Advancing the Value of Ethnography

Our keenest insight and most powerful impact come when we cross boundaries, forge partnerships, and challenge conventional wisdom.

All about EPIC2023 Chicago, October 22–25

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

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

Annual Conference

EPIC2023 Friction

LEARNING & NETWORKING WEEK: SEPT 18–22
MAIN PROGRAM: OCT 22–25

Our keenest insights and most powerful impact come when we cross boundaries, forge partnerships, and challenge conventional wisdom. Join the premier global conference on ethnography in business and organizations:

Learn about EPIC2023

EPIC Course | Oct 16 – Nov 13

Leveraging Organizational Culture for Impact

Instructor: John Curran, PhD

Learn how to decode and leverage organizational culture to work more effectively with teams, stakeholders, and clients.

Course Details

EPIC Course | Nov 1 – Dec 13

Semiotics

Instructors: Cato Hunt & James Woodhead

Learn and apply semiotic techniques for applications across business strategy, innovation, design, communication & brand activation.

Course Details

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

40+ workshops, seminars, and networking events are FREE for EPIC Members! Member-only short courses are just $100.

 

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

Coming soon! The EPIC community is a famously warm, generous group, and we will have 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