Books by EPIC Members that you need to know about!
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Madison Van Oort
Worn Out: How Retailers Surveil and Exploit Workers in the Digital Age and How Workers are Fighting Back explores the rise of fast fashion through the story of producers and sellers. Working undercover in two of the largest fast fashion stores in New York City, Madison Van Oort observes how data and surveillance shape the lives of low-status workers and how these workers are resisting.

Todd Carmody
An examination of work-based social welfare in the United States through print culture.

Mike Youngblood & Benjamin Chesluk
Rethinking Users, plus the cards and exercises that come with it, are a toolkit for a new way of thinking about users, user experience, and design. In today’s socially and technologically interconnected world, ecosystem thinking embeds all users in a framework of complex, linked experiences that have critical design ramifications.

Simon Roberts
Examines the role our bodies play in learning and how we can access the boy's knowledge in all endeavors.

Sam Ladner
A concise introduction to mixed research methods for applied researchers working in technology, marketing, communications, or market research.

Michael Agar
Agar offers a compelling and original way to think about promoting connections across human differences in our global society. This book provides a fresh vision for the core anthropological concept of “culture,” one attuned to our contemporary global society where people receive hybrid cultural influences from many places in many ways.

Sheila Pontis
Information designers make complex data and information understandable for a particular audience, but what’s often overlooked is the importance of understanding the audience themselves during the information design process. Learn how to use field research to bring essential people-centred insights to your information design projects.

edited by Hannah Knox & Dawn Nafus
This book explores how a repurposed form of ethnography might illuminate the kinds of knowledge that are being produced by data science. It also describes how collaborations between ethnographers and data scientists might lead to new forms of social analysis.

Margaret Morris
Morris offers examples of individuals applying technologies in unexpected ways―uses that go beyond those intended by developers and designers. She examines these kinds of personalized life hacks, chronicling the ways that people have adapted technology to strengthen social connection, enhance well-being, and affirm identity.

Scott P. Robertson
This book is a foundational review of current research on social media and civic engagement organized in terms of history, theory, practice, and challenges. Robertson reviews technology enhancements for political and social discourse; theoretical developments across political science, sociology, media studies, network science, and other fields; and political engagement democratic and confrontational situations.

Rochelle King, Elizabeth Churchill & Caitlin Tan
This practical guide shows you how to conduct data-driven A/B testing for making design decisions on everything from small tweaks to large-scale UX concepts. Complete with real-world examples, this book shows you how to make data-driven design part of your product design workflow.

Dawn Lerman, Robert J. Morais, & David Luna
This interdisciplinary text covers the fundamentals of brand language and applications for an array of marketing initiatives. Students will learn why brand language matters, how language is used in marketing, and how to build a brand strategy that capitalizes on the richness and complexity of language.

Jay Hasbrouck
This book argues that ‘ethnographic thinking’―the thought processes and patterns ethnographers develop through their practice―offers companies and organizations the cultural insights they need to develop fully-informed strategies. Using real world examples, Hasbrouck demonstrates how shifting the value of ethnography from simply identifying consumer needs to driving a more holistic understanding of a company or organization can help it benefit from a deeper understanding of the dynamic and interactive cultural contexts of its offerings.

Christine Miller
This book explores the evolution of two disciplines, design and anthropology, and their convergence within commercial and organizational arenas. Focusing on the transdisciplinary field of design anthropology, the chapters cover the global forces and conditions that facilitated its emergence, the people that have contributed to its development and those who are likely to shape its future.

J. A. English-Lueck
"Many imagine Silicon Valley as a kind high-tech Oz, watched over by wizards of code. But thanks to more than twenty years of on-the-ground exploration, Jan English-Lueck can show us the Valley as it really is: risky, diverse, cosmopolitan and complex. This is simply the best study of Silicon Valley's many cultures that I know."
—Fred Turner, Stanford University

Jan Chipchase
The how-to, why-to guide to running international field research to inform and inspire product, brand, strategy, policy and communications.

Christian Madsbjerg
Madsbjerg shows how many of today's biggest success stories stem not from "quant" thinking but from deep, nuanced engagement with culture, language, and history. Based on his work at some of the world's largest companies, including Ford, Adidas, and Chanel, Sensemaking is a provocative stand against the tyranny of big data and scientism, and an urgent, overdue defense of human intelligence.

edited by Timothy de Waal Malefyt & Robert J Morais
This collection considers a range of ethical issues in business through the examination of anthropologically informed theory and case examples. The meaning of ethical values, practices, and education are explored, as well as practical ways of implementing them, while the specific ethical challenges of industries such as advertising, market research, and design are considered.

by Michael Youngblood
The book's core questions are fundamental to understanding mass movements anywhere: Where do movement ideologies come from and what makes them compelling? What motivates diverse groups of ordinary people to rise together in common cause? How can we make sense of individual actors when their participation appears irrational and against their own interests?

