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Challenges of Providing Anthropological Expertise: On the conflict in Sudan

Published on October 26, 2004 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, politics

Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Anthropology News, AAA

What is an anthropologist-expert to do in this highly charged international political situation where an anthropologist’s understanding of realities conflicts with the major media and political analysis of events?

A Darfur Task Force was initiated by UCLA anthropologist Sondra Hale at this year’s Sudan Studies Association annual meeting. This task force has drafted resolutions calling for consideration of the complexities and advocating an African solution lead by the African Union. >> continue

Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Anthropology News, AAA

A Darfur Task Force was initiated by UCLA…

Coming Back Around to Culture – an anthropologist’s thoughts about Technology

Published on October 25, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, culture traditions, design anthropology, technology

TechnoTaste

I have come back around finally to the reason I came to School of Information Management Systems in the first place: a belief that the tools and perspectives of anthropology are useful and needed.

In the face of all the new technologies and applications today it’s easy to forget that behavior drives technology. If culture drives behavior, at least to some degree, then it ought to be essential, not only to the way we understand the uses and contexts of technology, but to its design.

It’s not useful to take for granted that there is something fundamentally new about the informational, technical world in which we live. I have a sneaking suspicion that a great deal more is the same than is different. Culture is too important – too pervasive and immutable – to respond on a whim to the development of new technologies, even if they fundamentally change the way we live. >> continue

TechnoTaste

I have come back around finally to the reason I came to School of Information Management Systems in the first place: a belief that the tools and perspectives of anthropology are useful and needed.

In the face of all the new…

New book: Anthropologist roams the corridors and meeting rooms of the BBC

Published on October 4, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, books, corporate & business anthropology, fieldwork / methods

The Guardian

What happens when you let a sharp-eyed anthropologist roam the corridors and meeting rooms of the British Broadcasting Corporation for several years? You get this, a fascinating patchwork of interviews, testimonials, diary entries and analysis that offers distressing evidence – if any still were needed – of the ideological vandalism committed by John Birt in the name of efficiency. >> continue

SEE ALSO
More info on the book “Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the reinvention of the BBC”Research project: The Future of Public Service Broadcasting (Cambridge University)

The Guardian

Design Anthropology: Software development by participatory observation

Published on October 4, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, fieldwork / methods, technology, websites

Anne Lau Revil’s homepage

Software design is usually undertaken by IT specialists, who have a technical training. Few have a sociocultural background. In this paper I will show several examples of software design as sociocultural adjustments, and more specifically how anthropologists may contribute.

Finally, I will discuss how the value of the anthropological contribution to the development of software systems may be improved through the development of more flexible methods of communicating the research to both the academic world and the user community. >> continue (pdf, 14 pages) or go to Anne Lau Revil’s homepageJoel Spolsky: Over the next decade, I expect that software companies will hire people trained as anthropologists and ethnographers to work on social interface design (found via Conversations with Dina – Dina Mehta’s Blog)

UPDATE Links updated with copy from the Internet Archive. The website was removed.

Anne Lau Revil's homepage

“Netnography,” – faster and cheaper ethnography on the Internet

Published on September 15, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, technology

Karen Lee, University of Texas at Austin

“Netnography,” coined from ‘ethnography on the Internet,’ is an emerging qualitative research methodology adapting ethnographic research techniques to the study of cultures and communities constructed through the Internet. It uses information that is publicly available in online forums to identify and understand the needs and decision influences of relevant online consumer groups. Compared with traditional and market-oriented ethnography, netnography is far less time consuming and elaborate >> continue

Karen Lee, University of Texas at Austin

"Netnography," coined from 'ethnography on the Internet,' is an emerging qualitative research methodology adapting ethnographic research techniques to the study of cultures and communities constructed through the Internet. It uses information that is publicly…