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2023/2024  BA-BFILO1228U  Ethnographic Methods and Concept Development

English Title
Ethnographic Methods and Concept Development

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 15 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Philosophy, BSC
Course coordinator
  • Daniel Souleles - Department of Business Humanities and Law (BHL)
Main academic disciplines
  • Innovation
  • Intercultural studies
  • Cultural studies
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 20-11-2023

Relevant links
Learning objectives
Students are expected to be able to
  • Explain and understand the necessity of systematic, logical research design and the value of triangulation in ethnographic research.
  • Explain and understand the theoretical, epistemological, and ontological assumptions that are built into ethnographic and anthropological research.
  • Use systematic research design, logical research design and triangulation in their own ethnographic research.
  • Understand the different benefits and draw backs of ethnographic interviewing, cognitive interviewing, systematic observation, participant observation, statistical enumeration and inference, and archival research.
  • Conduct research using ethnographic interviewing, cognitive interviewing, systematic observation, participant observation, statistical enumeration and inference, and archival research.
  • Understand and implement the ethical evaluation of research.
  • Analyze and identify themes with data generated from ethnographic interviewing, cognitive interviewing, systematic observation, participant observation, statistical enumeration and inference, and archival research.
  • Design and conduct independent ethnographic research.
  • Use the findings of independently designed and conducted independent research to create and present a concept to the course’s external partner.
  • Reflect on the successes and failures in their own work and suggest ways to improve on failures and build on success in future basic and applied research projects.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Compulsory home assignments
An individually completed, pass/fail packet of methods assignments, turned in during the
term. The methods assignment shall consist of at least eight (8) our of ten (10) methods
worksheets.
Examination
Ethnographic Methods and Concept Development:
Exam ECTS 15
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance, see also the rules about examination forms in the programme regulations.
Individual or group exam Individual oral exam based on written group product
Number of people in the group 4-5
Size of written product Max. 30 pages
Assignment type Written assignment
Release of assignment Subject chosen by students themselves, see guidelines if any
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Winter and Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Written assignment and oral examination individually or in groups of up to 5 students.
Description of the exam procedure

A group completed paper (2,500 to 3,000 words plus appendices), graded on the 7-point scale, completed at the end of the course, with an accompanying individual oral examination based on the group paper, also graded on the 7-point scale.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

There comes a time in every young philosopher’s life when they are called to test their abstract notions about how and why the world works in the crucible of everyday life and empirical reality. This course is that time.

 

Ethnographic Methods and Concept Development will give students the perspective and methods to scrutinize their philosophical ideas and presumptions by doing empirical, field-based research. Furthermore, this course will give students an opportunity to apply the findings of their research and develop a Concept meant to help an external partner to the course. Past partners have included the Danish National Museum and Tivoli.

 

The course will proceed in two sections: the first half will be a course in research methods, in which students will learn how to develop research questions, evaluate the ethics of a research project, develop appropriate methods and samples to answer a question, the logic of research design and data analysis, as well as how research can be applied. In the second half of the course students will take up some practical problem on behalf of an external partner for the course. In pursuit of solving this problem, students will learn how to develop applied research and how to create a concept that answers a practical problem. Then students will spend six weeks conducting independent research on a project of their own design. After concluding this independent research, students will analyze their data, develop a concept, and present that concept to the course’s external partner.
Description of the teaching methods
This course will be highly interactive and assignment based. Students will have the opportunity to try out and workshop everything they learn in the class. Much of course time will be spent in this sort of applied learning. Given that, attendance, diligent coursework, and participation are all essential parts of learning in Ethnographic Methods and Concept Development.
Feedback during the teaching period
Students will have the opportunity in class and or in supervision to receive feedback on all elements of this course.
Student workload
Course Readings, Assignments, Independent Research 256 hours
Lectures, Exercise classes, workshops 76 hours
Examination Hours 80 hours
Further Information

