Itr: C'trletrrau. Sitrton and Pauline von Hellennann (eds)(2011) ,\Iulti-Sited Ethnogruphl Prrthlarrt.s trntl Possibilities in the Translocation of Research ,\,Iethods, New york: RoLrtledge. 6 'What Do You Call the Heathen These Days?' For and Against Renewal in the Norwegian Mission Society Ingie Houland INTRODUCTION: NMS IS IN RENEWAL 'NMS is in renewal. We've heard it for so long now that we'll soon begin to believe it'. This wry remark was made from the stage one morning at the General Assembly of the Norwegian Mission Sgciety (NMS) in the summer of 1999, and the ensuing laughter and exchange of glances showed that the delegate on the stage had struck a chord with the audience. Since the mid1990s, the phrase 'NMS is in renewal' has become so commonplace within NMS that when used as a parody everyone 'gets the joke'; the 1,000 or so gathered in the hall that morning all recognized the phrase as the catchword reference to a whole set of events and ideas, evoking wide-ranging associations and emotions among the audience. I find this 'renewal' fascinating. I first encountered its emotional underrones at the General Assembly in 1999.1 then discovered some of its striking disjunctures when I carried out discourse analysis of almost 200 articles and 4-5 editorials from NMS's magazine, Misionstidende (litetally'mission tidings', MT) from the period 1997 to 2000 (Hovland 2001). Finally,I made the link between interpreting the renewal strategy and using multi-sited ethnography when I was engaged in a one-year period of fieldwork in NMS from 2003 to 2004 andwas struggling to define my 'field'. During my fieldwork, the organization had a head office in Stavanger, Norway; nine local offices in other towns across Norway; around 2,-500 so-called 'mission groups' throughout Norway that donated funds to the grganization; 12 field offices in 12 countries around the world; and staff in each of these countries who were based not just at the field office but also thrgughout the country. In sum, the organization is typical of international development or mission organizations: it is a disparate set of points spread out across the world map. I started to think of my field as a web of connections and associations between these points. But the most important thing I learned in this respect was rhat the significance of the web does not lie in whatever geographic lines of connections I could make. Instead, the significance lies in whatever '*3r ,, 'What Do You Call the Heathen Tbese Days?' 93 connections and associations exist in people's heads. Elsewhere I have examined how these connections produce flows of different meanings within the organizational system of NMS-even quite 'disconnected' meanings-in relation to one of the most important figures in NMS, namely the figure of 'the missionary' (Hovland 2009).In the present chapter I shall examine some of the same connections and associations, this time in relation to the 'renewal' agenda in NMS. I will do so by focusing on a few linguistic terms used in NMS-first some of the mission metaphors that they use, and then their use of the term 'heathen'.1 In this way I hope to draw out some of the ways in which different groups of people in NMS think and act from different sites, and how they often do so in explicit relation to other sites within the organization. I use the term 'site' here as a layered concept; sites in NMS are geographical, spread out across the world map, but they are also related to organizational hierarchies and spaces. By focusing on NMS's strategy of renewal, I will sketch out some aspects of people's own 'site awareness' within NMS. First, what is this 'renewal' about? NMS is a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Norway, with connections to the Lutheran church, that carries out both mission activity and development work in several countries across the wodd. Like many other'Western Protestant mission societies, NMS has recently come to the harsh realization that they need to make some changes in order to survive in today's society-including 'While they wish to retain changes in their strategy and public relations. are aware that spiritual truthactivity, they their Christian evangelization that everyone should claim universal authority-e.g. statements that lWestern, in postas morally dubious largely seen become Christian-are provoke accusations of ideological modern society-even unethical-and imperialism. In response to this, NMS, along with several other Western Protestant mission agencies, has entered into a phase characterized by frustration, a certain amount of panic and a sense of 'crisis', as well as a will to think innovatively and to redefine their mandate. Mission societies that wish to renew themselves will sometimes argue that the imperialistic connotations to mission were an offshoot of the 'Enlightenment paradigm', and that it is now time to move into a 'postmodern paradigm' of mission that emphasizes more palatable concepts such as dialogue, mutual learning, and partnership (cf. the theoretical basis for this shift provided by Bosh 1991; Kting 1989; Newbigin 1,978). NMS has followed this trend and has officially been 'in renewal' since 1995. As senior members of staff in NMS told me when I conducted some interviews with them in 2000: ''We are in the middle of a big turn-around process here', and, 'It is an enormous job to turn around the way of thinking [within the organization]'. In using the term 'to turn around', they imply not only the need to turn in a different direction strategically but also the perceived need to turn their