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Thesis: Conservation for Whom? Telling Good Lies in the Development of Central Kalahari

Published on November 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, development empowerment, ecology nature, journal articles / papers, San-bushmen, tourism

Anna Stadler from Linköping University, Department of Anthropology (Sweden) has conducted a study of the relocation of the G//ana and G/wi San from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. Her essay discusses how conservation policies, development programs and eco-tourism projects have been implemented in the Central Kalahari, and the consequences these policies have had for the people who first inhabited of the area. Excerpts from the conclusion:

The Botswana government has encouraged the local inhabitants of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to resettle, as the San has been accused of poaching, and it is claimed that the tourists who come to Central Kalahari wish to see unspoiled wilderness. (…) As the San are being removed from the reserve, and more tourists are brought in, the area’s attraction as a reserve seems to have only to do with its value as a resource for tourism.

(…)

Prejudice, discrimination and racism still stand in the way for development in Botswana. In the space of a few years, Botswana has been transformed into one of Africa’s richest countries, with an economic growth that has prompted a massive social change. In wealthy Botswana, hunting and gathering are clear indicators of poverty. The solution to this poverty is believed to be assimilation into the dominant Botswana society.

Having the apartheid regime of neighbouring South Africa in thought, at independence the Botswana regime decided to ignore any cultural differences among its people. Black or white, cattle-owner or huntergatherer, everybody was to be treated as if they were the same. Consequently, poverty, not discrimination, was seen to be the main problem of the San. The relocation-program has thus a lot to do with the governments attempt to assimilate a people they regard as being “backward”.

>> read the whole thesis

Ethnography for Marketers: “A pretty tragic book”

Published on November 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, corporate & business anthropology

Ethnography is a buzz-word in the marketing industry. But do anthropologists and markerters have the same understanding of what it means to be a good ethnographer? Maybe not according a new book that anthropologist Simon Roberts from Ideas Bazaar reviewed: Ethnography for Marketers by Hy Mariampolski. A quite tragic book, he writes, as it focuses too much on the practical, on how an ethnography project is set up:

To focus so strongly on the fieldwork seems to me to reveal the dynamics of the market research industry itself: namely ‘fetishise’ the method, commodify it and then sell it by the unit. Ethnography offers the opportunity to sell thinking not research, but this book offers little in the way of insight into how to think ethnographically.

(…)

This focus on the practical and logistical is understandable but it betrays a common confusion as to what ethnography is, its roots and how this informs what we do as researchers and what we give our clients. Mariampolski seems to be writing about one aspect of ethnography, the act of doing fieldwork, focusing almost exclusively on being in the field. Ethnography, however, is as much about interpretation, the post-fieldwork-fieldwork, as it is conducting participant observation.

>> read the whole review

New issue of Durham Anthropology Journal online

Published on November 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Europe, fieldwork / methods, journal articles / papers

Recently, the summer issue of Durham Anthropology Journal was published online. Here some articles:

Edward Croft (Aberdeen University):
Dutton Higher Status Behaviour and Status Ambiguity: A Discussion of Exaggerated Higher Status Identity at Oxford University

Croft did fieldwork at Oxford University focussing on the university’s largest evangelical group: the Christian Union:

Using Eidheim’s research into the Lapps of Northern Norway as a further example, the article will further argue that when a group is ambiguous about its status it will react by projecting an exaggerated version of the apparently higher status. The article will note, in this regard, that the experience of Oxford University is highly ‘liminal’ and ambiguous with regard to whether a student is a child or adult. Following this, it will be demonstrated that an exaggerated adult identity is found to a great extent amongst students at Oxford University.

>> read the whole article

Sue Cooper (University of Durham):
A Rite of Involvement?: Men’s transition to fatherhood

Men are striving to be involved with the process of pregnancy and childbirth and society – an ethnography amomg young fathers in times of social change:

The aim was to identify core values and beliefs regarding fatherhood that are being transmitted through some of the rituals that men participate in before and during pregnancy, labour and birth. Qualitative data was obtained from interviews with fathers-to-be throughout their partners’ pregnancy and after the birth of their child.

>> read the whole paper

Oranutt Narapruet (University of Durham):
Freedom from the Cage: A Second Chance for Mental Health Care in the Czech Republic?

