The Human Show: Innovation through Social Science

Dace Dzenovskais Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Migration at the University of Oxford and the Principal Investigator of the EMPTINESS project. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees in Social Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an interdisciplinary master’s degree in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University. We are happy to have Dace with us speaking to her background and her experience and thoughts on isolation. She shares about her current research on emptiness and links it to isolation. Through fieldwork stories, she further details the condition of emptiness of which isolation is an element and explores what happens when this condition is seen as a site of opportunities. Lastly, she talks about what excites her the most about coming to the conference as well as her advice to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.

Heli Rantavuo is an applied cultural studies and social sciences researcher based in Helsinki. For the past 15 years, she has worked in the technology industry in London, Stockholm and Helsinki, contributing and leading research in product and market strategy at Spotify, eBay, Microsoft and Nokia. Before working in the industry, she was a researcher at Aalto University, School of Media and Art where she graduated as Doctor of Arts, and at the Center of Welfare and Health in Finland. Heli is a founding member of the Human Sciences in Strategy association in Finland which brings together applied anthropologists and other human scientists who practise their craft outside academia.We are happy to have Heli with us speaking to her background and her experience and thoughts on isolation. She shares some of the lenses she is considering to use to explore the topic of isolation, such as temporality, embodiment and capitalism.  Lastly, she talks about what excites her the most about coming to the conference as well as her advice to those considering to attend.  Listen to the episode to hear more about it.

We are happy to have Rafram with us speaking to his background as a visual artist and his experience and thoughts on isolation. In 2010, Rafram found himself imprisonedin Lybia. He spent 6 months by himself in an extreme isolation unit, not knowing whether he would live or die. In this conversation he explores questions such as: What does it mean to be free? What is the value of being with oneself? What do inner conversations reveal and what effects can one experience after such a transformative event? Rafram also speaks to the power of the artistic lens and how it can help cultivate self-inquiry and drive everyday choices from a space of personal freedom. Lastly, as a speaker of Why the world needs Anthropologists, The Power of Isolation, heshares his thoughts on anthropology as well as his advice and thoughts to those considering attending the conference. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.

Erin B. Taylor & Melanie T. Uy: Anthropologists & Authors of Better Research, Better Design: How to Align Teams and Build a Human-Centric Company Culture. Dr. Erin B. Taylor has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Sydney and is the founder of Finthropology, a company specializing in insights into people’s financial behaviour. She specializes in how people’s financial behaviour is changing along with innovation in financial services, and has carried out ethnographic research in the Caribbean, Africa and Europe. Erin is especially interested in how culture and group belonging influence people’s actions and decisions.Dr. Melanie T. Uy is a lifelong learner and known for unexpected questions. She is a ritual specialist focusing on the practices of social connection and disconnection and its impact on work and workplaces. Her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam researched how social detachment was essential to the work of migration brokers in China. She currently works as a user experience researcher in the Netherlands and previously ran consumer studies for the retail and healthcare market in the Philippines.We are excited to have Erin and Melanie with us to share this joint research project. This project is intended as a toolkit for researchers and their colleagues to help them position the value of their work and bring it forth to a desired organizational level. We ask the authors how did the idea for the project come about? How did they organize the research and what were the unexpected insights that emerged from it? Melanie and Erin ask back whether they were right or wrong with their conclusions. Listen to the episode and feel free to reach out to the authors to share your feedback. Mentioned in Podcast:Better Research,Better Design: How to Align Teams and Build a Human-Centric Company Culture by Erin B. Taylor and Melany.T.Uy Active8 PlanetAmerican Anthropological Association (AAA)AppliedAnthropology Network (AAN)EPIC 2022FinthropologyGillianTettMoving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas, University of AmsterdamResponse-ability SummitThe National Association for the Practice of AnthropologyUXInsight Social Media:Erin: LinkedInMelanie: LinkedIn;...