gaze from the traditional mission 'fields' to include engagement with their own Western society. However, the story of 94 Ingie Houland renewal and turning around does not seem to be used by all members of NMS. At the same time as I was talking to members of the leadership about their vision and strategy of renewal, I was told by other members of staffsometimes with a smile, sometimes with an overbearing shrug-that: 'The leadership use many big words', or that, 'Change and renewal within NMS is nothing new, they were concerned with this in the '70s as well. There may be tocl much change sometimes'. I shall have to limit my discussion here to the issue of what I might loosely call 'strategy awareness' within NMS, including how people at differenr sites within the organization frame their own stories of what the organization is about. In this way this study bears some similarity to Roe's (1,991\ analysis of different development narratives that are used to account for uncertainty. I will not here be able to compare strategy formulation with implemenration. But by focusing only on strategy awareness this time, I aim to show something of what strategy is for the people who order their work around it-in this case: what strategy is for the people in NMS. In this way I hope to maintain a'close-up perspective ... landl t<l discover new paths of connection and association by which traditional ethnographic concerns with agency, symbols, and everyday practices can continue to be expressed on a differently configured spatial canvas' (Marcus 1995: 98). I shall start by outlining different appropriations (and non-appropriations) of the 'renewal' strategy in NMS through discussing my findings fr<>m the articles in NMS's magazine from 1997 to 2000, focusing especially on the use of mission metaphors by different groups in NMS. Following this, I shall briefly turn to my fieldwork period and give some examples of how the 'renewal' strategy was related to by looking at a different linguistic question, namely how the term 'hearhen' is used by different groups in NMS. In conclusir>n, I will draw out what this case can tell us about the advantages and limitations of using multi,sited ethnography in order to understand organizational strategy. MISSION METAPHORS The different tensions that accompany a period of crisis and renewal in NMS manifest themselves clearly in the use of metaphors in NMS's magazine. I will therefore present a few examples of metaphors used in the articles and editorials that I examined from the magazine. I looked at all the articles concerning Africa that were published in NMS's magazine from .January 7997 to August 2000 (196 in all). These articles were mainly written by or about missionaries, i.e. the field staff of NMS. I also looked at the editorials in the magazine in the same period (45 in all). My understanding of the articles and editorials was backed up by interviews and conversarions with the leadership and other staff at NMS's head office in 2000. It is worth bearing in mind that the NMS magazine is the main source of information from the missionaries and the NMS head office ro the 'What Do You Call the Heathen These Days?' 95 'grassroots' of the organization in Norway-i.e. members and others who provide financial contributions. As Repstad points out, 'subscribers [to the mission magazinel have invesred time, money, interest and identity in the mission, and are concerned to see what effects their efforts have had' (1.974:1). The NMS magazine had around 14,500 subscribers in 2000. It must be noted that it is written only in Norwegian. In other words, its contents are specifically aimed at the Norwegian support base of NMS. In addition, the magazine reaches a wider audience in Norway since it conyeys 'the official opinion of NMS', and as such it is also 'written for our critics, so that they can see what to criticize', as one staff member told me. The way these various expectations silently frame the stories presented in NMS's magazine is best shown through a brief example, and for this purpose I have chosen a story about the Bara, who live in south-west Madagascar. In the autumn of 1998 something unusual happened among the Bara, to whom NMS has been sending Norwegian missionaries since the late 'Within nineteenth NMS, the Bara have traditionally been considwith the gospel. But in 1998, a Bara woman had a vision of Jesus and was then endowed with tremendous charisma and a deep conviction that she would be the one to bring the Bara people to Christ. Word about this woman, known as Mama Christine, quickly spread throughout the area. People flocked ro Mama Christine in large crowds, many were helped with physical or spiritual problems, and a whole host was baptized within a short period of time. The story of this event among the Bara was communicated to NMS members in Norway through several issues of the NMS magazine. Two excerpts follow; the first is taken from a conversation that one of the Norwegian missionaries in Madagascar had with Mama Christine. In this concentury. ered a 'hard' people to reach versation he reports: The Bara strongly resist the gospel, says Mama Christine, and tells of the work to reach the Bara people with the Word of God[ . . . ]This is the old area of the mission [says Mama Christine], you have worked and sowed here for many years. And now the Bara are opening up too! [ . . . ][After the revival,] people stopped drinking, gaye away their magical instruments, and started doing useful things in the village instead. These are powerful witnesses of life and genuineness. (MT 