On field research in the changing mental health care system in the Czech Republic:

Whenever I think of the Czech Republic, I always imagine how beautiful it is, but I guess we don’t see what really goes on behind that whole façade’. The question of `why?’ is a good one. Why had the government banned the use of `cage beds’ in its mental institutions? Why were `cage beds’ even allowed to exist in the first place? What were the real reasons behind the use of `cage beds’? What do mental health professionals and the wider public truly think, and hope for, now that the ban has been established? And, more importantly, what does the future hold for the Czech psychiatric system, its staff, the community, and the patients themselves?

>> read the whole paper

>> Overview over Durham Anthropology Journal
Volume 13(2)

Recently, the summer issue of Durham Anthropology Journal was published online. Here some articles:

Edward Croft (Aberdeen University):
Dutton Higher Status Behaviour and Status Ambiguity: A Discussion of Exaggerated Higher Status Identity at Oxford University

Croft did fieldwork at Oxford University focussing…

Kulturwandel: Sind Initiativbewerbungen out?

Published on November 19, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Arbeit(sleben), Deutschland, Oesterreich, Schweiz, Ethnologie Sozialanthropologie Kulturanthropologie, Webseiten

Frueher wurde uns geraten, Initiative zu zeigen, nicht auf Stellenausschreibungen zu warten, sondern im voraus mit aktuellen Firmen Kontakt aufzunehmen. Ist dem nicht mehr so?

Die Massenarbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland scheint die Bewerbungskultur zu veraendern. Mir sind mehrere Geschichten zu Ohren gekommen, in denen Versender von Initiativbewerbungen unfreundliche Antworten bekommen haben. Die Stadt Ulm z.B. soll sehr unhoeflich geantwortet haben. Man solle es unterlassen, sich blind zu bewerben und darauf warten, dass Stellen ausgeschrieben werden (mundliche Kommunikation).

Gleichzeitig entstehen neue Traditionen: “Skurrile Angebote wie die Absageagentur im Internet (von Ethnologen gegruendet) liegen im Trend”, schrieb kuerzlch der VDI (Verein deutscher Ingenieure). Im Artikel wird u.a. die Seite www.jubdumping.de erwaehnt, wo Arbeitskraft zu ver- und ersteigern ist. Auf suchbrett.de und www.einfach-leben.de/ werden Graphikdesign und Entwicklungshilfe in Afrika verscherbelt, erfahren wir.

>> zum Artikel: Skurrile Angebote wie die Absageagentur im Internet liegen im Trend

Wie bereits gemeldet, haben Arbeitslose Akademiker sich selbst auf einer Messe ausgestellt.

Frueher wurde uns geraten, Initiative zu zeigen, nicht auf Stellenausschreibungen zu warten, sondern im voraus mit aktuellen Firmen Kontakt aufzunehmen. Ist dem nicht mehr so?

Die Massenarbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland scheint die Bewerbungskultur zu veraendern. Mir sind mehrere Geschichten zu Ohren…

INTEL and Microsoft conference "a coming-out party" for ethnography

Published on November 17, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, technology

(LINKS UPDATED 5.2.2021) It’s no longer news that high-tech companies are employing ethnographers and anthropologists. The first-ever Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC), organized by ethnographers at Intel and Microsoft was held at Microsoft’s campus on November 14-15, as TechnologyReview reports:

One talk examined an ongoing effort by ethnographers to root out organizational problems slowing down a software company’s development process. Another examined how bi-lingual, multinational teams could be formed more effectively, while yet another examined how technology affects, and is affected by, the trend toward “great rooms” in private U.S. homes. (…) It was an ethnographer who figured out that Japanese people don’t use instant messaging on their PCs, because interruptions are considered impolite.

The conference was “a coming-out party” for ethnography, said Marietta L. Baba, an ethnographer at Michigan State University.

>> read the whole story

Dina Mehta has blogged extensively about the conference. Read her summaries and thoughts here.

All conference papers are available online! (pdf)

(LINKS UPDATED 5.2.2021) It's no longer news that high-tech companies are employing ethnographers and anthropologists. The first-ever Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC), organized by ethnographers at Intel and Microsoft was held at Microsoft's campus on November 14-15, as TechnologyReview…