On the ritual use of personas in design
What happens when a method meant to represent complexity becomes a performative shortcut instead? A critical look at the persona artifact in design work.
Category: Anthropology
Posts about anthropology
Gamestorming for ethnographic data analysis
On January 31, 2022, I gave a talk at the Ethnography Lab at the University of Toronto, about using “gamestorming” — a set of collaborative workshop techniques — for ethnographic data analysis.
Qualitative data analysis with Microsoft Word comments & Python (updated)
About two years ago, I wrote a post here describing a simple and cheap method of coding text documents such as interviews. (I’d encourage you to go and read it first before you continue. I won’t repeat the original argument … [read more]
In memoriam Johnny Clegg
A personal reflection on the death of Johnny Clegg, giant of South African music, in July 2019. … I met him once, very briefly. In my mid-20s, when I was living in Johannesburg, a colleague and I bumped into him holding court in a café at Rosebank Mall where we had gone during our lunch break.
Qualitative data analysis using Microsoft Word comments
Update February 2020: Since writing this blog post, I have updated the method described below to using a newer, more broadly compatible approach which works with all/most versions of Microsoft Office — and also on the Mac and Linux computers. … [read more]
Navigating ethics
The following is an excerpt from the introduction to a forthcoming master’s thesis in anthropology which I am working on at the moment. This quasi-autoethnographic piece looks at why I am interested in ethics and ethnography in the context of … [read more]
Of bullet points, knowledge, and organizational ethnography
Recently, I experienced the following scene during a client meeting to review preliminary research results from the “ethnography” phase of a short service design consulting engagement: The research team, having been deeply engaged in fieldwork for several weeks, has worked … [read more]
Jian Ghomeshi and the precarious economics of the media industry
The CBC’s Fifth Estate, a documentary show that presents a weekly 60 Minutes style documentary, recently aired the corporation’s official public reckoning with the Jian Ghomeshi affair. (We know there’s perhaps some sort of report still to come from the … [read more]