1.0 / 1.9 9 9, my emphasis) I have italicized the metaphors used by the author. The second excerpt is taken from the next issue of the magazine, where the missionary author describes how the Christian revival has transformed the village: A little over a year ago there was not a single Christian in the village. Digny and the other medicine men held the village in their grip.There was no school for the children, and among the adults only a few could G--- 96 lngie Houland read. Village parties with both old and young raving around drunk were commonplace | . . . I Here to() in many respects night has become dawn. People are taking on responsibilitr', the children are cared for, the liquor trade is floundering, married couples are talking to each other, the fear of the ancestors is /oslzg xtme of its grip. (MT 7111999, my emphasis) The missionary author uses a number of metaphors to convey his message: I ) 'resistance' versus 'openness' (the Bara resisted, but now they are opening up); 2) the mission 'field' (where the missionaries have sowed); 3) from 'death' to 'life'; 4) being 'caught' and made 'free' (including being caught in the 'grip' of medicine men and in the 'grip' of fear of ancestors); and .5) 'darkness and light' (or 'night and dawn'). The five metaphors highlighted in these excerprs represenr five of the eight main metaphors that I f<rund to be in use in NMS's magazine from .lanuary 1997 to August 2000. The mission authors naturally assume that the readers of the magazine are acquainted with these. The remaining rhree metaphors that were used a number of times were: 6) 'the way'or'walking rogether with'; 7) 'the good fight'; and 8) 'the unreached' (though I will not discuss these in this chapter). Other metaphors that were used only once or twice were: 'the shepherd' (twice), 'the triumphal procession' (twice), 'the grear banquet' (once), 'one body, many parts' (once), and 'the ralents' (once). In order to unpack these mission metaphors further, let me look more closely at one of them, namely the metaphor of the mission'field'. As Mama (lhristine reportedly said, the missionaries have been'sowing' among the Bara for a long time. The basic plot of the mission field metaphor-story g()es as follows: The 'seed' is the \X/ord 'sown' by the missionary-sowers. The African soil, the mission 'field', is then hoped to bear 'fruit' in the form of converts to Christianity. As the number of converts and the church 'grow', the missionaries can collect the 'harvest'. The majority of the references to this metaphor-story in NMS's magazine cast the missionaries themselves in the role of the sower agent and places the mission field in Africa. For example: 'At the momenr they are experiencing great revivals in Baraland. That which has been sowed through many years lby the missionariesl, without visible results, is now sprouting and growing!' (MT 2/2000, my emphasis). The metaphor of sowing and growth is used to paint a picture of mission as an activiry where inputs from the outside (seeds sown by the Norwegian missionaries, perhaps even a century ago) stimulate development inside Africa (Christian revivals). Despite the fact that the revival among the Bara in 1998 was triggered by a Bara woman, Mama Christine, the long-term input from the missionaries is highlighted as a crucial causal factor in the story. The other four metaphors highlighted in the excerpts above all refer to the same basic story of cause and effect. They describe and justify the activity of mission by pointing to the dramatic changes that it brings about in ''What Do You Call the Heathen These Days?' 97 the lives of people. As the metaphors used in the story about the Bara show, for example, people who became Christian in the Bara revival are conceptualized as moving from 'resistance' to 'openness', from (spiritual) 'death' to new 'life' or to genuine 'life', from 'bondage'-in the 'grip' of fear and in the 'grip' of medicine men-to 'freedom', and, finalln from 'darkness' to 'light'-'night has become dawn'. From these examples, it is possible to see that a metaphor describes one object or process by comparing it to another. At this point it may be helpful to distinguish between metaphors and similes. The main difference between the two is that metaphors create resemblance by using the verb 'is' (to be), while similes use the phrase 'is like'. In other words, while a simile would say, for example: 'The change brought about by the Christian revival in the village is like the change from night to dawn', the metaphor simply says: 'The Christian revival in the village is turning night into dawn'. The power of the metaphor stems from the fact that it no longer explicitly acknowledges that the image of night and dawn is make-believel insread, night and dawn are treated as if they were literal realities. Of course, all the readers of the missio n magazine will be aware that the Bara village was not literally enveloped in darkness prior to the Christian revival. Yet in a very real sense the metaphor of night and dawn claims that the Bara village uas in darkness and that the Bara villagers who are not yet Christians are in reality still living in darkness. The metaphor's created resemblance says something about the 'really real' or the underlying reality of the world (Ricoeur 1,977). Metaphors also say something about what ought to be done about this underlying reality. They often become guides for action. As Bevans (1991) argues, metaphorical images are not simply interesting picture words; they are really concentrated theologies of mission. The metaphors