Amina Alaoui Soulimani is a doctoral research fellow at HUMA, the Institute for Humanities in Africa. Amina holds an MSc in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics. Her current anthropological doctoral work at the University of Cape Town focuses on the ethics of care, AI, and the future hospital in Morocco.Gabriela Cabaña is a Ph.D. candidate at the LSE anthropology department. Gabriela is a transdisciplinary scholar originally trained in Sociology in Chile but also draws from political ecology and feminist theoretical perspectives. She is interested in the interplay between energy, bureaucracy, value, and degrowth. Her ethnographic work focuses on energy transitions in southern Chile. Gabriela is part of Centro de Análisis Socioambiental (Centre of Social-Environmental Analysis); Red Chilena de Ingreso Básico (Chilean network of Basic Income) and the Basic Income Earth Network. This is a special episode, a Love letter to David Graeber. Gabriela was taught a course by David at LSE, while Amina got to know him as a thesis supervisor there. Through the lived experiences of Amina and Gabriela, we are exploring David's contribution andlegacy in action. What has stuck with them from the conversations they had with David and the academic interactions he created? Gabriela and Amina share beautiful examples from their individual encounters with David as an academic lead and a fellow human. Finally, we ask how to make someone like David possible in academia again and more?At the end, they share their favourite readings. Listen to this conversation about a personal anthropological touch and the inheritance of David Graeber. Social Media:Amina: https://twitter.com/AminaSoulimaniGabriela: https://twitter.com/gabi_cabana Mentioned in PodcastFragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David GraeberThe Utopia of Rules by DavidGraeber

David Prendergast is Head of the Department of Anthropology and Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Maynooth University in Ireland. Previously David worked at Intel where he was a principal investigator at the ‘Technology Research for Independent Living Centre’ and co-founder of the ‘Intel Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities’. He has also served as Visiting Professor of Healthcare Innovation at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin. He is currently working on a book with colleagues Jamie Saris and Katja Seidel about the lives of 94 older adults in ten locations across Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic.We are happy to have David with us speaking to his background and current work at the intersection of academia and the applied sector. He shares his path into anthropology and his multiple research projects as well as gives insight into what motivated his choices to leave spaces of engagement or to take on new opportunities. As speaker at the Why the world needs Anthropologists conferencehe shares how he will be contributing to the themes as well as his advice and thoughts to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.Mentioned:Why the World needs Anthropologists, Re|Generation,September 2022 https://www.applied-anthropology.com/session/regeneration-talk-iv-2/Social Media:LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidprendergast/

Katia Dumont: Anthropologist, regional network organiser for SE Europe, BMW foundation & speaker at the Why the World needs Anthropologists, Re|Generation 23-25 Sept 2022 BerlinKatia Dumont is a Regional Network Organizer for Southwestern Europe for the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was a consultant for foundations and social enterprises in venture philanthropy. She spent various years setting up and building the regional chapter for the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs – ANDE of Development Entrepreneurs based out of Mexico City, where she enabled research, facilitated collaboration between a community of stakeholders for the small and growing business sector, and provided a base for knowledge management and practical applications. Katia also is part of the Board of Directors of Value For Women Ltd., a social enterprise on a mission to promote women’s economic participation, leadership, and entrepreneurship by bringing a gender lens to business practices. Her interest in (eco)systems sparked her passion to create a regenerative future by engaging in agriculture and the broader human/nature system that supports it.We are happy to have Katia with us speaking to her background and current work in community development. She speaks to her intent of contributing to the creation of safer and braver community spaces where relationships are anchored in trust instead of transactions. We also explore together several topics such as: how to balance engaging in community action with the observer role?  How to create space for flourishing futures for all? As speaker at the Why the world needs Anthropologists conference, she shares how she will be contributing to the theme as well as her advice and thoughts to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.Mentioned:Why the World needs Anthropologists, Re|Generation, September 2022: https://www.applied-anthropology.com/speaker/katia-dumont/Stuff, Daniel Miller https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stuff-Daniel-Miller/dp/0745644244How Forests Think, Eduardo Kohn  https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276116/how-forests-think Social Media:LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/katia-dumont-a724b818/?originalSubdomain=es 

