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Cultural Backstreet Tours: Explore your town with anthropologists!

Published on October 30, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, development empowerment, Northern America, websites

An extinct fishing village, the Polish flats, German Heritage, the Homeless of Southeastern Winsconsin, and the African American neighborhood of Bronzeville: Anthropologists offer Cultural backstreet tours! (source).

These tours are arranged by Urban Anthropology Inc. (UrbAn), an American non-profit organization, “a community based membership association dedicated to the celebration of cultural diversity and a holistic approach to urban problem-solving”. Their website provides lots of information incl presentation of the tour guides and their study on homeless people

These tours are arranged by Urban Anthropology Inc. (UrbAn), an American non-profit organization,…

Collaborative Ethnography: Luke Eric Lassiter Receives Margaret Mead Anthropology Award

Published on October 29, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, development empowerment, fieldwork / methods, persons and theories

Anthropology professor Luke Eric Lassiter has received the 2005 Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology. The Margaret Mead Award celebrates the tradition of bringing anthropology to bear on wider social and cultural issues. Lassiter received the award in part for his book, The Other Side of Middletown: Exploring Muncie’s African American Community as well as for his explorations of race relations and collaborative, community-based research and writing, according to Huntington News.

On his website, Lassiter explains the concept of Collaborative Ethnography. In his opinion, Collaboratice Ethnography is “among the most powerful ways to advance a more relevant and public scholarship”. Collaborative Ethnography, he explains,

(…) seeks to make collaboration an explicit and deliberate part of not only fieldwork but also part of the writing process itself. Community collaborators thus become a central part of the construction of ethnographic texts — which shifts their role from “informants” (who merely inform the knowledge on which ethnographies are based) to “consultants” (who co-interpret culture and its representation along with the ethnographer).

(…)

Such an approach also shifts the role of ethnographers: they are no longer the sole authorities on culture, but facilitators who use their skills to address community-centered questions and issues.

Lessiter has published extensively on this subject. Five articles on collaborative ethnography and public anthropology are available as pdf-documents on his website.

INTEL-ethnographers challenge our assumptions of the digital divide

Published on October 27, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, corporate & business anthropology, development empowerment, internet, Latin- and Central America, technology

(via Bits and Bytes Interesting story by INTEL-etnographers Tony Salvador and John Sherry (one of them – Sherry – is actually an anthropologist!) on their work in India, Peru and Hungary. They summarize some of their findings after four years circling the world to find out how computers are being used by typical people in different cultures.

One of their main points:

The split between those with and those without access to digital technologies is referred to as the digital divide. But that phrase hides the complexity of the problem, because it focuses on the “having” and the “not having” of technology. Instead, what really matters is the ability to benefit from technology, whether or not that technology is personally owned.

They go on with various examples, among others they show how even the computer illiterate reap the advantages of the Web, made possible by public Internet facilities. The ethnographers remind us of that only about 10 percent of the people on the planet are familiar with the Internet and what it can do.

>> read the whole story in Spectrum Online

UPDATE Kerim Friedman comments:

I believe we can better understand the impact of new communications technologies if we emphasize the similarities, rather than just the differences, with older technologies.

>> read his post on Savage Minds

SEE ALSO

Internet and development in India

“How Media and Digital Technology Empower Indigenous Survival

Intel is using locally hired anthropologists in new development centers

More and more blogging anthropologists – but the digital divide persists

(via Bits and Bytes Interesting story by INTEL-etnographers Tony Salvador and John Sherry (one of them - Sherry - is actually an anthropologist!) on their work in India, Peru and Hungary. They summarize some of their findings after four years…

Ethnographic research on Friendster’s online communities

Published on October 26, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, journal articles / papers, Us and Them

In her most recent post, Danah Boyd gives us a round-up of her publications on Friendster, a popular social networking service where she has conducted ethnographic research. Among others, she studied how people publicly perform their social relations online. Most of her papers are available as pdf-documents >> read Danah Boyd’s round-up

Fired from Yale, anarchist professor points to politics

Published on October 23, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, politics, University / Academia

Well written story in Newsday on anarchist anthropology professor David Graeber who was fired from Yale. He’s described as “one of the brightest minds in his field”, but with his job prospects uncertain, Graeber didn’t renew a lease on his apartment, and splits his time between his New York co-op where he grew u and apartments in New Haven where friends let him sleep. >> read the whole story

UPDATE (8.12.05): Graeber drops appeal, leaves Yale this spring

Solidarity with David Graeber – Webpage

In wake of Graeber uproar, up to six anthropology professors may go

Review of Graeber’s book: Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology / download the whole book

Well written story in Newsday on anarchist anthropology professor David Graeber who was fired from Yale. He's described as "one of the brightest minds in his field", but with his job prospects uncertain, Graeber didn't renew a lease on his…