For better or worse, it has become a metaphor for tomorrow land, a theme park of global corporate enthusiasm ranging from the small Ma and Pa Wang start-up to Hewlett Packard and Apple. Beneath the hype, however, there does exist a region occupied by real people who struggle to survive the consequences of the myth and create a microecology of meaning in their own lives. Individuals must negotiate this metamorphic social terrain by creating social networks that can sustain them and new metaphors to justify their strategies. Less elite inhabitants alternately believe or quietly resist the attempts to invent the twenty-first century version of the company town. Community activity, justified by its value to work, reaches into education, communications, recreation and family.
Community is transformed into an instrumental force for production.
The papers in this session will explore aspects of this transformation. Introduction to this paper . San Jose State's collaboration goes beyond a group of cultural anthropologists pooling their ideas and maximizing their precious research time. The anthropologists also collaborate with various institutions in the Valley, particularly the Institute for the Future, the Tech Museum of Innovation and organizations such as Smart Valley. Volunteers and staff of the Tech Museum of Innovation, a prototype museum that celebrates technological innovation in the Valley through education programs and interactive exhibits.