Sophie Strand: writer and academic cross-contaminator: on the ways we can improvise in academia and beyond.Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. But it would probably be more authentic to call her a neo-troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Her first book of essays The Flowering Wand: Lunar Kings, Lichenized Lovers, Transpecies Magicians, and Rhizomatic Harpists Heal the Masculine is forthcoming in 2022 from Inner Traditions.Her eco-feminist historical fiction reimagining of the gospels The Madonna Secret will also be published by Inner Traditions. Her books of poetry include Love Song to a Blue God (Oread Press) and Those Other Flowers to Come (Dancing Girl Press) and The Approach (The Swan). Her poems and essays have been published by Art PAPERS, The Dark Mountain Project, Poetry.org, Unearthed, Braided Way, Creatrix, Your Impossible Voice, The Doris, Persephone’s Daughters, and Entropy. She has recently finished a work of historical fiction, The Madonna Secret, that offers an eco-feminist revision of the gospels.  She is currently researching her next epic, a mythopoetic exploration of ecology and queerness in the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde.Today we speak about the importance of listening to one’s body and its unexpected ways to bring out intellectual results and eventually new academic fruits. For Sophie, storytelling was a way out of trauma and around pain and then became her academic method allowing to border-cross paradigms and fuse ideas. We ask how to create safety in thesesubversive spaces? And how to confront the reactions of disapproval and discontent?Sophie leads us through her story of following that sensory vein and shares the ways that could work for others as eager to improvise. Listen to the episode to reflect on our intellectual editing processes together.   (TW: this conversation touches on trauma and mental health). Mentioned in Podcast:Anne Rice Bayo AkomolafePurity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo by Mary DouglasAndreas WeberDie Wise – A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul by Stephen JenkinsonSocial media:SophieStrand

Rebecca Price is a researcher and assistant professor at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology where she investigates how design can advance sectors and industries through multi-leveled and networked innovation. Educated and practiced as an industrial designer, Rebecca was quickly drawn to the strategic potential of design as a source of resilience, and so pursued a Ph.D. in design-led innovation at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.  Her work increasingly explores the intersection between the design of socio-technical systems and transitions theory to consider new methodological opportunities. Rebecca workswith public and private organisations to support the application of design upon complex innovation challenges. While the predominant domain of her work to date has been mobility (aviation, automotive, urban transport), her methodological research, in particular, holds increasing value to domains related to public health and energy transitions that stem from a socio-technical perspective of the possibilities of design.In today’s episode, Rebecca speaks to her passions and drives as a designer, innovative thinker, and teacher. We are curious to hear her thoughts on friction and ways to approach it, on challenges that multidisciplinary settings may bring, and means that allow her to keep up to her expectations. How has her sports background contributed to her resilience? In the second part of our talk, Rebecca shares what inspired her to carry out the project “100 Days” – Graduating during Covid19“. Hear her speak on ways to facilitate students in challenging times, on mutual awareness, ways of being a mentor of value, and the reasons she finds teaching so important. Social Media:Rebecca’s LinkedIn

Pavel Cenkl is currently the Head of Schumacher College and Director of Learning at Dartington Trust, Devon, England and previously he held the position of Professor of Environmental Humanities and Associate Dean at Sterling College, Vermont. Pavel holds a Ph.D. in English and is the author of many articles, chapters, and two books. He has always been drawn to colleges and universities whose curriculum fully integrates learning with practice and thinking with embodiment. While pursuing research in ecologically-minded curriculum design and teaching courses in environmental philosophy, Pavel is also a passionate endurance and adventure runner. Over the past five years through a project called Climate Run, Pavel has covered hundreds of miles in the Arctic and subarctic on foot in order to bring attention to the connections between our bodies and the more-than-human world in the face of a rapidly changing climate.In this podcast episode, Pavel shares his work at Schumacher College but also other personal discoveries and aspirations. Together, we explore educational practices that blend theoretical pursuits with immersive community action and the human with the more than human. Can we use ecology as a blueprint for learning models? How to define a scientific method within the framework of regenerative learning? How to take the individual embodied practice and make it resonate with a broader audience? Join us in this conversation. Mentioned in Podcast:Schumacher CollegeTimothy MortonInto the cracks, by Bayo AkomolafeSocial media:Pavel’s LinkedInPavel’s Instagram:(https://www.instagram.com/climate_run/)Pavel’s website:http://www.climaterun.org