Quantified: Biosensing Technologies in Everyday Life
edited by Dawn Nafus
Today anyone can purchase technology that can track, quantify, and measure the body and its environment. Is this phenomenon empowering, or a new form of social control? Who volunteers to enumerate bodily experiences, and who is forced to do so? Who interprets the resulting data? Quantified examines these and other issues that arise when biosensing technologies become part of everyday life.

by Gina Neff & Dawn Nafus
Gina Neff and Dawn Nafus describe what happens when people turn their everyday experience into data and offer an introduction to the essential ideas and key challenges of using these technologies. They consider self-tracking as a social and cultural phenomenon and what's at stake: who wants our data and why; the design of commercial self-tracking technology; how self-tracking can fill gaps in the healthcare system.

by Andi Simon
"...a unique contribution to the overwhelming number of books on leadership and organizational improvement. [Simon] applies rigorous anthropological methods that highlight issues and resolve problems that would not be recognizable otherwise. This is not the standard consultant's interpretation of well-known corporate examples."
—Kim Cameron,Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

by Kathy Baxter, Catherine Courage & Kelly Caine
"...a handbook of practical wisdom for the serious human centered design practitioner. It is a must have in any design team’s library."
—Janaki Kumar, VP, Head of Design and Co-Innovation Center, America, SAP Labs
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by Jeanette Blomberg & Chuck Darrah
Two foundational figures in participatory design and anthropology in business, Blomberg & Darrah explore the possibility for an anthropology of service, outlining a practice approach to designing services. They draw attention to the conceptual and methodological messiness of service worlds while providing strategies for intervening for human betterment, as complex and challenging as that may be.

edited by Rita Denny & Patricia Sunderland
"For all of us who practice and/or teach in this area, the Handbook is a must-have volume that offers a comprehensive take on not just the history and established practices in the field but our 'blurred edges' and future challenges."
—Catriona Macaulay, Head of User Research & Engagement, Scottish Government

Natalie Nixon, ed
Strategic Design Thinking guides readers to cultivate hybrid thinking, whether their background is design, finance, or any discipline in between. It introduces an integrative approach using the lens of design thinking as a way to see the world. The focus is on process instead of solution, and on connecting disparate ideas instead of getting bogged down by silos of specialization.

edited by David Prendergast & Chiara Garattini
"...a comprehensive view of a topic that is becoming increasingly important in health care but is often misunderstood and/or undervalued. It presents the actual/potential use of technology for enhancing the lives of older people and their caregivers."
—Catherine McCabe, Trinity College Dublin

by Melissa Vogel
Vogel offers a new perspective on ancient Peruvian life and geopolitics during a pivotal period of Andean cultural transformation, detailing the role of cross-cutting social networks and the dynamics of shifting political boundaries.

by Paul Dourish & Genevieve Bell
This book takes seriously the need to understand ubiquitous computing not only technically but also culturally, socially, politically, and economically. Dourish and Bell map the terrain of contemporary ubiquitous computing, in the research community and in daily life; explore dominant narratives around such topics as infrastructure, mobility, privacy, and domesticity; and suggest directions for future investigation.

by Frank E. Ritter, Gordon D. Baxter, & Elizabeth F. Churchill
This book introduces the fundamental human capabilities and characteristics that influence how people use interactive technologies. Organized into four main areas―anthropometrics, behaviour, cognition and social factors―it covers basic research and considers the practical implications of that research on system design.

by Christian Madsbjerg & Mikkel B. Rasmuseen
“The Moment of Clarity demonstrates the significant impact and value that businesses create when they actively build strategies around the complexity of human behavior. This book is essential reading for any leader struggling to find a solid path forward in a rocky and uncertain environment.”
—Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO and President, LEGO

by Malachi O'Connor & Barry Dornfeld
“The authors bring to life the importance of culture: how very different it is from other elements of change management and how critical it is to take advantage of ‘un-ignorable moments.' Their stories are compelling and memorable.”
—Jon Katzenbach, Senior Executive Advisor, the Katzenbach Center

by Sam Ladner
"In this admirably concise yet comprehensive book, Ladner has created a strong perspective on the praxis of private sector ethnography. She has generously shared her own tradecraft, which practitioners, experienced and novice alike, will find useful to hone their skills, across the project lifecycle."
—Simon Roberts, Stripe Partners

by Gregory S. Carpenter, Gary F. Gebhardt & John F. Sherry
“A gem of a book. Steeped in several years of field research this book distils unique insights and a pragmatic step by step approach for businesses that are in need to reinvent themselves."
—Marcel Corstjens, Unilever Chaired Professor of Marketing, INSEAD

by Michael Agar
Take human social sciences out of the lab and into the world! Frustrated that "the numbers" don't solve the problem? Wondering why policies and programs don't work on the ground? People, organizations, countries—they rely on information about real human social lives. Agar looks to the roots and to the future of social research to present a more productive and lively human social science.

