Bridging Ethnography and Path‐finding Business Opportunities

Anderson, Ken; Levin, Peter; Barnett, B. C.; Bezaitis, Maria

doi:10.1111/1559-8918.2015.01055

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Furthermore, I shared theoretical concepts picked up at academic conferences, etc., with my manager/supervisor. One such example is “path-finding” (Anderson et al , 2015) which I introduced after having learned about it at the American Anthropological Association’s Annual Meeting in late 2018. Not long hereafter, he implemented it as part of our department’s strategic work with digital technologies.…”

Section: Testing Relevance and Applicability – And Responding Through “Collaboration”mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing relevance and applicability: reflections on organizational anthropology

Karsten

2020

JOE

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Purpose Starting from the challenges and implications of doing organizational ethnography within the organization which the researcher is also employed by, the purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the idea of “passing the test” in relation to such ethnographic endeavor. The paper discusses how “collaboration” on projects and in product development processes with colleagues/informants is a precondition for passing “tests,” which unfolded as subtle, verbalized demands made by colleagues/informants during fieldwork. Design/methodology/approach Longitudinal anthropological fieldwork was carried out as part of an industrial PhD project, which investigates digitization as organizational, professional and social practices in the Danish construction industry. The fieldwork lasted on/off from April 2017 to December 2018. Various forms of participant observation and collaborative ethnographic methods were used during fieldwork. Findings The paper investigates how these “tests” focused on two key aspects: the relevance of anthropology in a profit-oriented, technical corporate organization; and the application of anthropological theories and ethnographic methodologies for the benefit of product development, usability studies and organizational change. It is argued that the tests were passed through collaborative engagements, where the author oscillated between positions as collegial insider and outside researcher for the dual benefit of both commercial interests and research interests. Originality/value The paper suggests that daring to collaborate and co-create products (as something different than texts) during organizational fieldwork for the benefit of both corporate and ethnographic interests offers strong possibilities for keeping ethnography relevant and applicable, passing tests in organizational settings and advancing ethnography’s impact in the world.

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Section: Testing Relevance and Applicability – And Responding Through “Collaboration”mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many organizational or corporate settings, ethnographers are expected to contribute actively and sprinkle “ethnographic pixie dust” over flawed products, processes or organizational practices (Anderson et al , 2015). My fieldwork was no exception.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing relevance and applicability: reflections on organizational anthropology

Karsten

2020

JOE

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“…Whist MET has provided the theoretical basis for this method, dscout has provided the technological support to the in-situ diary method. One advantage of in-situ diary methods is the ability to capture an evocative set of data, which includes visual evidence such as photographs and videos (Anderson, Levin, Barnett & Bezaitis, 2015). The use of visual evidence and video has meshed well with our intention to explore the meanings gathered through interactions with objects.…”

Section: Reflections On Object Agency and The Position Of The Consumementioning

confidence: 99%

The Object of Research: Considering Material Engagement Theory and Ethnographic Method

Bean

Figueiredo

Larsen

2017

Ethnographic Praxis

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“…with my manager/supervisor. One such example is 'path-finding' (Anderson et al, 2015) which I introduced after having learned about it at the American Anthropological Association's Annual Meeting in late 2018. Not long hereafter, he implemented it as part of our department's strategic work with digital technologies.…”

Section: Collaboration As Response To the 'Tests'mentioning

confidence: 99%

DISLOCATING PROMISES: How Digitization Organizes and How Organizations Digitize in Fire Safety

Karsten¹

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The aim of this thesis is to produce new anthropological knowledge on the digitization of complex knowledge areas – in this case fire safety in the Danish architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. As the thesis reflects an industrial Ph.D.-process, the aims and success criteria have been both academic as well as commercial and overlap in this thesis. With a vantage point in organizational anthropology, the project has taken great interest in investigating how digitization may be conceptualized as a social, professional and organizational practice, and how digitization and organization of knowledge and expertise crisscross, merge and mutually affect each other. Based on these anthropological interests, the thesis further investigates how the digitization of knowledge and expertise in complex areas such as fire safety is carried out, and how risk assessments may be digitized in a way so that the users of the digital tools have confidence in both fire safety professionals and the digital tools. The majority of anthropological research on digitization in or across organizations focuses on how users of the digital tools appropriate, shape and use these tools. In short, these analyses most often focus on everyday use, on implementation, and the impact of such implementation for the end-users of these tools. Conversely, there is little anthropological research on the preceding development of these tools, let alone about how professionals yield a piece of their knowledge and expertise to a digital program, which they themselves help develop. There are some studies of given groups of professionals who develop digital tools, but rarely of the encompassing organization that orchestrate the digitization process. This dissertation unfolds here – in the nexus between digitization and organization – and seeks to illuminate how digitization organize expertise, and how organizations organize such expertise and shape digitization accordingly. Thus, the thesis delves into what constitutes professional expertise in complex, knowledge-intensive, powerful and politically shaped professional fields like fire safety. Fire safety expertise is juxtaposed with the agendas of digitization, and this produces a nexus between digitizing and organizing which points towards various challenges and concerns. I suggest that these issues form the basis for why digitization in the architecture, engineering and construction is experienced as slack, difficult and problematic. This thesis not only presents an anthropological analysis of digitization in an organizational context, but it is also a testimony to the professional learning process that junior anthropologists and researchers undergo. The issues presented in this thesis are discussed against a backdrop of methodological and ethical circumstances and conditions prevailing during fieldwork. As an industrial PhD-fellow, I was employed by Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology (DBI) to study internal relations and settings in the organization as well as external relations with clients. In the process, it transpired that my access and participation in the processes and projects I was employed to understand was predetermined by a collaborative engagement as a colleague rather than a researcher. Thus, the methodological and ethical circumstances of the fieldwork constitute a substantial part of this thesis. The thesis ends with six concrete recommendations directed to DBI, as well as other organizations facing digitization of expertise and knowledge among their employees. The recommendations include suggestions for how transdisciplinary collaborations during digitization can be built; suggestions for how organizations can initiate internal discussions about which kind of digitization process they want to help avoid challenges later on; and an invitation to top management to hold self-critical conversations and discussions about the intentions behind digitization and who it benefits.

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Bridging Ethnography and Path‐finding Business Opportunities

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Testing relevance and applicability: reflections on organizational anthropology

Testing relevance and applicability: reflections on organizational anthropology

The Object of Research: Considering Material Engagement Theory and Ethnographic Method

DISLOCATING PROMISES: How Digitization Organizes and How Organizations Digitize in Fire Safety

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