This course combines core ideas and methods from design (usability, user experience and practice-based research and visualization) with those from anthropology (ethnographic research, participant observation, cultural comparison) to guide the deep dive into a wicked problem aimed at addressing some aspect of the problem. The course will be broken up into three units
-1-
Background and introduction to core concepts of anthropological research methods, how they are adapted / adopted in design, and the opportunities and limitations raised through these necessary modifications;
-2-
Practical application of ethnographic and ethnological research methods, including participant-observation; thick descriptions, and comparative mapping and analysis to identify cultural phenomena and design opportunities;
-3-
Identification of potential design-based interventions that could strengthen the social and cultural fabric of the community. The breadth and depth of the intervention would be based specifically on the findings from their research, so would not be design-discipline specific.
Fall 2017 Topic: Social Capital and Commercial Exchange
For Fall 2017, students are studying the culture created in spaces of commerce. Specifically, students will be studying The Flea Market and The Farmers Market. Students will develop a research proposal that uses ethnographic methods to observe and analyze the physical, social, economic, environmental, technological and political contexts that are all contributing to the culture of these spaces, and the many actors and motivations that drive cultural growth, evolution and possibly stagnation and problems. They will look specifically at issues of social capital, and how that is fostered through these market spaces. Through this analysis they will devise a proposal for how they think the spaces could be improved, to foster a stronger, or healthier, or more diverse, or my dynamic culture.