Rachel Charlotte Smith

Ton Otto

Wendy Gunn

Design is a key site of cultural production and change in contemporary society. Anthropologists have been involved in design projects for several decades but only recently a new field of inquiry has emerged which aims to integrate the strengths of design thinking and anthropological research. This book is written by anthropologists who actively participate in the development of design anthropology. Comprising both cutting-edge explorations and theoretical reflections, it provides a much-needed introduction to the concepts, methods, practices and challenges of the new field. Design Anthropology moves from observation and interpretation to collaboration, intervention and co-creation. Its practitioners participate in multidisciplinary design teams working towards concrete solutions for problems that are sometimes ill-defined. The authors address the critical potential of design anthropology in a wide range of design activities across the globe and query the impact of design on the discipline of anthropology. This volume will appeal to new and experienced practitioners in the field as well as to students of anthropology, innovation, science and technology studies, and a wide range of design studies focusing on user participation, innovation, and collaborative research.

Theory and Practice

Design Anthropology

Haidy Geismar

Cameron David Warner

Nothing lasts forever. This common experience is the source of much anxiety but also hope. The concept of impermanence or continuous change opens up a range of timely questions and discussions that speak to globally shared experiences of transformation and concerns for the future. Impermanence engages with an emergent body of social theory emphasizing flux and transformation, and brings this into a dialogue with other traditions of thought and practice, notably Buddhism that has sustained a long-lasting and sophisticated meditation on impermanence. In cases drawn from all over the world, this volume investigates the significance of impermanence in such diverse contexts as social death, atheism, alcoholism, migration, ritual, fashion, oncology, museums, cultural heritage and art. The authors draw on a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, Buddhist studies, cultural geography and museology. This volume also includes numerous photographs, artworks and poems that evocatively communicate notions and experiences of impermanence.

Exploring continuous change across cultures

Impermanence

Thomas Binder

Mette Gislev Kjaersgaard

Joachim Halse

Kasper Tang Vangkilde

Introduction : Design Anthropological Futures / Mette Gislev Kjaersgaard, Joachim Halse, Rachel Charlotte Smith, Kasper Tang Vangkilde, Thomas Binder, and Ton Otto -- Cultures of the Future : Emergence and Intervention in Design Anthropology / Rachel Charlotte Smith and Ton Otto -- Design and the Future : Temporal Politics of "Making a Difference" / Ramia Mazé -- Different Presents in the Making / Mike Anusas and Rachel Harkness -- The New Design Ethnographers, 1968-1974 : Towards a Critical Historiography of Design Anthropology / Alison J. Clarke -- Design Interventions as a Form of Inquiry / Joachim Halse and Laura Boffi -- Jostling Ethnography Between Design and Participatory Art Practices and the Collaborative Relations it Engenders / George E. Marcus -- Conversation Dispositifs : Towards a Transdisciplinary Design Anthropological Approach / Zoy Anastassakis and Barbara Szaniecki -- The Irony of Drones for Foraging : Exploring the Work of Speculative Interventions / Carl DiSalvo -- Para-ethnography 2.0. : an Experiment in Design Anthropological Collaboration / Kaspar Tang Gangilde and Morten Hulvey Rod -- Design Anthropology On the Fly : Performative Spontaneity in Commercial Ethnographic Research / Brendon Clark and Melissa L. Caldwell -- Politics of Inviting : Co-Articulations of Issues in Designerly Public Engagement / Kristina Lindstrom and Sa Stuhl -- Collaborative Cleaning, Archiving and Curating the Heritage of the Future / Adam Drazin, Robert Knowles, Isabel Brendenbroker and Anais Bloch -- Design Anthropological Frictions : Mundane Practices meet Speculative Critique / Mette Kjaersgaard and Laurens Boer -- Things as Co-ethnographers Implications of a Thing Perspective for Design and Anthropology / Elisa Giaccardi, Chris Speed, Nazli Cila and Melissa L. Caldwell -- Design Anthropology as Ontological Exploration and Inter-Species Engagement / Tau Ulv Lenskjold and Sissel Olander -- The Things We Do : Encountering the Possible / Thomas Binder.

Design Anthropological Futures

Nicholas Thomas

A collection of essays which focuses upon local perceptions of the state, efforts to ground nationhood in tradition, the character of national narratives and recent transformations of the Pacific nationalism. Case studies are included from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Cook Islands.

Narratives of Nation in the South Pacific

Design Anthropology provides the definitive introduction to the field of design anthropology and the concepts, methods, practices and challenges of this exciting and emerging area of study

Nils Bubandt

Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropologypresents a series of essays from leading anthropologists that critically reexamine the relevance of holism as a foundational tenet of anthropology, and its theoretical and methodological potential in today's world. Represents the first volume to consider the modern role of holism as a central anthropological concern across a wide range of anthropological traditions Critically examines the past and present predicament of holism and its potential for the renewal of future practice Features contributions from leading anthropologists which discuss how anthropology should be re-designed in the context of a changing world Challenges many of contemporary anthropology's central methods, theory, and functions

Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropology

Experiments in Holism

Henrik Thrane

Helle Vandkilde

This book straddles the disciplines of archaeology and social anthropology. Its 25 contributions (divided into 6 sections with separate introductions) successively scrutinise the concept of war in philosophy, social theory and the history of anthropological and archaeological research; discuss warfare in pre-state and state societies; and assess its relationship to rituals, social identification and material culture.

Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives

Warfare and Society

Poul Pedersen

The publication of the anthology The Invention of Tradition two decades ago generated an intensive, productive and sometimes confusing debate about issues of cultural politics and continuity. This new book follows up on the debate in two ways. In a substantive introduction the editors disentangle some of the conceptual knots and assess the relevance of the scholarship on invented traditions for an understanding of the relationship between culture and agency. In addition, nine chapters exemplify and develop different aspects of the theoretical discussions through selected case studies from five different regions-Europe, Africa, Indonesia, Australia and the Pacific.

Tracing Cultural Continuity and Invention

Tradition and Agency

A major contribution to the field, this ground-breaking book explores design anthropology’s focus on futures and future-making. Examining what design anthropology is and what it is becoming, the authors push the frontiers of the discipline and reveal both the challenges for and the potential of this rapidly growing transdisciplinary field.Divided into four sections – Ethnographies of the Possible, Interventionist Speculation, Collaborative Formation of Issues, and Engaging Things – the book develops readers’ understanding of the central theoretical and methodological aspects of future knowledge production in design anthropology. Bringing together renowned scholars such as George Marcus and Alison Clarke with young experimental design anthropologists from countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Brazil, the UK, and the United States, the sixteen chapters offer an unparalleled breadth of theoretical reflections and rich empirical case studies.Written by those at the forefront of the field, Design Anthropological Futures is destined to become a defining text for this growing discipline. A unique resource for students, scholars, and practitioners in design anthropology, design, architecture, material culture studies, and related fields.

Ton Otto

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