News

EPIC Is Hiring!

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EPIC: Advancing the Value of Ethnography

We are looking for two talented people to join our small-but-mighty team! Both positions are 100% remote with flexible hours. We welcome applicants from anywhere in the world who are able to collaborate closely with staff in the US West Coast.

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Perspectives

Techno|theory Deathmatch: “Using Theory in Research” Read-along

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Image of game avatars from "Techno|theory Deathmatch"
A new cohort of EPIC members has just embarked on "Using Theory in Research"—a foundational EPIC Course taught by Kate Sieck, PhD (Senior Manager, Machine Assisted Cognition at Toyota Research Institute). We invite you to read along! In the first of six lectures and group seminar sessions, course participants explored what theory is and how it infuses our everyday work practices. Kate also covered the value of sociocultural theory, how it’s different from other approaches, its special value to work in business and organizational environments, and some foundational frameworks of society and culture. Kate recommended the following reading and listening for week one. Yep, that's cyborg-avatar Lucy Suchman with a WALL-E body. You'll also get to see Bruno Latour in Superman trunks. Have fun! You can also participate in the next course cohort. "Techno|theory Deathmatch" by Jay Dautcher, Mike Griffin, Tiffany Romain, Eugene Limb KATE SAYS: Certainly good methodological practices are important. However, our assumptions about people...

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EPIC2021 Video & Proceedings Now Available on Demand!

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EPIC2021 Video & Proceedings

Above: EPIC2021 welcome & opening from San Jose, California EPIC2021 Anticipation was the 17th edition of the premier global conference on ethnography in business and organizations. Now you can watch all conference presentations on demand, and read the full-length papers and case studies: EPIC2021 Papers and Case Studies are FREE to read, download, and share with your colleagues, teams & clients. Conference video is available to EPIC Members in our video library and includes Keynotes, Panels, Papers, Case Studies, PechaKucha, and selected Tutorials. Learn about Membership BROWSE EPIC2021 VIDEO & ARTICLES DOWNLOAD FULL PROCEEDINGS (PDF, 348 pp) BROWSE VIDEO LIBRARY…

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Perspectives

Our ‘New Normal’—The Sensory Landscape

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By shifting from sanitized, frictionless experiences to multisensory, relational landscapes, brands and organizations can help people feel a sense of safety, community, and well-being. by PIERRE LEE and SERENA CHAO, Gemic Sanitization has been a key word during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sanitization not just in terms of cleanliness, but also in terms of the revised interactions people have had with each other and with the environment around them. COVID-19 has created a Sanitized Landscape – supposedly free of germs in the home, cars on the road, and close encounters with other bodies. As parts of the world slowly prepare for a ‘new normal’ post-pandemic, we propose that a fundamental part of this preparing involves looking not through the lens of a Sanitized Landscape, but a Sensory Landscape. This combines traditional senses of smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing with metaphysical perception – senses beyond the traditional that help people feel a sense of safety, comfort, connectedness, and well-being. This shift...

Perspectives

Facing the Future in Product Development: Prediction and Uncertainty in Decision Making

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Prediction can create a false sense of certainty – at great cost. Can uncertainty establish a more effective foundation for product development? by HELI RANTAVUO, Spotify Foresight. Tends. Megatrends. Forecasting. Speculative design. Predictive modelling. Impact estimating. These are some of the established methods that researchers and analysts use in trying to understand what the future might look like, and how the organisations we work for and with approach the future. A variety of research and design techniques are available for us to make sense of the future in a structured way. Ethnographers and anthropologists know how to study the present in order to speculate on the future; design teams employ futurecasts and speculative design; futures research employs a wide range of methods that cut across disciplines. With the availability of big data, forecasting and predictive modelling is growing more and more sophisticated. Sometimes I wonder, does the maturity of our methods and frameworks make us feel too confident about...
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