used in the story about the Bara communicate a mission strategy by implicitly referring to what things were like among the Bara before the missionaries came (there was resistance, hard soil, lack of life, darkness or night, and bondage) and at the same time referring to what the missionaries brought with them (the ability to open what is closed, seeds, new life or genuine life, light or dawn, and freedom from bondage). These metaphors clearly indicate what kind of mission strategy is desirable: a one-way process of giving and teaching, where the Norwegian missionaries give and teach, while the Bara villagers receive and learn. The metaphors themselves may be small phrases or even just words, but they refer to big stories. It seems fair to assume that the way metaphors are used in articles in the NMS magazine, and the underlying stories they refer to, say som€thing about the worldview of the (missionary) author. However, it is worth adding that this conclusion is problematic if left on its own. The articles in the magazine provide a space that enables the missionaries to communicate. This space is limited by expectations of what the missionary ought to be doing out there in the mission field (i.e. saving people) and perceptions of 98 lngie Houland what constitutes legitimate srories and writing styles (Repstad 1974\.The complexity of the writing situation is further underlined by the awareness that the image portrayed in the NMS magazine is crucial in 'selling' the mission to ensure financial contributions from the readers. It is therefore worth noting that the metaphors may partly be painting the missionary's own image and partly the image of the imagined readers that the missionary bears in mind when writing (Skeie 2001). THE'RENEWED'USE OF METAPHORS IN NMS The metaphors from NMS's magazine that I have discussed so far have been used within a worldview where mission is the event that takes place when a Norwegian missionary, endowed with knowledge of the truth and the capacity to act, travels from the Wesr out to the mission field in Africa (or Latin America or Asia or the Middle East). However, as noted above, NMS's renewal strategy entails a shift away from this traditional missiokrgical worldview and towards a new understanding of mission. Interestingly, this renewal is reflected in a new '*,ay of using old metaphors in the magazine-at least by some authors. For example, in 1999 the General Secretary of NMS travelled to Madagascar and visited the area of the Bara. Afterwards, he reported his impressions of the Bara revival in an editorial in the magazine. He wrote: Perhaps our l'Westernl worldview closes off the possibility of certain experiences | . . . I This visit to Madap;ascar tells me more than ever that we have a lot to learn from the spiritual life and the spiritual experience our Malagasy friends represent. \7e are approaching a time when we must find new ways of organizing mission practice (MT 1011999, my emphasis). This brief editorial comment frames the Bara revival quite differently from the story excerpts discussed earlier. Instead of emphasizing the role played by Norwegian missionaries, the General Secretary instead focused on the role played by the local Malagasy church and the assessment of the revival made by local Christian leaders. Even more interestingly, in the General Secretary's editorial the focus is not on the changes that had taken place among the Bara-'night has become dawn', and so on-but instead on the changes that need to take place in NMS and in the Church of Norway. In his account, the people who are closed off (or resisting openness) and who lack life are not the Bara villagers but NMS. The people who need to learn and who need help are nor the Baras but the Norwegians. A few months later, another member of the top leadership group of NMS expanded on this theme in another editorial. He wrore about the need to shift towards new ways of thinking about mission: ''What Do You Call the Heatben These Days?' 99 Through this change in our worldview, the experiences that Christians in the Two Thirds lWorld have of the Christian faith will have a larger impact on churches in the'West. This can lead to a reneu/al of our faith o.r. experiences t . . . ] tITe need to] open up to the spiritual expe"rrd riences of our brothers and sisters and perhaps prepare fot new growtb in our'!(estern churches. Mission societies have a job to do in facilitat- ing the exchange of spiritual experiences between different cultures and contexts (MT 312000, my emphasis). develop a new the old metaby using so do they framework of seeing mission, and that \(hat is interesting about these two quotes is that they phors but with new meanings attached. In the earlier story excefpts, metaphor, *.r. used to imply that there was a need for spiritual growth among put ih. 8u.". In the editorials, on the other hand, metaphors are used to 'S(estgrowth in our nera 'fot need forward the argument that there is a ern churches' (MT 312000, my emphasis). The new use of the metaphors rewrites the target group or object of change. The mission 'field' is no longer located only in Africa but is rather seen as 'the whole world' (editorial, lttt tttggg!