Most of you will know EPIC (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference) by now. At least one paper presented at this year’s event discusses an ethnographic approach within a foresight context. Andrew Greenman and Scott Smith talked about “Embed: Mapping the Future of Work and Play: A Case for ‘Embedding’ Non-Ethnographers in the Field”.

The abstract to their paper reads as follows:

This paper reflects on an experiment to combine an “ethnographic walking tour” with futures and foresight methods, as a means of enhancing and validating foresight exercises through the addition of valuable first-hand observation. The project, entitled Embed, was created to familiarize senior strategists, product developers, foresight specialists and marketers with the potential of ethnographic research to inform decision making. We introduce the concept of “embedding” to describe the process of placing non-ethnographers into fieldwork situations.

There is no doubt about the added value of observation, real life context, ‘embedding’ oneself in the world … within foresight and beyond.

Via: Pasta & Vinegar

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 at 23:17 and is filed under explore, methods & techniques, projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.