Archive for business anthropology

Episode 25 Product Design Ethnography with Dr. Amy Goldmacher

Anthropologist on the Street
Anthropologist on the Street
Episode 25 Product Design Ethnography with Dr. Amy Goldmacher
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Dr. Amy Goldmacher (photo courtesy of Dr. Goldmacher)

Business anthropologist Dr. Amy Goldmacher works with product and software designers to empower them to understand their users and customers. Using ethnographic research, she helps design new and improved products, software and experiences that better meet people’s needs.

Working both independently and as an ethnography consultant at The Understanding Group, Dr. Goldmacher applies anthropological methodologies to help companies organize and manage complex information, clarify purpose, create better products, and more effectively reach customers.

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Episode 16 Free Food in the Corporate World with Jesse Dart

Anthropologist on the Street
Anthropologist on the Street
Episode 16 Free Food in the Corporate World with Jesse Dart
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Anthropology Candidate Jesse Dart (Photo Courtesy of Mr. Dart)

Anthropology Candidate Jesse Dart works at the intersection of business anthropology and the anthropology of food. Mr. Dart researches how and why tech companies offer their employees free food. Looking at the same company’s practices in several different countries, he draws out how patterns of eating reflect regional cultural beliefs about labor, land, and tradition, and how corporate practices both reflect and reinscribe these ideas as well.

Just in time for American Thanksgiving, we discuss how food is tied to ritual, emotion, identity, and history. From local wisdom about specific foods like truffles to the deeply embedded symbols and practices of national holidays like American Thanksgiving dinner, food plays a unique role in our lives that extends well beyond simple nutrition. And just like the Thanksgiving parade and Black Friday shopping reinforce the central role business and capitalism have on our lives, so too do our workplaces shift our practices and views.

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Episode 6 “Bharat Babies” Books & Business Anthropology with Sailaja Joshi

Anthropologist on the Street
Anthropologist on the Street
Episode 6 "Bharat Babies" Books & Business Anthropology with Sailaja Joshi
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Bharat Babies C.E.O. Sailaja Ganti Joshi (photo courtesy of Sailaja Joshi)

Sailaja Joshi is the CEO and founder of Bharat Babies, an independent publishing house that “designs and produces developmentally appropriate books for young children that tell stories about India’s Heritage.” She was inspired to launch her business when she struggled to find books for her young daughter that would represent the unique hybrid nature of growing up American with Indian or Pakistani heritage.

Bharat Babies’ books cover Hinduism, Islam, and a myriad of South Asian subcultural identities, and readers have responded with gratitude. For CEO Sailaja Joshi, it has been affirming, not only of the need for multiple voices in literature, but of the need for more anthropology in the business world
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