-including Norway. The metaphors are no longer used only to describe the (deficient) situation in Africa but instead are used to describe the (deficient) situation within NMS or the Norwegian church: '[Let us admit tol NMS and the [Norwegian] Church's lack of inner spiritual life (editorial, [ . . . ] In this [confession] lies the seed to change arld new life' in the caught can become too MT 3/L998, my emphasis). Or: ''!7e [NMS] . . . safe thought-patterns our [ ] This importance of our own history and (editorial, my MT 811999, on listening' requires that we renew our focus used to express are bondage and growth, emphasis). The metaphors of life, a tLeme of critical self-examination and a need for change within NMS. This orientation implies a different image of what mission is and a more equal relationship between Africans and Norwegians, illustrated by the teims 'exchange' or 'dialogue'-two of the words used frequently by the NMS leadership to explain their position. When examining the use of metaphors in NMS's magazine,I found that a little over two thirds of the references to the five most frequently used metaphors were framed in the traditional way (as in the earlier excerpts from the story about the Bara village), while almost one third were framed in the 'renewal' way (as illustrated by the editorial comments above). Of the smaller selection of texts that used the metaphors in a renewal way, a full four fifths were written by members of the top leadership group in NMS, a group of six people over this period (including the General Secretarn senior heads of policy and the chair of the Board). In other words, the majority of people who send in texts to be published in the magazine-most of whom are previous or current missionaries-use metaphors in the traditional way to explain and legitimate their mission stories as illustrated in the story abouithe Bara revival written by a Norwegian missionary in Madagascar. 100 Ingie Houland On the other hand, when the top leadership at the NMS head office in Stavanger, Norway, write editorials for NMS's magazine, they are more likely to use metaphors in a new way r() supporr their agenda of renewal. Let me return briefly to the NMS (ieneral Assembly in 1999, mentioned in the introduction, to illustrate the politics associated with this use of renewed meanings attached to old metaphors in NMS. At the General Assembly in 1999, the leadership of NMS pur forward plans to reduce the number of Norwegian missionaries sent out by the mission society from around 200 to 125-150. This seemed a Iogical step, following their emphasis on reciprocity and the ackn<>wledgment that mission acriviry was not solely the privilege of Western missionaries any longer. However, the novelty and almost radical quality r>f this idea became apparent as it sparked a protracted debate among the delegates to the General Assembly. The Assembly was attended by around 1,000 people variously connected to NMS, the vast majority of whom were Norwegian. As they discussed the proposed reduction, it became increasingly clear that the grassroots of NMS clearly wanted to have more, n()t fewer, Norwegian missionaries (also described in Hovlan d 2009). The picture of mission that most of the delegates at the General Assemhly had in their minds seemed to be the traditional picture according to which a Norwegian missionary travels ()verseas to share the gospel with people who have not yet heard or not fully understood it. As all the traditional metaphors show, good things happen when a Norwegian missionary arrives on the scene, and if a Norwegian missionary is not sent then the good things probably will not happen-the Africans will remain resistanr, spiritually dead, in darkness, and so on. Thus at the General Assembly, the suggestion of the leadership to reduce rhe number of Norwegian missionaries was challenged. An amendment, sraring that NMS would work to increase the number of Norwegian missionaries instead, was suggested by a delegate and voted in by a majority. The leadership of NMS, however, has considerable room for maneuver) and they proceeded to reduce the number of Norwegian missionaries and ro write this reduction into their long-term plans anyway (e.g. NMS 2000). \il/hat does all this organizational maneuvering tell us about different sites within NMS? It tells us that the use of c<>mmon metaphors both serves to forge connections between different sites in NMS-such as the head office in stavanger and the missionaries in Madagascar (not to mention the NMS members spread out across Norway, who read information written by the missionaries in NMS's magazine)-but the use of common metaphors also serves to differentiate these sites and ser them apart. In NMS, the same metaphors can be used to represent mission in different and even contradictory ways. Moreover, the different meanings attached to the metaphors also imply different and contradictory plans for action and for organizational strategy. However, this does not mean that the metaphors disintegrate and fragment into uselessness. Certain metaphors in NMS, such as 'What Do You Call the Heathen These Days?' 101 the 'mission field', are so ingrained in the way of thinking within NMS that they serve as focal points to connect and unify disparate meanings and mission strategies, acting as bridges across different sites within the organization. And verbal symbols such as 'light and darkness', for example, seem to be experienced as so historically laden and emotionally po*e.fj for people in NMS, across all sites, that they are ready to remain loyal to the symbol itself, regardless of whether it is used with one meaning or different, contradictory meanings. But, more politically, it is not difficult to see that metaphors are (unintentionally or intentionally) used in struggles over srrategy in NMS, by groups who think and act from different locations-whether from Madagascar or from different organizational spaces in Norway. In this,way