Science, Technology and Society Revisited: What is Happening to Anthropology and Ethnography?

Marietta Baba

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY REVISITED:

What’s Happening to Anthropology and Ethnography

Marietta L. Baba

19th Century Anthropology

Anthropology was a 19th century project focused on human and cultural evolution

Anthropological texts and ethnographic practices were distinct

Anthropologists drew upon the ethnographic writings of other professionals

Ethnographic Tradition in Anthropology:Bronislaw Malinowski Long term observation and

participation in the field Detailed recording and

description of micro-processes of everyday life

Interpretation of the point of view of people being observed

Production of a monograph offering a holistic account of their practices

The Rise of Academic Anthropology:1920-1960 Ethnography became part of

anthropology as positivist social science grew in academia

Anthropology arose as a unified intellectual endeavor that combined empiricism and theory

Scientific legitimacy of anthropology validated British claims of economic development in its African colonies

American Anthropology

“Four fields” united by question: What is the nature of humanity?

The “most scientific of the humanities and most humanistic of the sciences”

Materialist vs. mentalist theories diverge (1960s)

Interpretive Theory of Culture:1960-1990

Metaphor of culture as text – Clifford Geertz

Culture could be “read” for meaning by the observer

The observed also interprets the culture

The anthropologist works from interpretations of the observers

Led to critical reflections on ethnographic practices

Postmodernism

A set of critical and rhetorical practices that tend to destabilize epistemological certainty

Called into question some of anthropology’s most fundamental conceptual architectures

Loosened the bonds entwining anthropology and ethnography

Colonial Critique

Anthropology does not acknowledge the history of global inequality that has produced the subject of ethnography

Anthropology distances itself from history by “essentializing” selected traits of observer and observed

Crisis of Representation

Ethnography embeds a dyadic relationship with a less powerful person who is a co-producer of knowledge but receives no recognition or voice

Ethnography also embeds an unacknowledged relationship with a reader

On what grounds does the anthropologist assume authority for representing the Other?

Crisis of Representation

The most public form of such criticism was Derek Freeman’s re-study of Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa

Freeman charged Mead with misrepresenting Samoan society based on her youth, lack of access to key members, and romanticizing naiveté

Devastating criticism for anthropologists at the time

Ontological Status of Culture

An “essentialized” unchanging and integral set of traits ascribed to the subject became suspect

Anthropologists were caught in a dilemma of “salvaging” such traits in societies that their own countries might be trying to “develop”

Anthropologists could no longer represent “cultures” as pristine isolates with integrated features in an equilibrium state

Anthropology as Cultural Critique

Anthropology had lost its raison d'être

Public no longer fascinated with exotic cultures and weren’t sure they mattered

A new vision for anthropology:

Cultural critique -- social criticism of the contemporary with a cross-cultural twist

Anthropology as Cultural Critique

Two potential pathways to cultural critique:

1) de-familiarization by epistemological critique

2) de-familiarization by cross-cultural juxtaposition

Unfortunately, no one had as yet accomplished either of these feats

Enter Foucault

Foucault introduced to American anthropology by Paul Rabinow

Foucault’s method of analysis and language have been widely adopted

Responds to Marcus and Fischer

The Foucault Phenomenon

Foucault’s brand of “problematization”

Second order observation

Analytics elevated over theory

Flexible and contingent methods

Foucault’s Language and Vision

Biopower Power/knowledge Governmentality A post-theoretical

vision of social science

Boutique-like exposition and critique of singularities

Anthropology and Ethnography:Quo Vadis? Ethnographically-

informed design Techno-ethnography

in corporate branding Data analytics or

(“Big Data”) Ethnography Anthropology

Diaspora and the Institutional Anthropologies Laura Nader:

“Study Up” Diaspora and the

“Institutional Anthropologies”

Anthropology at Xerox PARC

Work Practice and Technology Group

Ethnographic Practice and Participatory Design Participatory design

practices at PARC gained through collaboration with Scandinavians

Collaboration with civil engineers on site developed prototypes through cooperative design-in-use

Ethnographically Informed Design

Ethnography is a resource for the design industry

Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference – EPIC

Critical reflection is an aspect of this practice

Ethnography-Branded Firms

Rise of branding and the ethnography-branded firm

Brand distinctions based upon techno- ethnography

Fast technology keeps brand fresh

Cut out the “middle man” observer

•Techno-ethnography Re-naming

ethnography in terms of technology

Connect self-aware consumers directly to client without “bias of outside observer”

Consumers monitor, organize and assess their own thoughts

Why Eliminate the Observer?

Firms reify a vision of social relations based on technology, progress and innovation

Commodification of ethnography

“Problematization” of technology as an object of inquiry

National Science Foundation:SBE 2020 Initiative Call for papers on

future of social sciences

252 “white papers” Topic extraction http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/sbe_2020_ Predicting data

intensive research

Data Analytics or “Big Data”

Increasing volume and detail of digital information

Health care, retail, manufacturing, personal location, public sector EU

Aggregate, analyze, interpret (includes access, sensitivity)

Electronic Health Records

Analyzing large data sets to identify patterns and trends could reduce costs

To what extent are cultural assumptions encoded in these data?

Potential role for anthropology

Literature on EMR/EHR

Ethnographers are well represented in the emerging literature

There is a scarcity of anthropologists

Foucault’s concept of power/knowledge should be taken seriously

DISCUSSION

Science, Technology and Society Revisited:What’s Happening to Anthropology and Ethnography?