Vito Laterza is an anthropologist, development scholar and political analyst. He holds a MPhil in Social Anthropological Research and a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Vito is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder, Norway, where he also leads the Digitalization and Sustainability focus area at the university’s Centre for Digital Transformation (CeDiT). His interdisciplinary orientation spans two main areas: political economy & ecology; and digitalisation, new media and communication.His approach is characterised by a systemic integration of ethnography, macro-level structural analysis, and epistemological & reflexive inquiry, in the tradition of “big ideas” social science and social theory. He writes regularly for national and international media, such as Al Jazeera English, Boston Review, Foreign Affairs, Africa Is A Country, and Daily Maverick.Today’s conversation engages us in many big questions that are also characteristic of Vito’s approach to work and life. How do we interact with our physical and virtual environments and how do we communicate with algorithms?How can we have green transitions that work socially and politically for people across the world? How can we safeguard analogue life in the midst of accelerating digitalization, and what is the role nation states should play in ensuring a healthy equilibrium between analogue and digital forms of humanity and sociality? How does Vito feel about the digital “metaverse” and what kind of power and economic relations are at play in this project? Vito talks about the public engagement blog Corona Times and the grounded approach to the Covid-19 pandemic social scientists were able to offer in their blog posts. He speaks about individual freedom, self-restraint and care for others in the context of Covid-19 and shares insights going forward. Vito offers not only answers, but also more questions we should ask ourselves. Join us in this rich conversation. Mentioned in Podcast:Public engagement blog Corona TimesShoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance CapitalismVito Laterza, «Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism:Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digitalhumanity» Facebook-CambridgeAnalytical Data Scandal HUMA - Institute for Humanities in Africa[VL1] ,University of Cape TownSocial...

Désirée Driesenaar is an innovation activist, blue economy specialist, storyteller as well as external expert for the European Commission. After years of working in the corporate world as a commercial manager and B2B marketer, in 2014 Desirée went for a holistic shift and became an entrepreneur for a regenerative future. In search of purpose and sustainability, she developed a worldview of systems thinking in a quest of restoring ecosystems by building bridges between technology and nature by applying different business models and innovations. Desirée’s methods include action, storytelling, systemic narratives, and co-creation with a particular focus on the idea of regeneration – a driving factor in establishing truly sustainable and connected solutions. We are pleased to have Desirée talking to us today about concepts that are key in both her professional and personal life such as regeneration and sustainable ecosystems weaved in and through the world of technology. How can one work with technology and AI while staying in close mental and emotional affinity with all that is nature? What are the methods, principles, and approaches that Desirée has been exploring in her collaborations which help set up bridges between these two worlds? We are curious to hear how would a technology in tune with nature would look like in Desiree’s imagination. Join us on this episode to reflect on the inspiring possibilities that nature-based solutions can bring. 

Kathleen leads Research & Insights at Dreams, a Fintech company built on behavioral science that boosts financial wellbeing. She is a Dutch national currently based in Stockholm and has worked with UX research for over a decade. Her main interests are innovation and technology with social impact, always trying to connect the dots between people off- and online. Besides working at Dreams she also hosts user research training and coaching. While teaching, mentoring & breathing research she does not try to learn about users and their behavior, but mostly makes sure that the product teams themselves gain this knowledge first hand.We are pleased to be having Kathleen with us today talking about her passion, UX research, and the ways to teach and empower teams to do it themselves. Kathleen questions the skills that a UX researcher is often expected to have and shares her insights into what she believes makes a good researcher.  We explore together some of the practices she engages in in order to democratize research. Kathleen gives examples of projects where she led teams through a learning path with research and shares some lessons learned. Listen to the episode to hear all about it.Mentioned in Podcast:Art of hosting, https://www.artofhosting.org/U-lab, https://u-lab.nl/nlInsight Bonanza https://uxinsight.org/when-research-democratization-becomes-an-insights-bonanza/Social Media:Kathleen’s LinkedIn

