Why the World Needs Anthropologists: The Power of Isolation

Anders Kristian Munk: is a Scientific Director of MASSHINE and Associate Professor at TANTlab.

Anders Kristian Munk is associate professor and director of the TANTLab at the University of Aalborg in Copenhagen. He holds an M.A. in European ethnology from the University of Copenhagen, a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Oxford and has spent the past decade developing digital methods for controversy mapping at the Danish Technical University, the ScinecesPo médialab, and, since 2015, at the TANTLab. His research interests include knowledge controversies and consequences of online media for democracy and public debate. Anders is the author of a Danish language textbook on digital methods and a forthcoming field guide to controversy mapping.

Have you ever contemplated the integration of digital home technologies into the lives of older individuals? Can immersive virtual reality be leveraged for enrichment in aged care? Additionally, can novel technologies aid visually impaired individuals in enhancing their community engagement? During our inaugural event, Jenny Waycott, Yolande Strangers, and Kimbal Marriott delivered an insightful interdisciplinary presentation on the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging technologies for the elderly.

In this talk Techno-Anthropology associate professor and Techno-Anthropology-Lab director Anders Munk is going to talk about Thick Machines:

Anthropologists are increasingly integrating data science and machine learning methods into their ethnographic tool kits. The talk explores what such methods can become in the hands of a computational anthropology and what current debates in AI can learn from the anthropological experience.

You can find more information upfront via Anders paper on that matter: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517211069891

The challenging question for the participants to discuss was:

How do we have ethnographic conversations with an algorithm?

Have you ever wondered how our relationship with content-generating algorithms will change the expectations and experiences we seek from tech and social media? Can people create productive, two-way relationships with online algorithms?

On January 27th 2022, Maria Cury, partner at ReD Associates, gave an inspiring and provoking talk with challenging questions for our community to discuss! Listen in :)

ReD Associates (https://www.redassociates.com/) is a strategy consultancy that helps businesses and organizations better understand people, using the social sciences and humanities, and studying the role of new technology in daily life to advise on product development, visioning, and strategy. Her research interests include advancing applied enthnography and developing mixed methods approaches to ReD’s work.

Digital disruption generates new global challenges, stressing the fundamental structures of our societies. Today leaders rely heavily on big data to understand this impact on our communities and cultures, which can lead to enormous ethical blindspots. While Anthropologists have ethnography to study these cultural shifts, oftentimes ethnography alone is too slow for the speed needed to make timely decisions. By developing new digital tools for ethnography, anthropologists can gather deeper insights into humanity at the pace and scale of data science, making big data more human, equal and ethical.

Listen to an inspiring and provoking talk by James Ingram, founder of LIIV (https://liivgroup.com/), which took place on Nov. 08 in 2021, asking our community the following questions to discuss:

1. What kind of digital innovation could help applied anthropologists study digital life? If you had a magic wand, what magical tools would you create? Why?

2. New innovative tools must be designed within strong ethical guidelines. Who in the world of ethical tech is doing this well? Why?

3. What people, institutes, companies around the world are bringing digital innovation to anthropology tools and curriculum?

In the past few decades there has been a growing belief in the finance, not-for-profit and government sectors that great financial tools can improve people’s lives, yet there are many examples of financial services causing harm. Is it possible to create great financial tools that improve the lives of humans without exposing them to undue risk?

On July 22 2021, Erin Taylor, founder of Finthropolgy (https://finthropology.com/) and a leading voice in putting an understanding of culture, and the human, in the heart of banking and finance sectors gave an exciting and inspiring impulse.

With Erin´s talk, we were also enormously excited to announce the kick off the AAN Apply Club Finance for all of you who are keen on advancing the value and visibility of anthropology in the economic, banking, and finance sectors.

Find more at https://www.applied-anthropology.com/apply-clubs/

APPLIED-ANTHRO-POWER?

How to get it and why we might not have it yet, tells us Melissa Cefkin, Senior Staff Researcher at WAYMO, in this AAN Impulse session!

Anthropologists have deployed a couple of key tropes in their aim to gain relevance in today’s future-oriented world. One, the trope of anthropologist-as-explorer, directs attention to new places and new subjects, trading mobile devices for pith helmets to go to exotic, uncharted territories. Another is the anthropologist-as-innovator, developing new methodologies and tools for grappling with the subjects and objects of investigation.

