domeet webmaster

Anthropology is also very concerned about the transformation of technology to traditional business, work and lifestyle:

Anthropologist Xiang Biao ’s book “Global Hunting Body” reveals how a large number of Indian programmers have been continuously delivered to major IT companies in Europe and America by the “Global Hunting Body” system;

In the book “High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy”, anthropologists lead readers to the island country of Barbados. In this unknown offshore center, Caribbean women have become a link in the global information industry chain;

In Kenya, digital anthropologists discovered that the digitization of currencies (such as mobile phone-based currency systems such as M-Pesa) for those The people at the bottom who are excluded from the banking business and small loans have brought new development opportunities …

How does anthropology that looks “poetic and cold” apply to the business world? Before answering this question, it may be worth guessing, outside the academic institutions, who hired the most anthropologists?

The answer is: Microsoft is the second largest employer of anthropologists in the world (the largest employer is the US military) . In addition, the anthropologist ’s employer list includes Google, Intel, Apple, IBM, HP, Xerox, Lego, Uber, MTV, Starbucks, Ogilvy …

Why do commercial companies need anthropologists?

Anthropology’s housekeeping skills are: through field surveys and writing ethnographies, in-depth descriptions of how people in different countries, ethnic groups, and industries understand the world, and live and act according to this understanding.

You can think of anthropologists as translators between different cultures or groups, or detectives or spies. (potential) rules, mechanisms, relationships, patterns, habits, common sense, and people Belief system, values ​​and meaning world.

In the company, applied anthropology obtains data through surveys, understands a particular community or group, and can better establish communication with them. They are involved in different stages of business, from brand positioning, product design and R & D, to user surveys, marketing, and strategy formulation. They can help designers, engineers and marketers understand the behavior, needs and wishes of diverse users.

Technology companies have a long history of employing anthropologists.

As early as the 1990s, Intel invited anthropologists to set up “Human and Behavioral Research Laboratories”; Google had hired anthropologists to discuss the meaning of “mobile”, and Abigail Posner, director of its strategic planning department, also graduated from Harvard University Department of Social Anthropology. Today, former Stanford University Anthropology Professor Genevieve Bell also serves as an Intel Fellow, Director of Interaction and Experience Research Affairs, leading a research team of 100 people to help the company ’s technical staff better understand computer users around the world to achieve Intel’s goal of “bringing technology to life closely”.

The most unique and fascinating thing about anthropology is probably not its theory, but its research method. This is the “field work” that people are familiar with.

Anthropologists use panoramic, immersive, and experiential survey methods to go to the local area, spend some time living there, and participate in each other ’s daily life and work, so-called “participatory observation” “.

ResearchInvestigating you becomes you, seeing what you see and feeling what you feel. Coupled with timely and in-depth interviews, they question each other on specific topics or findings, and dig deeper into the context, reasons, and explanations.

This kind of survey can be said to be extravagant because it takes quite a long time. Just to enter the investigation environment and let the other party accept you, revealing the natural and true state itself is not easy-this is definitely a technical job.

However, the benefits of doing so are also obvious: the information collected is comprehensive enough to cover each other ’s social relationships and life history; deep enough to understand the beliefs, taboos, ethics and morals they hold. Knowing this, you can understand what a sentence, an event, an object, and an act mean to the surveyed object.

This is what applied anthropology provides: Thick data (thick data) .

How do anthropologists make data “thick”?

In the era of big data, data must not only be “big” but also “thick”.

A large number of companies do not lack data, but what is missing is an effective interpretation of the data. If you do n’t know the meaning behind the data, you ca n’t make a business strategy based on the data. In short: Big data allows us to “know it”, and anthropology provides interpretation and interpretation to help us “know why it is.”

In thick data, the user is not just a number or an individual with the background removed. He / she has history, cultural traditions, social relations, social roles, identity, and worldview; he / she has life, scruples, desires, emotions, doubts, fears, dissatisfaction, and There are moral considerations; his / her daily activities, especially consumer behavior, are not just based on cost-benefit,Reasonable numerical calculation of good and bad.

Anthropology can help to understand the meaning behind the thoughts and actions of users.

At Intel, the research team led by anthropologist Bell profoundly influenced the company ’s research and development direction. For example, this team has pushed Intel ’s in-vehicle technology to a mobile multimedia communications entertainment system. How do they do it?

The Bell team first surveyed car owners around the world and counted all the items they put on the car. The survey found that in order to ensure safe driving and reduce distractions and other things, car manufacturers provide incomplete car functions, so car owners have to bring a lot of personal equipment to the car.

After analysis, Bell’s team finally discovered which technologies were valuable and which functions embedded in the car were not valuable-they were therefore ignored. Eventually, Intel will develop future human-machine interaction for Jaguar Land Rover and jointly develop the next-generation in-vehicle infotainment system with Toyota. This team also made a prediction that “people will be the ultimate mobile platform”, this insight has driven Intel to enter the field of wearable technology and smart space.

Anthropology is more than just market research or user experience research for technology companies. An anthropological perspective provides value that traditional data is far from providing. It brings an innovative perspective to technology research and development.

Astrid Countee, who is also an anthropologist and software development engineer, pointed out that if we define “innovation” as “using better ideas to satisfy what the existing market meets”, then anthropologists have been innovating . Because anthropologists often throw themselves into unfamiliar environments, regain curiosity among strange people and cultures, and constantly compare themselves with others and themselves.

In the words of Chinese anthropology master Fei Xiaotong, “I see people and see me”.

As a result, were familiarKnowing things are strange, so find your blind spots and things you are accustomed to, see the world with new eyes, and find new modes of interaction with the world.