Eric Garza is the founder and primary instructor at Quillwood Academy, an online institution of higher learning dedicated to helping people throughout the English-speaking world learn to navigate the changing world in which we all live. His background is diverse, spanning ecology and evolution, environmental science and policy, ecological economics, and systems thinking. Eric has also invested years learning and practicing place-based living skills, and mentors people in subsistence skills such as bow and arrow making, hunting and fishing, and gathering a wide array of edible and medicinal plants. He also teaches part-time in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont.Today’s episode is about opening to the world and to the self and attempting to connect the two in the pursuit of a meaningful life. In sharing his story, Eric takes us along in a reflection on how to be vulnerable and to dig deep in the pursuit of oneself. How to be equally a scholar, hunter, carpenter, community server and more?How does he find the balance between service for others and care for the self? How has he integrated his part-time academic self to his other selves and how does he monitor his own biases within his academic endeavours? Listen to the episode to hear more about it. (PLEASE NOTE: This conversation touches on trauma, including intergenerational trauma, suicide, and mental health).Mentioned in Podcast: Quillwood Academy  Quillwood PodcastWe will dance with mountains, course by Bayo AkomolafeSocial Media:Eric’s bio

Angelina Kussy is an economic anthropologist from Warsaw and activist with Barcelona en Comú, the citizen platform governing Barcelona, working for municipalism and Fearless Cities. We are happy to have Angelina with us speaking to her background and current work.  Angelina shares her views and dialectical relationship to activism & scholarship and takes us through the multiple projects she is currently engaged with.Her areas of interest are economic anthropology, especially work, public policies for social protection, the care crisis, and transnational migration in enlarged Europe. Her research employs the perspective of gender, class, and other factors of social inequality and qualitative research methods: in-depth and semi-structured interviews, life histories, and ethnographic observations (although she has also collected data for mixed-methods projects).Angelina is a member of the Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work of the Rovira i Virgili UniversityandNotus – applied social research centre.Angelina is writing her PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona on domestic workers and the extractivist social organization of care in Europe. She has also written journalistic articles for the Polish and Spanish press that disseminate anthropological knowledge and social critique. We are happy to have Angelina with us speaking to her background and current work. Angelina shares her views and dialectical relationship to activism & scholarship and takes us through the multiple projects she is currently engaged with. Lastly as a speaker of the Why the World needs Anthropologists, Mobilizing the planet she shares how she will be contributing   to the theme as well as her advice and thoughts to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.Mentioned:https://www.applied-anthropology.com/speaker/angelina-kussy/Media :You can reach her at Twitter: @angelinakussy and Research Gate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angelina-Kussy-2    

We are happy to have Cristina with us speaking to her background and current work. Cristina shares her views and relationship to activism and, as a scholar, the importance of balancing sympathy with a critical, analytical and self-reflexive research lens. What can an ethnographic perspective bring different than other research methods? What is the difference of applying ethnographic research to activist spaces vs others? What is the value of a conference space and why should you invest in physical attendance? Lastly as a key note of the Why the World needs Anthropologists, Mobilizing the planet she shares how she will be contributing   to the theme as well as her advice and thoughts to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.Cristina Flesher Fominaya is a co-founder of the open-access social movements journal Interface and Editor-in-Chief of SocialMovement Studies. She holds an MA and a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Cristina publishes widely on politics, social movements and democracy in both academic and media outlets. Her three most recent books are Democracy Reloaded: Inside Spain’s Political Laboratory from 15-M to Podemos (Oxford University Press); Social Movements in a Globalized World (Palgrave Macmillan/Red Globe); and The Handbook of Contemporary European Social Movements: Protest in Turbulent Times (Routledge).Mentioned:Why the World needs Anthropology, Mobilizing the Planet https://www.applied-anthropology.com/speaker/cristina-flesher-fominaya/Media :Check Cristina Flesher Fominaya’s profile at academia.edu and Google Scholar ProfileRecommended reading – all open-access PDF: Collective Identity in Social Movements: Central Concepts and DebatesFeminism, women´s movements and women in movementRedefining the Crisis/ Redefining Democracy: Mobilising for the Right to Housing in Spain’s PAH MovementCreating Cohesion from Diversity: The Challenge of Collective Identity Formation in the Global Justice Movement    

