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anthropology in the news

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

Published on 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

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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

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…

Read more

Design Anthropology: Software development by participatory observation

Published on 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

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…

Read more

An Ethnographic Study on Online Communities in Saudi Arabia

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, journal articles / papers, Middle East

Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS)

The aim of this article is to discuss the lessons learned from conducting semi-structured interviews online in an ethnographic study that took place in Saudi Arabia during the period 2001-2002.

The purpose of the study was to explore individuals’ participation in online communities in Saudi Arabia and also understand how online communities in Saudi Arabia are affecting participants’ offline culture. Semi-structured online interviews were used to report the perceptions of 15 participants (8 females, 7 males) about their online community experience in Saudi Arabia. >> continue

PS: This article is part of the 16th Issue of the open-access journal “Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research” (FQS) that now is available online.

Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS)

The aim of this article is to discuss the lessons learned from conducting semi-structured interviews online in an ethnographic study that took place in Saudi Arabia during the period 2001-2002.

The purpose of the study was to…

Read more

For Turks, Germany is home – Turkey’s EU membership, assimilation and identity

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Europe, migration, Us and Them

International Herald Tribune

On Wednesday, European commissioners in Brussels are likely to give their approval for Turkey, which has been a member of NATO since 1952, to begin talks to join the European Union.

Yet in the crucible of the Ruhrgebiet, the industrial region around Essen, East has lived with West for 50 years. It is here that answers can be found about whether an earlier wave of Turkish migrants has integrated successfully and what it means today to be European. >> continue

International Herald Tribune

On Wednesday, European commissioners in Brussels are likely to give their approval for Turkey, which has been a member of NATO since 1952, to begin talks to join the European Union.

Yet in the crucible of the Ruhrgebiet, the…

Read more