the metaphors also become manifestatioru of po*., relations and conflict within the organization, rather than expressions of consensus or loyalty. It is important for people in NMS to use the right metaphors and to use them in certain ways in order to position themselves. A certain use of metaphors provides legitimacy in certain sites. THE HEATHEN Let me turn now to a few examples of the way that the renewal agenda was still being worked out across different sites within NMS during my fieldwork in20031004. Instead of examining metaphors this time, iwiil examine a different linguistic question that is pertinent in NMS, namely what to call one of their target groups: the 'heathen'. one of the overarching aims of NMS is to bring their church and development projects to the heathen, but for reasons of political correctness, the heathen ,ro longer "r. of NMS's called the heathen. The term 'hearhen' was in fact taken out bylaws and policy documenrs as early as the mid-1950s and replaced by the term 'peoples of the world', but the shift away from using the term 'heathen' informally within NMS did not seem to come abo.rt until the late 1980s or 1990s, simultaneously with the shift towards the renewal agenda. This- raises interesting questions of site awareness. Let me use jusi three brief episodes from my fieldwork year to illustrate this. The first episode is from the NMS head office sraff retreat in November 2003, at. which NMS had hired in a managemenr consultant to talk about the nature of organizations. In his talk he was making a point about an organization's customers, and he asked the assembled staff: ,s7hat do you call your customers?' The room was quiet. He tried again, and, hoping to provoke an answer from the audience, he asked: 'rfhaido you call th" h."then these days?' Still nobody answered. It was a funny moment because I am sure everyone in the room knew the group that he was talking about and was able to conceptualize it for themselves-and yet nobody dared to throw out a label for this group in front of all the other staff. Finally, one man, in something of a cop-out and in order to break the awkward silence, Ingie Houland said out loud:'Nfe now call them ..the target group,,,, andthe pause was eased by general laughter. The second episode occurred a few m'nths rater, when I went to Madagascar to interview NMS staff there-the missionaries. They were aware that I had come straight from the NMS head <>ffice i., stuuu.,g., and that I would be going straight back there. They knew that I was nlt emproyed by NMS, that I was asking questions, and that if they tota *. what the world looked like ro them I would write it d'wn and ttr"t,l.rri f,,ssibly, at some stage in the future someone might read it. In their *. ih.y played on all this awareness-their system awareness, "rrr-.rr'r,, if you like, or their attemprs and ability to quickly situate me in these tyri.*r. So they would, for example, sometimes answer my questi'ns about head office poricy in either a very pointedly positive -rnn.r. or in a pointedly critical as a means to situare themselves in relati.n to me, perhaps indirectly hoping to use me to influence the head office in s.me way or iimply as a means to communicate their unspoken site and system because this is important to them. Thus I asked one missionary, in our interview, what she would do if she were suddenly given the opportunity t' make ail poli.y d..irion, in NMS. she said she would emp.-l-w more (Norwegian) missionaries. She explained that the Malagasy say: '\we are only heathen, we need more missionaries,and then she looked straight at me and pointed our, in case I had missed it: 'l use the word "h€athen", b^ecause they use it about themserves,. Nou,, she was fully aware that the official policy of NMS r."g., ..f.r, to th. heathen and that the rerm does not sit weli with the ". r.ua"rrf,if ', ,,rategy of renewal in stavanger. At one revel, theref're, this missionary'in rana"g"rcar was very obviously using the word 'hearhen' because she knew that I knew that she was nor suppo;ed to use ir. Beyond this, I think she was arso using it because it expressed something significant about what she saw as the heart of her work. She felt that rh.-*", cr.ser ro tn. rr,lurng;ries than the head office staff in stavanger, and that she was uut.,o .ip.ess this by subtly and indirectly commenting on the polrcy. ny lrsing th. term 'heathen', she was able to situate herserf'fficial in a position #..iriqu. in relation to the head office in stavanger and r. the organiza,ro.,"i renewal. She was also abre to sitriate 'fMalagasy and to her own ,r."t"gy herserf in cro"ser pro"r-ny to the understanding'f her role in M;;g;;;;.. Thr third episode occurred when Leiurned to the head offrce in sravanger.after my trip to Madagascar. I had a brief conversation -itl-, on. or th. high-.level policy staff, and I said I had been surprised to find that the term 'heathen' was still used by missionaries. He did not seem ,.rrp.ir.a, brt he-just like the missionary in Madagascar-had placed -. ir,'t i, sysrem awaren€ss' and, just like her, he knew fairry exactry what I was expecting to hear from him. so he shook his head and .o-*.nted on the use ,f 'heathen' in his best laconic mode: 'And it's been strictly ro.Llaa.n ro. ten years now!' he said. And then he added: 'we do ,.e thai as a challenge 'Wbat Do Yow Call the Heathen These Days?, 103 from here. Not to say a problem.' This shows another side of organ izational strategy in NMS: it enables policymakers ro locate (in fact, to site) 'problematic' elements within their organi