity-building process, especially against the backdrop of the narrative of a threat stirred up by the media that emphasized the loss of Indian traditions and values through western influences.</span>

The project aims to describe the organizational patterns of the company from a native's point of view and to relate the acculturation process with the wider debate of globalization. Further is tries to contribute to the fields of anthropology of emotion and anthropology of space and place.</span>