Ken Anderson Tracey Lovejoy Organizers
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Ken Anderson Tracey Lovejoy Organizers National Association for the Practice of Anthropology The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA) is pleased to welcome you to this inaugural Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference. NAPA is a section of the American Anthropological Association and supports the work of practicing anthropology by helping practitioners refine their skills, develop their careers, and market their services. Madelyn Iris, Northwestern Univ – President Dennis Wiedman, Florida International Univ – President Elect Ed Liebow, Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation – Past President Mari Clarke, Centre for Development and Population Activities – Secretary Jackie Copeland-Carson, US Bank – Treasurer Alexandra Mack, Pitney Bowes Steve Maack, REAP Change Consultants Christine Miller, Wayne State Univ Margaret Weeks, Institute for Community Development The American Anthropological Association, the primary professional society of anthropologists in the United States since its founding in 1902, is the world's largest professional organization of individuals interested in anthropology. Elizabeth M Brumfiel, Northwestern Univ - President Alan Goodman, Hampshire College - President-elect Mac Marshall, Univ of Iowa - Secretary Carole Crumley, Univ of North Carolina Linda Wolfe, East Carolina Univ. Deborah Heath, Lewis and Clark College William O. Beeman, Brown Univ Judy Y. Tso, AHA Solutions Ltd J. Anthony Paredes, National Park Service Jason González, Southern Illinois Univ George Marcus, Rice University Leith Mullings, City Univ of New York Linda Bennett, Univ of Memphis Andrea Wiley, James Madison Univ Peter S. Allen, Rhode Island College Dan Segal , Pitzer College American Anthropological Association 2200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600 • Arlington, VA 22201 phone 703/528-1902; fax 703/528-3546 www.aaanet.org INTRODUCTION TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF EPIC 2005: THE FIRST ANNUAL ETHNOGRAPHIC PRAXIS IN INDUSTRY CONFERENCE It is our pleasure to welcome you to the inaugural Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference. A great deal of time and effort has gone into creating a program that we hope you will find informative, thought-provoking, controversial and enjoyable. Appropriately, we gave birth to EPIC in a coffee shop in Seattle in the Winter of 2004. The idea for this conference, however, has long been discussed among many of the people conducting ethnographic research in and for industry. Over the years, “we” have met in workshops, paper sessions, over dinner, drinks and coffees at a number of other conferences to ask ‘Where can we really talk openly about our work?’ “Our work” has in the past been left intentionally vague. Who “our” is and will be and what defines the “work” now and in the future, are an integral part of EPIC. We designed this conference around these two words: “our work.” We intend to build a community of people, actively doing and thinking about the theoretical and methodological development of their work of ethnography in industry practice. Conference Theme The EPIC theme for 2005 was Sociality. Ethnographers working in industry are expected to pay attention to corporate priorities and current trends. One of the predominant corporate themes has been a focus on the individualization and personalization of products and services. Although ethnography can address this issue, one that has received less attention is the social and collective nature of people’s lives. We hoped the theme “sociality” would spark debate and discussion around methods we use in our research, present our findings and conduct ourselves in industry settings. By having this common focus in the conference we could collectively expand the boundaries of our knowledge and practice. Conference Process In making plans for EPIC 2005, we were mindful of the special nature of inaugural meetings of any conference. The first conference always sets precedents that will likely be followed in later meetings, both in tone and expectations for participants. Knowing this, we were anxious to get as much right as possible. Thanks to the contributions of the authors and the dedicated advisory committee, we think we have succeeded and we trust you will agree. We divided the conference into five sections: theory, methods, cutting-edge papers, workshops on key topics, and reviewed posters. One critical decision was whether or not to emphasize theory at a conference of practitioners. Too often, conferences consisting of presentations from practitioners that turn out to be nothing more than a series of case studies that fail to address problematic theoretical issues plaguing the field. Practitioners need to incorporate theory into practice, but