zation and to draw a clearer line of differentiation between'challenges' and corresponding'solutions, within the organization. In sum, multi-sited ethnography does not just add together different perspectives on the policy on heathen in NMS. Rather, it challenges our very understanding of how this policy functions, how it is given significance, and how we can examine it. The renewal agenda, including the officiai shift away from using the term 'heathen', is a tool for the hiad office to guide staff within their organization regarding what position they would like them to take. conversely, it has in some cases become a tool ior staff to site themselves in relation (and in opposition) to the head office straregy. It is a tool for defining 'problems' within the organization from the heai office, but at the same time it is also subverted by some missionaries in order to site themselves as the people 'in the frontline' and 'in the know', while the head office is framed as more irrelevant to 'the real work, that is carried out. This gives us an insight into one aspect of organizational strategynamely its contested nature-that is not always immediately visible irom a single site. In this sense the case of NMS can be read as a contribution to other literature that also critically examines organizational policies and plans in NGos in order to draw out their nonlinearity. Long and van der Ploeg (1989), for example, critique the notion of organizational intervention as a straightforward process and instead suggest that we need to identify 'the types of arenas, interface struggles, negotiations and transformations that take place' (238). And suzuki (1998) shows that conflicts and tensions over policies between the head office and field offices is not uncommon in international NGos. Mosse (200s) takes this debate one step further by suggesting that organizational policy still serves an importani, though counter-intuitive, purpose. He draws a picture of a uK development project in India in which development policy did not serve as a guide fo. imple*entation. on the contrary, what was implemented served as a guide foi policy, which from time to time was formulated in form and language th"t *"t deemed an appropriate system of representations for funders in London, and which would successfully act as an exchange commodity in return for further funding to the project. In fact, as the controversy over Mosse's book shows-in the attempts to have it substantially changed and ro delay and hinder its publication (Mosse 2005)-policy is somerimes deeply imporrant to the people concerned in a way,I would argue, that goes beyond the issue of a system of representa- tions or an exchange commodity. organizational policy, even though we are not used to thinking about it in this way, can be personally important to staff in many international development or mission organizations. Not because it tells them what ro do; often, in facr, it may be distinctly difficult 104 Ingie Houland f.r them to do what policy says they sh.uld do. At other times policy may be important precisely b.carre it gives them the opportunity to regisrer what the official policy is and then demonsrrariuely trot to do it. Multi-sited ethnography shows us that organizational staff somerimes need to have an official organizational strategy in order t. have something to disagree with, something to site themselves in relation t., within their system, Jnd ,o-.thing that allows them to (defiantly) articulate what for them is at the heart of their work. But above all, I think policy is important because it enables people to think who they are within their system-through their siting of themselves in relation to the policy sysrem, or the policy field, of their organization. Like me, they too continuously rry to find out whar the policy fiIld is. And multi-sited ethnography in turn enables us as anthropologists to get at this site and system awareness that people live within. CONCLUSION: MULTI-SITED ETHNOGRAPHY I have spoken about the connections and ass'ciations-and disiuncturesbetween different sites within NMS that multi-sited ethnography makes visible. Multi-sited ethnography enables us ro rethink the relati,cnship among places, projects, and sources of knowledge (Des chene r997:g1). rt openi up spaces that may otherwise be invisible from the single site. Therefore, although multi-sited ethnography gives the researcher less time-and less depth of interpretation-at each specific site, the method may overall give a researcher on organizational strategy more depth of interpretation than one would otherwise have. Multi-sited ethn.graphy gives the researcher a deeper understanding of what strategy is 'fr<lm the'.ratiu.'s point of view,. Strategy awareness is part of the unspoken and the everyday all sites ".ro* .f an international organization like NMS. And some oi th. distinctive marks of ethnography are precisely to caprure the unspoken and the everyday, and to attempt to see these from people's own point of view. If the unspoken and everyday perception of strategy is examined from only one site, the examination will in some ways run the risk of remaining superfi, cial. Multi-sited ethnography brings out the shifting straregic seisibilities within an organization that always desires to do the imporribl.. This leads me to a concluding poinr concerning method. In my opin_ ion, when multi-sited ethnography is used in to 'follow an idea;, as I have done in NMS, it may be importanr not'rder ro emphasize the 'multi' of 'multi-sited ethnography'too much. Let me exprain. Elsewhere