The blog will consist of Joris' anthropological observations and musings on the City. He will be interviewing those that work there, examine their behaviourial patterns and challenging the conceptions they have of themselves. Joris' blog will take readers on a journey of discovery in the square mile, encouraging all to contribute their opinions along the way.
Joris Luyendijk, who pioneered a new approach to journalism in 2009 with his column about electric cars for Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, said: "The Guardian is experimenting with the ways it delivers online content and I am looking forward to working with them to create this new blog about London's financial heartland. I am going to discover the City and its people as if I were an anthropologist going off to do field work amongst a tribe. I hope to demystify it and trigger a conversation with readers about how the City operates, the people that work there and their behaviourial patterns."
Commenting on Joris' appointment, Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of GNM, said: "Joris is a pioneer in the way he has used digital media to write an entirely different kind of column. He will approach the City as he did the Middle East or the future of the electric car, as an anthropologist. His column will build over time and harness the expertise and knowledge of others. I'm sure it will be much talked-about and read."
Joris Luyendijk was born in Amsterdam on December 30th 1971. He studied Arabic and social sciences in Amsterdam, Egypt and the US. Between 1998 and 2003 he worked as Middle East correspondent in Cairo, Beirut and finally East-Jerusalem. In 2006 he published an account of those years, which became a bestseller in the Netherlands. It has now appeared in a dozen countries, including the UK with the title as 'Hello Everybody'. It was recently awarded the prestigious Prix 2010 Assises Internationales du Journalisme et del'Information, the first time this award went to a non-French journalist.