also struggle with developing theoretical frameworks through practice. We intentionally placed theory as the first session of EPIC2005, highlighting the importance of theory in practice. Further, we allotted theoretically oriented papers more time for presentation, and more space for publication, to allow for the presentation of full arguments and discussion. In the methods section, we show exemplary case studies; full and well documented examples of the use of ethnographic methods in or for industry. We designed the cutting edge section to address two aspects of ethnographic work in industry: (1) innovation in methods, topics for research, data collection or representation; and, (2) late breaking findings or insights from ethnographic research in industry. The workshops provide hands-on and interactive experience around key topics in ethnography today. Lastly, the posters present a range of research activities by ethnographers. With EPIC2005 we have striven to provide activities and sessions that will begin to help “us” to create some cohesive sense of “our work.” Another critical decision concerned whether or not to publish proceedings of the conference. Proceedings are the full papers that the authors created for the conference, not the talks presented at the conference event. Proceedings are unusual in the social science and design fields. Typically, papers presented at conferences serve as pre-cursors to journal submissions or edited volume collections rather than completed compositions of a proceedings. We decided that the proceedings “genre” would allow for quick distribution of timely papers. Proceedings also allow greater participation for a community of practitioners than journals or edited volumes, which are tailored more to people with academic lifestyles than industrial ones. Finally proceedings provide a collective archive of where we are in order for the community to grow theoretically and methodologically. Over 90 extended abstracts were submitted for the conference, from which we could only accepted 15 papers for inclusion in the program. The response for the call for papers was surprisingly strong. Thanks to all the authors for their fine submissions. Each submission was put through a double-blind reviewing process (that is, reviewers did not know the name or the institution of the authors). Minimally, four reviewers reviewed each submission. Once provisionally accepted, curators and organizers reviewed full papers. Before final acceptance, authors were required to address curator and organizer comments. Paper authors come from a variety of backgrounds; both individual and institutional, and the papers here capture the wide range of thinking about ethnography in industry today. In Gratitude We want to express our appreciation to all the reviewers for their tireless efforts in evaluating the submissions and providing feedback to the authors. We also want to thank the EPIC advisory committee for their support and perseverance in working through the issues of a first time conference. Their help and guidance help to make the inaugural EPIC meeting one that will become an important addition to the research calendar for all of us in ethnographic praxis. EPIC owes thanks to our corporate and institutional sponsors, Intel, Microsoft and the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, both for their confidence that EPIC will be successful and for their significant and generous contributions of people and resources. We would especially like to thank the attendees of EPIC 2005 for coming to the conference, even though it is new to conference calendars and a new style of program. Please enjoy the program, learn something from the workshops, and interact with your colleagues from a wide range of disciplines and industries. Most of all, have fun! ken anderson Tracey Lovejoy EPIC 2005 Co-Organizer EPIC 2005 Co-Organizer Intel Microsoft CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION Organizers Publication Ken Anderson, Intel Corporation Alison Pryor, American Anthropological Tracey Lovejoy, Microsoft Corporation Association Advisory Committee Registration Jeanette Blomberg, IBM Corporation Suzanne Mattingly, American Christina Wasson, Univ of North Texas Anthropological Association Rick E Robinson, GfK/NOP Nina Wakeford, Univ of Surrey Sponsors Intel Corporation Liaison Microsoft Corporation NAPA Alexandra Mack, Pitney Bowes Reviewers Mike Agar Program Curators Ben Anderson Theory William O Beeman Rick E Robinson, GfK/NOP Genevieve Bell Jenna Burrell Posters Michele Chang Alexandra Mack, Pitney Bowes Paul Dourish Donna K. Flynn Workshops William Graves Jeanette Blomberg, IBM Corporation Mizuko Ito Christopher Keener Method Rich Ling Nina Wakeford, Univ of Surrey Tim Malefyt Anne Page McClard Cutting Edge Jay Melican Christina Wasson, Univ of North Texas Dawn Nafus Laura J Neumann Operations