by Kim Erwin
"Applying the principles contained in this book will increase your chances for innovation success, both inside your company overcoming organizational barriers, as well as outside convincing your customers."
—Luis Arnal, CEO, INSITUM

by Sophie Alami, Dominique Desjeux & Isabelle Garabuau-Moussaoui
Based on the authors' extensive experience in innovation and cultural and social change in France and abroad, this book explains qualitative methods and data collection techniques to detect emerging phenomena, technology, uses and imaginaries that other approaches ignore.

by Tony Salvador with ken anderson, Brandon Barnett, Richard Beckwith, Maria Bezaitis, Susan A. Faulkner, Jennifer Healey, Tad Hirsch, Kathi R. Kitner, Scott D. Mainwaring, Dawn Nafus, John Sherry & Alexandra Zafiroglu
Download free eBook! This book strengthens the argument that by identifying cultural values in states of volatility and understanding how change occurs, we can develop a broad and systemic range of global opportunities.

edited by Brigitte Jordan
"This is no ordinary book. By cleverly pairing different points of view on ethnographic methods the authors provide a textured understanding of why ethnography is such an important tool for grappling with today’s rapidly evolving world."
—John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist of Xerox Corp and Former Director of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)

Timothy de Waal Malefyt & Robert Morais
"Ethnography is Anthropology's biggest export. Malefyt and Morais take the practice of ethnography to the world of advertising, and do an ethnography of that world. The results are profoundly illuminating, and make this book essential reading for advertisers and anthropologists alike."
—David Howes, Concordia University

edited by Robert Albro, George Marcus, Laura McNamara & Monica Schoch-Spana
“This engaging and important casebook explores the dynamics of how, when, why and under what conditions and with what risks, anthropologists have engaged with the large and expanding security apparatus of the United States. The collection is broad, interesting and could not be more timely.”
—Paul Rabinow, University of California, Berkeley

edited by Christina Wasson, Mary Odell Butler & Jacqueline Copeland-Carson
“Once in a generation comes a shift in the practice of anthropology, or perhaps a shift in our perspective on the place of practice in the discipline and in the world. Here is a harbinger of such change—the book we have all been waiting for—taking us to the cutting-edge of an anthropological practice that is ‘glocalized’, hybridized with other disciplines, technology-infused, and on the go 24/7."
—Marietta L. Baba, Michigan State University

edited by Melissa Cefkin
"This is a deeply thoughtful and nuanced account of the most celebrated and contested of our contemporary field sites. The authors touch all of the relevant bases—the articulation of theory and practice, the ethical dimension of methodological commitment, the role demands of researchers in a commercial context."
—John F. Sherry, Jr, University of Notre Dame

by Allan Batteau
An overview of anthropological and other theories examining the place of technology in culture, and the consequences of technology for cultural evolution. The book develops and contrasts anthropological discourse of technology and culture with humanistic and managerial views. It uses core anthropological concepts, including adaptation, evolution, totemic identity, and collective representations, to locate a broad variety of technologies, ancient and modern, in a context of shared understandings and misunderstandings.

Patricia L. Sunderland & Rita M. Denny
"This work succeeds brilliantly in blurring the increasingly unhelpful perception of a divide between 'applied' and 'academic' anthropology. Along several dimensions, it demonstrates how 'cutting edge' and indeed 'theoretical' post-1980s ethnographic research on consumers and marketing has been."
—George Marcus, University of California Irvine

by Sherylyn Briller & Amy Goldmacher
"...a valuable set of techniques and exercises to help anthropologists apply their knowledge, skills, and experiences to the job search regardless of their stage in the career cycle. "
—Elizabeth Briody

by Kunal Sinha
"Kunal's insight creates a compelling case that [the Chinese] have what it takes to move beyond the world' factory to become a force in creativity."
—Colin Giles

by Charles Darrah, James M. Freeman & J.A. English-Luck
"We all know—and experience—that Americans are busier than ever, but what does that busyness actually entail, day to day, family to family? A fascinating examination of everyday life, this book offers a detailed picture of what constitutes busyness in American families as they cope with a risk society and manage the consequences of option overload. While showing that each family is unique, the authors also uncover patterns that help us understand family life in America today."
—Deborah Tannen