The main discipline for this course is Anthropology.
Expected literature
  • Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur: Business Model Canvas, in: Business Model Generation, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
  • Almossawi, Ali. 2014. An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments. The Experiment. OR Bluedorn, Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn. 2015. The Fallacy Detective:Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning. Christian Logic
  • American Anthropological Association. 2012. “Principles of Professional Responsibility.” https:/​/​www.americananthro.org/​LearnAndTeach/​Content.aspx?ItemNumber=22869&navItemNumber=652. Accessed 18 December 2020.
  • Bernard, H. Russell, Gery W. Ryan, and Stephen P. Borgatti. 2009. “Green Cognition and Behavior: A Cultural Domain Analysis.” In Networks, Resources and Economic Action: Ethnographic Case Studies in Honor of Hartmut Lang. Pp. 189-215. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.
  • Bernard, H. Russell. 2011. “14 Direct and Indirect Obsevation.” In Research Methods in Anthropology. Pp. 306-336. New York: Alta Mira.
  • Bernard, H. Russell. 2011. “Sampling I: The Basics.” In Research Methods in Anthropology. Pp. 113-129. New York: Alta Mira.
  • Bourgois, Philippe and Jeffrey Schonberg. 2009. “8 Everyday Addicts”. In Righteous Dopefiend. Pp. 241-271. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Caro, Robert A. 2019. “The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson’s Archives.” The New Yorker January 21.
  • Christian Bason: ”Hvad er design” & ”Udforsk problemrummet” i Form Fremtiden – Designledelse som innovationsværktøj, Gyldendal 2016.
  • Denzin, Norman. 1970. “Strategies of Multiple Triangulation.” In The Research Act. Pp. 297-314. New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction.
  • Dressler, William W. 2015. “Section I: The 5 Things You Need to Know About Statistics.” In The 5 Things You Need To Know About Statistics. Pp. 31-95. London: Routledge.
  • Esber, George S., Jr. 1987. “Designing Apache Homes with Apaches.” Anthropological Praxis: Translating Knowledge into Action. Robert M. Wulff and Shirley J. Fiske eds. Pp. 187-197. Boulder: West View Press.
  • Fetterman, David M. 1987. “A National Ethnographic Evaluation of the Career Intern Program.” Anthropological Praxis: Translating Knowledge into Action. Robert M. Wulff and Shirley J. Fiske eds. Pp. 243-253. Boulder: West View Press.
  • Geertz, Clifford. 1973. Excerpt from “Chapter 1: Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture” and  “Chapter 15: Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.” In The Interpretation of Cultures. Pp. 3-10 and Pp. 412-455. New York: Perseus.
  • Gershon, Ilana. 2019. “Porous social orders.” American Ethnologist 46(4):404-416
  • Graeber, David. 2018. “Chapter 2: What Sorts of Bullshit Jobs Are There?”. In Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. Pp. 27-67. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  • Guest, Greg, Arwen Bunch, and Laura Johnson. 2006. “How Many Interviews are Enough? An Experiment with Data Saturation and Variability.” Field Methods 18:59-82
  • Handwerker, W. Penn and Danielle F. Wozniak. 1997. “Sampling Strategies for the Collection of Cultural Data: An Extension of Boas’s Answer to Galton’s Problem. Current Anthropology. 38(5):869-875.
  • Hyland, Stanley, Bridget Ciaramitaro, Charles Williams, and Rosalind Cottrell. 1987. “Redesigning Social Service Delivery Policy: The Anthropologist as Mediator.” Anthropological Praxis: Translating Knowledge into Action. Robert M. Wulff and Shirley J. Fiske eds. Pp 109-118. Boulder: West View Press.
  • Irani, Lilly. 2018. ““Design Thinking”: Defending Silicon Valley at the Apex of Global Labor Hierarchies.” Catalyst: feminism, theory, Technoscience 4(1):1-19.
  • Ketelaar, Eric. 2001. “Tacit narratives: The meanings of archives.” Archival Science 1:131-141
  • Masbjerg, Christian and Mikkel Rasmussen. 2014. “5 The Turnaround” and “6 Product Design.” The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve your Toughest Business Problems. Pp. 107-135. Cambridge: Harvard Business Review.
  • Peirce, Charles Sanders. 1894. “What is a sign?” https:/​/​www.marxists.org/​reference/​subject/​philosophy/​works/​us/​peirce1.htm. Accessed March 9, 2018
  • Piff, Paul K., Daniel M. Stancato, Stéphen Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner. 2017. “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior.” PNAS 109(11):4086-4091.
  • Preister, Kevin. 1987. “Issue-Centered Social Impact Assessment.” Anthropological Praxis: Translating Knowledge into Action. Robert M. Wulff and Shirley J. Fiske eds. Pp. 39-56. Boulder: West View Press.
  • Ryan, Gary W. and H. Russell Bernard. 2003. “Techniques to Identify Themes.” Field Methods 15:85-109.
  • Shange, Savannah. 2019. Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness & Schooling in San Francisco. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Shange, Savannah. 2019. Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness & Schooling in San Francisco. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Souleles, Daniel. 2017. “Don’t mix Paxil, Viagra, and Xanax: What financiers’ jokes say about inequality.” Economic Anthropology 4:107-119.
  • Souleles, Daniel. n.d. “Laughter and Joking Literature Review.”
  • Spradley, James P. 1979. “2.1 Locating an Informant” and “2.2 Interviewing an Informant.” In The Ethnographic Interview. Pp. 45-68 New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.
  • Spradley, James P. 1980. “Step Two: Doing Participant Observation.” Pp. 53-63. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press
  • Sutherland, Tonia. 2020. “Disrupting Carceral Narratives: Race, Rape, and the Archives.” Open Information Science 4:156-168.
  • Tom Kelley: ”Introduction” & ”The Anthropologist”, in: The 10 Faces of Innovation. New York / et al., Doubleday, 2005.
  • Trotter, Robert T. 1987. “A Case of Lead Poisoning from Folk Remedies in Mexican American Communities.” Anthropological Praxis: translating Knowledge into Action. Robert M. Wulff and Shirley J. Fiske eds. Pp. 146-160. Boulder: West View Press.
  • Turner, Allen C. 1987. “Activating Community Participation in a Southern Paiute Reservation Development Program.” Anthropological Praxis: Translating Knowledge into Action. Robert M. Wulff and Shirley J. Fiske eds. Pp. 118-135. Boulder: West View Press.
  • Weller, Susan C. and A. Kimball Romney. 1988. “1 Introduction to Structured Interviewing,” “2 Defining a Domain and Free Listing,” “3 Pile Sorts I: Single Sorts.” In Systematic Data Collection. Pp. 6-26 London: Sage
Last updated on 20-11-2023