While both are inspiring and perhaps necessary, they are also insufficient for gaining a seat at the proverbial table-of-relevance. What is needed is not just to refocus our gaze on new objects or look at the same things in new ways, creatively refunctioning one representation into another. We also need to embrace new positions and new accountabilities.

After Melissa’s impulse talk, we will discuss whether the different positions we, applied anthropologists, tend to occupy - consultants, project investigators, advisors, internal researchers, etc. - adequately position us for impact.

Leave your email to hear about upcoming events:

https://forms.gle/dUKW6euFa2GVEgaL9

Leave your email to hear about upcoming events:

https://forms.gle/dUKW6euFa2GVEgaL9

Watch the video version via Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaGoWUmBWvCDY6dDA8Lga5ZJaYIQ9PeJB

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ZvFW1gZR2i7O5eWNBTmif

Follow The

Applied Anthropology Network via:

https://applied-anthropology.com​

https://www.linkedin.com/company/easa-applied/​

https://twitter.com/AppAnthro

https://web.facebook.com/EASAAAN​

https://instagram.com/world_needs_anthro

Who needs rockstars, when they can have anthropologists?

All of us of course do not need to be convinced of this, but how do we help other stakeholders of the applied anthropological impact see it our way.

“To build anthropology with impact, we need to position ourselves with strength and clarity. Tell great stories, have answers ready on tough questions, (or the right questions), be bold and brave enough to step into the field and move beyond describing into daring to change.”

Walter Faaij, sustainable and organizational anthropologist extraordinaire, founder of Green Culture Lab in the Netherlands, co-author of Anthropologists Wanted, and a true anthro rockstar himself, will provoke our network and friends to think about how we articulate our value to the world.

We are excited also to share that Walter´s talk kicks off the newly formed Apply Club Organizations - a group of AAN dedicated to applying organizational anthropology in various contexts, with Club leaders Yara van Hamburg and Jelte Vegter.

Leave your email to hear about upcoming events:

https://forms.gle/dUKW6euFa2GVEgaL9

Leave your email to hear about upcoming events:

https://forms.gle/dUKW6euFa2GVEgaL9

Watch the video version via Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaGoWUmBWvCDY6dDA8Lga5ZJaYIQ9PeJB

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ZvFW1gZR2i7O5eWNBTmif

Follow The

Applied Anthropology Network via:

https://applied-anthropology.com​

https://www.linkedin.com/company/easa-applied/​

https://twitter.com/AppAnthro

https://web.facebook.com/EASAAAN​

https://instagram.com/world_needs_anthro

EVER WONDERED HOW SPOTIFY, NETFLIX, AMAZON AND Co RECOMMENDS CONTENT FOR YOU?

In this #aanimpulses session Iveta Hajdakova from StripePartners talks about her paper published case study of Spotify: "Beyond User Needs - A Meaning Oriented Approach to Recommender Systems" see https://www.epicpeople.org/beyond-user-needs-meaning-oriented-approach-recommender-systems/. In her presentation, Iveta will look at 3 areas where anthropological perspectives added value to our research and recommendations:

• using theory to frame the challenge,

• understanding how people derive meaning from music, and

• applying insight to recommender systems.

She ended her talk with the very exciting question: How can anthropology better address the challenges related to scale, automatization and personalization, which was discussed by event participants.

Leave your email to hear about upcoming events:

https://forms.gle/dUKW6euFa2GVEgaL9

Leave your email to hear about upcoming events:

https://forms.gle/dUKW6euFa2GVEgaL9

Watch the video version via Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaGoWUmBWvCDY6dDA8Lga5ZJaYIQ9PeJB

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ZvFW1gZR2i7O5eWNBTmif

Follow The

Applied Anthropology Network via:

https://applied-anthropology.com​

https://www.linkedin.com/company/easa-applied/​

https://twitter.com/AppAnthro

https://web.facebook.com/EASAAAN​

https://instagram.com/world_needs_anthro

“In the name of efficiency, entrepreneurship and information. Amen.” …A bold title for a bold presentation, with which Kevin Guive Echraghi opened the Pandora’s Box of innovation at several big conferences already. The question is what kind of ideologies and dogmas steamroll innovation around the globe? At hérétique, Kevin and his team challenge some of the most indoctrinated basics of the innovation industry: #problemsolving #painpoints #consumers #efficiency and many more, and argue for why just copying Silicon Valley will not be good enough for Europe to build strong and meaningful innovation.This is what Kevin will talk about in this #aanimpulses session, challenging the audience to discuss what kind of ideologies and theoretical frameworks anthropology can contribute to innovation.