Transcript Our Work is Guided by the Following

Media Research
in Applied Anthropology
Society for
Applied Anthropology
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Session Format
• Introduction to session: Media
Research in Applied Anthropology
• Presentations:
– Amy Goldmacher, Wayne State
– Diane Pawlowski, Wayne State
• Themes:
– Methods to consider and use from
Anthropology
– Methods to consider and use from
other disciplines
• Roundtable discussion
Virtually an Anthropologist:
Negotiating Distributed Work
by
Amy Goldmacher,
PhD Candidate
Wayne State University
Department of Anthropology
Virtually An Anthropologist
• How to conduct research
project on distributed work?
• How to conduct a remote
project remotely?
• How to research technology
use in remote settings?
• What other methods should
be considered?
The Role of Culture in Managing
Change in a Global Auto. Co.
• Design a project using
anthropological theory and
methods
• Cultural ecology (Steward 1955):
differences in work groups
created and maintained by
complex relationships among
diverse populations (Baba 1995)
• Change directed from the top
down assumes organizational
similarity
Design and Methods
• Global Automotive (GA) undergoing
several concurrent significant changes
– Regional reorganization
– Info. Tech. Svcs. (ITS) separation
• Change Management (CM) team (part
of ITS)
– 8 members
• Participant observation (n=7) and
informal interviews (n=3)
– Work group interdependencies
– Organizational cultural beliefs or values
– How culture enables or inhibits change
Findings
• Interdependence of individuals, work
groups, and work processes:
– Coordination is important for connecting
parts of org. system
– One part of system cannot be changed
without affecting rest of the system
• Cultural beliefs and values:
– Conflicting models mean no shared
understanding about org. values across
groups
– Differences in beliefs constrain
implementation of change
– Supporting implementation of change will
be unique to discrete groups because
each work group and local work context
is different
Levels of Culture
National
Organizational
Occupational
Limitations of the Study
• Not embedded in research context
• Project constrained by pace and
content of academic course
• Conflicting demands of CM team’s
goals, methods, time, and budget
• Small sample size of study
population
• Additional methods and analytical
techniques would complement
anthropological approach (and be
more obvious to client)
Virtually an Anthropologist
• Listserv: Anthrodesign
• “Members share common
interest of applying
ethnographic techniques and
social sciences theory to
industrial, software, and other
types of product design”
• Discussion on “remote
methods”
“Remote” Methods
•
•
•
•
Digital photos
Remote screen sharing
Online usage diaries
“Casting participants as storytellers of their
own narrative” - e.g., the $17 haircut
• “in the process of moving from a work
around to a distinct research medium with
its own conventions, strengths,
weaknesses, and methods”
• How you do it (method) vs. when and why
you do it (theory)
• “the more technological fields (HCI,
product design) seem to be exploring
remote or technologically-mediated
methods”
“The Virtual Ethnographer”
•
Ruhleder (2000)’s description of two
studies of technology-mediated work:
1. New work practices around shared online
databases and video teleconferencing
•
•
Ethnographers needed to develop
technical competence in database
Videotaping of videoconferences at
multiple sites to capture multi-sited event
2. Virtual classroom
•
•
•
•
Participating in virtual forums
Analyzing text archives
“Dull” videos, but useful when participants
“think aloud”
Call for “strong practice around virtual
ethnography”
Ethnographers on the Run:
Working
with the
Working Press?
by
Diane R. Pawlowski, PhD
Wayne State University
Department of Anthropology
Why the interdisciplinary ill-will?
Why don’t reporters quote more anthropologists?
Why don’t they see anthropologists as “experts”?
Why aren’t anthropologists recognized for our important
research and knowledge?
What can we teach, learn from each other?
Need to finally recognize similar methods
Both try giving voice to the voiceless
When Anthropology fails to communicate…
• Anthropology’s voice: muffled ?
•
Informants’ voices: stilled & lost
Provocative Anthropology-Journalism Parallels
•
Both writing disciplines
•
Journalists write to pay the rent
•
Anthropologists write to pay academic dues
•
Is this difference why we cloak our findings, almost hiding them
from the general public?
•
Do we fear only unlucky students, reviewers and editors ever
read what we write?
Anthropology’s hidden role teaching journalists
After Introductory, Cultural Anthropology courses:
•
Reporters: cultural trend spotters
•
Feature writers: find, test, document new words
•
Once written, new language enters the lexicon
•
Their villages: our cities, businesses, etc
•
Reporters: ethnographers on the run
Finding new keys to open anthropological writing
•
Nurture relationships with journalists
•
Initiate joint collaborative projects
•
Reporting: “history on the run”? No way!
…it’s ethnography on the run
A brief self-examination of anthropological conscience
•
Interviewing make interviewers uncomfortable
•
No, they’re not doing it our way…but could we learn to
be better ethnographers from reporters?
•
Working press & Working anthropologists share worlds
of editors, deadlines
•
No, we are not “consummate experts!”
Anthropology does NOT have all the answers, but we
can help reporters find good solutions
Lessons anthropologists need to learn
•
Reporters work on deadline:
they love scientists who will help them
•
Anthropologists refusing access cause harm
to cities, to individuals, to our discipline
•
Collaboration and trusting relationships help
both disciplines build a better world
Open Discussion
• Questions?
• Methods of data collection and
analysis to consider and use
– “experimental” or “remote”
methods?
– when and why?
• Other disciplines’ methods?
• “Global insecurities, global solutions,
and applied anthropology in the 21st
century”?