One case that needs to be mentioned here is the development of a free SMS system FrontlineSMS for African users by anthropologists.

Based on in-depth research in Africa, anthropologist Ken Banks invented FrontlineSMS, a free SMS system based on mobile phones. It allows users who do not have stable Internet services in Africa to communicate with others in large quantities and obtain real-time information. FrontlineSMS is widely used in Africa-everything it does-in Nigeria, some people use it to track elections; in El Salvador, farmers use it to track the market price of agricultural products.

Anthropologist and engineer culture

What are the roles of anthropologists and engineers in the process of corporate innovation? I think the biggest difference is the perspective.

I have done a research in the past ten years, related to urban garbage.

Waste besieged city is a stubborn disease of modern cities, and a large amount of waste is continuously produced every day. In order to solve this problem, technology is committed to eliminating garbage more quickly and efficiently. Incineration technology is continuously iteratively upgraded, but pollution still cannot be eliminated. Garbage incineration plants have become the least popular public facilities as nuclear power plants.

Before the question “How to eliminate garbage faster, more efficiently and more safely”, anthropologists will ask why so much garbage is produced? Where does the garbage come from? Before garbage enters the incinerator, is there any way to reduce the total amount of garbage that needs to be treated? In other societies, cultures, and times, what options are worth learning from?

Engineers are committed to solving problems, and anthropologists ask questions about the problem itself. Anthropology has a different approach. Anthropologist and DesignCooperation between engineers and engineers will bring innovation and bring more human-oriented technical objects.

The value of anthropology is also to provide transnational cultural translation for the era of globalization.

Globalization, on the one hand, makes humans more and more closely connected and interdependent; on the other hand, as interactions become closer and closer, we increasingly need to deal with diversity, diversity, and differences. Especially now, in the face of the virus and epidemic situation, the forces of globalization and anti-globalization are changing. What remains unchanged is the need for understanding the local cultural background and the need for communication.

Technology flows across the borders of nations and ethnic groups. However, the development, dissemination, and application of technology in any place need to be implemented and localized. Anthropology, which describes and interprets different cultures as a housekeeping skill, is good at translating and communicating among different cultures. Based on the distinction between the universality and particularity of human nature, it finds the basis for consensus and dialogue.

For example, with the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, a large number of health conditions, action trajectories and contact tracking technologies have emerged at the historic moment. Due to the different bioethics and privacy rights in various societies in different parts of the world The acceptance is also different. Only by adapting the technology to the local governance system can the best effect be achieved in public health.

Another example is voice recognition based on artificial intelligence technology, natural language processing (NLP) , automatic translation-even if all use Chinese Languages, in the Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, differ greatly in the creation of sentences. In addition, there are gestures, body language, etc., the gestures of numbers and emotions are different in different cultures.

These misunderstandings can lead to poor communication, and even violate taboos and offend each other. In addition to learning to recognize, artificial intelligence also needs to create movements, which all depend on first understanding the different culturesThe meaning of expressions, movements, body language.

A dozen years ago, when large overseas technology companies were aggressively exploring the Chinese market, they also collaborated with anthropologists.

In 2008, Intel ’s Shanghai branch contacted Fudan University in hopes of recruiting an anthropologist to help investigate the computer usage habits of users in China, especially in rural areas. This is the first time that Fudan ’s anthropologists have participated in commercial activities. It may also be a survey of Chinese anthropologists who are initially involved in science and technology.

Intel Fellow Genevieve Bell has also been to China by herself. Her survey found that Chinese parents generally believe that computers will affect children ’s learning and cause distraction. Based on this investigation, Intel designed a home computer specifically for China, and tried to solve this problem through mode separation and switching.

Translation is bidirectional. Today’s Chinese technology companies and digital products want to go out of China, but also need cultural translation of anthropology.

The potential value of anthropology for the development of science and technology is also that it is a buzzer with warning effect.

This function is based on the anthropology’s tonality: Anthropology sees technology as a culture. Of course, this is not to deny the authenticity and objectivity of technology. Anthropology only believes that the research and development work of scientists and engineers is also a social action, also embedded in the specific social organization, history and cultural context.

An anthropologist is particularly good at seemingly common and objective scientific and engineering practices, which is to jump out of the box and observe, compare, and understand it.

Conclusion: Can be expected in the future

Contemporary anthropology is naturally critical.

Historically, the history of (black) that anthropology objectively served for colonization is not mentioned. Perhaps partly because of this disgraceful history, to this day, anthropology is particularly naturally critical and reflective.

On the one hand, it focuses on diverse ethnic groups and cultures, and is particularly sensitive to stereotypes, discrimination, and exclusion; on the other hand, its relational and structural perspective makes it particularly easy to detect power relations that are not realized by others . Whether it is between ethnic groups, or inequality between people.

At the same time, based on investigations, it can often reveal how unfair mechanisms work; in addition, as mentioned above, it also challenges the exclusive interpretation of the problems faced by human beings by science and technology. It jumps out of the box to observe Ask questions and explore new solutions.

Anthropological criticism may be harsh, but like a buzzer, it guards human equality, safety, and dignity, questioning the humanity of technology, and preventing technology from falling into possible ethical traps.

Although in the current commercial application of anthropology, the function of anthropology in this aspect has not been truly expanded. But it is foreseeable that future technology companies will increasingly need the perspective of anthropology and its sound as a buzzer.

Only engineers and anthropologists can work together to move towards true science and technology.

References

【1】 Why anthropology is becoming big business in China by He Xu.Six Tone 2017-06-07

[2] Miller, Daniel. 2019, what is digital anthropology? Journal of China Agricultural University (Social Science Edition) 36 (4)