A Centre of Excellence in Applied Ethnographic Approaches: Centre For Sustainable Solutions (CSS)
A Centre of Excellence in Applied Ethnographic Approaches: Centre For Sustainable Solutions (CSS)
A Centre of Excellence in Applied Ethnographic Approaches: Centre For Sustainable Solutions (CSS)
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A centre of excellence in applied
ethnographic approaches
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OBJECTIVES
1. Demonstrate the immediate value of the humanities to business, government and
students
2. Build a crucial body of knowledge, namely that of carrying out human centred research
with a practical orientation towards sustainability, in a rapidly changing world.
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The rationale for building towards a Centre for Sustainable Solutions
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A Centre for Sustainable Solutions (CSS) would ultimately aim to combine rapid
ethnographic work with a design thinking approach to both business cases and policy, with
a Sustainability lens as its guiding principles.
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However it would start life as an academic position oriented to applied ethnographic
approaches drawn from the business and policy worlds, but rooted in a rigorous
anthropological tradition of understanding the theories, and diverse epistemologies and
ontologies, relevant to social and environmental change.
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Ethnography provides the simplifying power of understanding how people are actually able
to change their behaviour. Design provides the wherewithal to take these insights and
goals , and work through to practical solutions. So this initial focus on applied ethnographic
approaches could be combined with expertise on design thinking, as well as expertise on
sustainability and environmental Anthropology, to build a centre of excellence for problem-
solving research.
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Given the strategic trend of a rapidly changing environment, and rapidly changing economy,
driving rapid social change, particularly in South Asia, such a centre is likely to find enduring
relevance in the decades ahead.
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Overview of Outputs
The operational idea is to use rapid ethnographic research techniques and design thinking
to arrive at solutions to pressing business and social problems within a reasonable time-
scale, but leveraging the expertise of the University.
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At the same time, these rapid ethnographic and design engagements will yield new insights
into contemporary social and business problems that will provide a platform for
original writing and publishing within academia and also within business and policy
publications. The originality would come from bridging ethnographic approaches with
CENTER FOR SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS
pressing social concerns, in timescales that allow interventions to flow from this. In this
manner the unit would be able to straddle the worlds of business, academia and policy, and
provide key innovative inputs into public policy discussions.
Very much in demand from the business community, Applied Ethnography is an approach
that will demonstrate the relevance of the humanities to the highly aspirational segments
that make up the student bodies of private universities in India. Training people in these
disciplines is also likely to facilitate partnerships with the private sector.
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What is more, collaboration on real world solutions, particularly to questions such as social
business approaches, design for sustainability, and in particular in a South Asian setting will
be perceived as ripe for collaborative research projects with a range of institutions in the UK,
Europe and America. For instance UK academic institutions are often encouraged by
funding bodies to seek research partnerships with Universities overseas, particularly those
with a strong practical or fieldwork focus.
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Example Course Concept: Theory and methods in Applied
Anthropology
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The idea of this course is to teach applied ethnographic approaches against an unpacking
of various theories of objects. The motivation for this approach is that it allows a reconciling
of natural scientific and anthropological approaches through a careful analysis of how
objects of study are framed and understood, and the ontological implications of this (in
terms of what effectively are various visions of the world at large, or nature).
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This is a pre-requisite to being able to synthesise the many existing, design and technical
problem solving approaches (which are most often grounded in the philosophy of the
natural sciences) with ethnographic approaches that will allow the elucidation of the social
contexts that also drive solutions.
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1) Theories of and Approaches to Objects of Enquiry
Participant Observation
- Structured and Un-structured approaches - various modes of guiding discussion
- Participation vs observation, from Ethnomethodology to Fly on the Wall approaches
Interviewing Techniques - Experts, Depth Interviews, Dyads and Small Group Interviews
Using Focus Groups in Ethnographic Work
Multi-Sited Ethnographies - Ways to trace connections
Media Ethnography 1) Decoding Media
Media Ethnography 2) Using Media in Research
Digital Ethnography - Approaches and techniques for researching Social Media and other
online sites ethnographically
Evaluation Research and Ethnography
Design Research and Ethnography
Marketing and Ethnography
Policy Research and Ethnography