I argue that multi-sited ethnography is most amenable to ethnographic interpretations of flows of ideas when the connections between the rit.s .ro, as ".. are seen pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which fit neatly togerher, but rather viewed as aspects of an incomplete whole that the researcher gradually gains deeper-and more partial-insights int. (H.vland 2009). Here I wish to make the related point that if we see multi-sited ethnography simply as a 'Wbat Do Yow Call tbe Heatben These Days?' 105 collection of multiple sites (1 site + 1 site + 1 site = multi-sited ethnography), then it is easy to slip into a situation where we examine connections that we have constructed, but which are not important to the people we are studying, and which are not a part of their unspoken, everyday world. Multi-sited ethnography is not just something that helps us to add together perspectives from multiple sites, but instead it forces us to change perspective. Multi-sited ethnography is about the very question of what a 'site' is in ethnographic research. It does not just give us two or three categories to compare instead of one; it questions our ways of constructing categories in the first place. And in the case of organizational strategy, it gives us a better understanding of what strategy is 'from the native's point of view'-the natives in this case being the organizational policymakers and the staff who are expected to follow their strategic vision and policies. Therefore, if we shift the emphasis from'multi'to'sited'and see multi-sited ethnography as an examination of people's own site and system awareness, then we are closer to gaining a deeper ethnographic-and both rewarding and provocative-interpretation of flows within an organization, including organizational strategy. In the case of NMS, for example, this includes linking the perspective of some people in Norway (such as the delegates to the General Assembly) to the perspective of missionaries in Madagascar and juxtaposing this with the perspective of other people in Norway (such as the leadership at the head office). Just as people in NMS do not see the geographical site of Norway as a singular site, but as a site internally divided because of the relationship to another site, namely Madagascar, ethnographers need to be open to conceptualizing sites in different ways depending on the case in question. In this way multi-sited ethnography gives us a method that both makes us recognize our own site awareness and makes us more able to explore the site awareness of those we are writing about. NOTES An earlier version of the section on metaphors was published in 2001,.in Norwegian, in NorsA Tidsskrift for Misjon 55 (2):67-86. 1. Heathen is 'hedning' in Norwegian. REFERENCES MT refers ro Misjonstidende, NMS's magazine. Copies can (www.nms.no). be obtained from NMS Bevans, S. (1991) 'Seeing mission through images', Missiology 19 (1):45-57, Bosch, D. (799L) Transforming Mission: paradigm shifts in theology of mission, Maryknoll: Orbis. Des Chene, M. (1997) 'Locating the past', in A. Gupta and J. Ferguson (eds) Antbropological Locations: boundaries and grounds of a field science,Berkeley: University of California Press. 106 lngie Houland Hovland, I. (2001) 'Fra Jerusalem d.e. Stavanger: misjonssrraregi versus misjonsinf<rrmasjon i Misjotrstidende' IFrom Jerusalem i.e. Stavanger: mission strategv versus mission information in Misjortstidetrdel. NorskTidsskrift for Misjon 55 (2):67-86. (2008). 'Follow the missionarv: makir.rg sense of connected and disconnected flows of meaning in the Norwegian Mission Society', in Mark-Anthonv Falzon (ed) Multi-sited Etbttographl,t ih"r,r1', pruxis and locality itt cotfienp(;rary, social research, Aldershot: Ashgate. Kiing, H. (-l989) 'Paradigm change in theologv'. in H. Kiing and D. Tracv (eds) Paradignt Chartge irr Theologl', New York: Crossroads. Long, N. and Van der Ploeg,J. D. (1989) 'Demvthologizing planned inrervention: an actor perspective', Sociologia Ruralis 24 (314\:226-249. Nlarcus, G. (1995) 'Ethnographv in/of the world svstem: rhe emergence of multisited ethnography', Attttual Reuiew <tf Artthropology 24: 95-117. Mcrsse, D. (2005) Cwltiuatirtg Deuelopmettt: art etbnography of aid policl, and practice, London: Pluto Press. (2006) 'Anti-social anthropologr,': objectivitv, objection and the erhnographv of pubiic policy and professional communities', Journal of tbe Royal A tth rop ological Inst itute 12 (4):9 3 5 -9 5 6. Newbigin, L. (1978) The Opert Secret: sketches for a missiottary theology. Grand t Rapids: William B Eerdmans. NMS (2000) 'Visjonar og arbeidsmodeller i eit r.r.vtt hundre : sluttrapport for omstillingsutval II' [Visions and operati()nal nrodels in a new cenrurv: final report f()r strategic review group II], Sravanger: Norwegian Mission Societv (NMS). Repstad, P. (1974)'Norske misjonsbladers utviklingsfilosofi' [The development philosophv of Norwegian mission magazir"resl, NorsA Tldsskrift for Misjon 28 (1):1-16. Ricoeur, P. (1977) The Rule of Metaphor, London: Routledge. Roe, E. (1991) 'Development narratives, or making the best of blueprint development', World Deuelopmett 19 (4):287-300. Skeie, K. H. (2001) 'Beyond black and white: reinterprering "the Norwegian missionary image of the Malagasv"', in N4ai Palmberg (ed) Encounter lmages itt the Meetitrgs betweerr Europe and Africa, Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institure. Suzuki, N. (1998) lrslde NGOs: Iearrtittg to nd,tdge conllicts betweert headquarters artd field offices, London: Interrnediate Technologv Publications.