Advancing the Value of Ethnography

EPIC is a global community of researchers, creators, and innovators doing ethnography for impact in business and organizations.

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Ethnography is a powerful approach to understanding people and catalyzing change using theory and methods from the social sciences

Learn about the value & impact of ethnography

Learning & Networking Week videos are here! Conference video & published articles coming soon…

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EPIC Course

Representing Your Professional Self

February 5 – March 12, 2025

Refine your goals, materials, and strategy for navigating job transitions with the support of a career coach, peer cohort, and insights from senior hiring managers in research and design.

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EPIC Course

Ethnographic Research Design & Innovation

April 2 – June 4, 2025

In this course you’ll learn how to design effective projects as well as build a high-quality, strategic research practice to guide innovation within and for organizations.

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Annual Conference

EPIC2025 Helsinki

  • LEARNING & NETWORKING WEEK: Online, May 12–16 
  • MAIN PROGRAM: Helsinki & Livestream, September 16–19 

Featured Collections: Essential expertise from our library

Automation

Automation shifts work, decision making and pattern finding between people and mechanized systems. Through research, strategy, and design, ethnographers engage the profound implications for society and everyday life.

Curator: Melissa Cefkin

Go to the Automation Collection

Strategy

This collection highlights the value of ethnography for strategy and decision making, including frameworks and methods for embedding ethnographic practice deeper into an organization’s strategic practices.

Curators: Esben Ronan & Ian Dull

Go to the Strategy Collection

Sociality

No human behavior exists in isolation. Ethnographers illuminate the complex social systems that connect people, products and services, organizations, and research endeavors themselves.

Curator: John W. Sherry

Go to the Sociality Collection

Job Board

Full-time and contract opportunities posted by organizations looking for applicants in the EPIC community.

 

Find & Post Jobs

Always insightful, immediately applicable, and delightfully provocative, EPIC gives us the knowledge and networks we need to be strong voices for people

Ovetta Sampson

Director of UX – Core ML, Google

EPIC is one of the most welcoming and inspiring professional communities out there. Curious folks asking big, hard questions and using the power of ethnography to make sense of a fast-changing world while building a supportive network.

Maria Lucia Vidart-Delgado

Senior Safety Researcher, Reddit

EPIC Member Benefits

Join a global community of people doing ethnography for impact in business, organizations and communities.

 

Become a Member

Learning & Networking Week

Workshops, seminars, and networking events are FREE for EPIC Members! Member-only short courses are just $150.

 

Year-round Events

Explore methods and practices, theory, career development, and current topics affecting our work and organizations. Online talks and seminars are FREE for EPIC Members, who can also propose, organize, and present sessions.

Member Directory

The EPIC community is a famously warm, generous group, and has a new tool for creating and sustaining networks.

 

Premium Video

Access our collection of tutorials and our latest annual conferences on demand.

Featured Articles & Video

photograph of a diverse group of people waiting outside a building with a "Service Canada sign", most are wearing masks.
Case Study

How a Government Organization Embraced Ethnographic Methods for Service Resilience

Mithula Naik & Colin MacArthur

From Research to Action Tutorial image
Tutorial

From Research to Action: Leading Teams through Synthesis

Marta Cuciurean-Zapan

ai among us
Keynote

AI Among Us: Agency in a World of Cameras and Recognition Systems

ken anderson et al.

Perspective

10 Things You Should Know about Moving from Academia to Industry

Nadine Levin

Paper

Developing and Integrating Machine Learning in Clinical Care

Madeleine Clare Elish

Keynote

Racist by Design: Why We Need a New Economic System for the 21st Century

Carolyn Rouse