Julienne Weegels is Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA). Her research interests include violence, (in)security, memory-making, and criminalization. For this ethnographic project, she carried out 31 months of field research with Nicaraguan inmates, through two theater programs in two prisons (a state prison and a police prison), between May 2009 and January 2016. She is particularly interested in the embodied (gendered, classed, and racialized) politics and aesthetics of order-making and protest, including practices of repression and incarceration. Currently, Julienne works on Nicaragua’s political crisis and the development of its hybrid carceral state.We are happy to have Julienne with us speaking to her background and current work at the intersection of scholarship and political activism. How to look at & engage with patterns of political mobilization with attention to the local? How to navigate being an expert and an activist ? How to engage with the discomfort of being labeled an expert on Nicaragua?  She speaks to how she deals with affect and neutrality in her work  but also to the process of producing knowledge through intimate encounters with other people’s policies. Lastly as a speaker of Why the world needs Anthropologists, Mobilizing the Planet she shares how she will be contributing to the theme as well as her advice and thoughts to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.The Human Show - World Podcasts

Alex Khasnabish is a writer, researcher, and teacher committed to collective liberation living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on unceded and unsurrendered Mi’kmaw territory. He is a Professor in Sociology & Anthropology at Mount Saint Vincent University. His research focuses on radical imagination, radical politics, social justice, and social movements. His recent books include What MovesUs: The Lives and Times of the Radical Imagination (co-edited with Max Haiven), The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity (co-authored with Max Haiven), and Insurgent Encounters: Transnational Ethnography, Activism, and the Political (co-edited with Jeffrey Juris).We are happy to have Alex with us speaking to his background and current work at the intersection of scholarship and political engagement. Alex shares how he came into his path as well as the unfolding of his conflicted relationship with academia, researching and teaching in the space of political imagination. What can research do with and for social movements ? How can we use research as a tool to make the struggles for social justice stronger and more ambitious ?. Alex gives us a small glimpse into Radical Imagination, a project where he – together with other scholars – attempts to find answers to these questions. Lastly as a speaker of Why the world needs Anthropology, Mobilizing the Planet he shares how he will be contributing to the theme as well as his advice and thoughts to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.Mentioned in Podcast:Why the World needs Anthropology, Mobilizing the Planet September 2021 https://www.applied-anthropology.com/speaker/alex-khasnabish/Learn more about the Radical Imagination project.Social Media :Website :  https://alexkhasnabish.com/

Today’s episode is an experiment to stretch out disciplinary boundaries by paring up academic debates of philosophy & engineering (& of course anthropology). We are delighted to have with us academics & practitioners representing those different disciplines. What are the personal definitions of multidiscipinarity that make sense to Simone, Gunter and Marcus? We discuss proliferation of academic output, disciplines and increasing number of journals. Our speakers share their worldviews on disciplinary boundaries and experiences with complex cultural engagements, which do not always give the intended results. Listen to the episode to follow this reflexive conversation about intellectual development and current academic changes. 

Mark Vacher is an associate professor of ethnology at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Tom O’Dell is a professor of ethnology at Lund University, Sweden, whose own research has primarily focused upon the cultural economy, the significance of mobility and transnational cultural processes.  Mark and Tom have collaborated for many years on developing programs of applied ethnography. We are curious to know their reasons, methods and lessons learned. Mark and Tom emphasize the value of digging into the problem before starting to look for solutions. But how do they make it work and how did they design a course that gives students the tools to do that? What are the skills students are expected to develop and what questions to answer? Is there certain theory that helps achieve the goals defined by the program? Mark and Tom reflect on their own approach to ethnology, on the role context plays - different in Sweden and in Denmark, and on the importance of having the right colleagues to work with. Lastly they offer advice for those interested in walking a similar path.  Mentioned in Podcast:Multi-targeted ethnography and the Challenge of Engaging New Audiences and Publics, Thomas O'Dell, 2017, In: Sociological Research Online. 22, 4, p. 193-207 Handbook of Anthropology in Business, Edited By Rita M Denny and Patricia L Sunderland, 2016, Routledge Social Media:Tom - https://www.kultur.lu.se/en/person/ThomasODellMark -  https://saxoinstitute.ku.dk/research/ethnology/?pure=en/persons/201204