The SfAA Podcast Archive

Visualizing Change: Emergent Technologies in Social Justice Inquiry and Action, Part 1: Digital Storytelling and Photovoice

CHAIR: HARPER, Krista and GUBRIUM, Aline (U Mass-Amherst)
ABSTRACT: New visual technologies are changing the ways that anthropologists do research and are opening up new possibilities for participatory approaches appealing todiverse audiences. These methods produce rich visual and narrative data guided by participant interests and priorities. Presentations address the following: ethical concerns;potential audiences; voice, representation, and power; the digital divide; academic and activist roles; participants as knowledge producers and agents of change; catharticstorytelling; community building; standards of validity; a new lens of participant-observation; and decision making in the research process. Presentations feature research onenvironment, public health, youth activism, and community development, drawing from fieldwork in the USA, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Session Participants:GUBRIUM, Aline (U Mass-Amherst)TACCHI, Jo and BAULCH, Emma (Queensland U of Tech)CLAYSON, Zoe (San Francisco State U)HARPER, Krista (U Mass-Amherst)SCHIANO. Diane J. (Palo Alto Rsch Ctr)
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.

The Flawed Economics of Resettlement and its Impoverishing Effects: What Can Social Scientists Do?

CHAIR: CERNEA, Michael M. (George Washington U)ORGANIZED BY: the International Network on Displacement and Resettlement (INDR)
ABSTRACT: Development anthropologists and sociologists have made the strongest contribution to analyzing and understanding not only the social and cultural traumas causedby forced-displacement, but also to identifying the mechanisms of sheer economic impoverishment, decapitalization and destitution of most people caught in the jaws ofdisplacement. Economists have been by and large noticeably silent. Compensation for lost assets remains even today the single instrument employed to re-establish thosedisplaced, and this instrument is being proven as insufficient and subject to distortions. The session aims to discuss research contributions towards analyzing the insufficientlystudied economics of displacement, to examine critically the economic theory of resettlement, the contradiction between economics and ethics in displacement and to identifynot only proper recommendations, but also areas of further research for anthropologists, economists and other social scientists.
Session Participants:CERNEA, Michael (World Bank)DEAR, Chad (U Montana)OLIVER-SMITH, Anthony (United Nations U Inst for Env & Human Security)KOBUS, Elizabeth M. (S. Methodist U)TURTON, David (U Oxford)DISCUSSANT: DOWNING, Theodore (U Arizona)
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.

Practitioners Rise to the Challenge: A Discussion of Methods in Business Ethnography

CHAIR: TRATNER, Susan (SUNY-Empire State)
ABSTRACT: Many anthropologists are employed by businesses, using excellent methods and appropriate theories and providing valuable results. Others in these businesses oracademic fields believe they are using "ethnography" without really understanding it and are not knowledgeable of either the history or the theories that could assist theirwork. Individual papers demonstrate the range of ways that anthropological methods and theories have been used to assist and critique businesses. Participants come fromacademia, private consulting and industry. Discussion will focus on the way in which well designed and executed anthropologically generated insights can benefit the businessenvironment.
Session Participants:TRATNER, Susan (SUNY-Empire State)SANDO, Ruth (Barbara Perry Assoc)De WALL MALEFYT, Timothy (BBDO Worldwide & Parsons, New Sch for Design)SHAPIRO, Ari (Hall & Partners Healthcare)
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.

Mobile Work, Mobile Lives: Cultural Accounts of Lived Experiences

CHAIR: MEERWARTH, Tracy (General Motors)
ABSTRACT: Mobile and remote work is becoming increasingly common. Employees, independent contractors, consultants, and researchers are using information technologiesto work in non-traditional ways from non-traditional spaces. Current scholarly research focuses on improving the effectiveness and design interface of network technologies andof mobile products such as cell phones, laptops and PDA's while overlooking the human aspects of workers' experiences. This session offers a more comprehensiveunderstanding of the sociality of this growing mobile work community through the experiences of the authors who describe patterns and insights about the associatedchallenges and opportunities that this style of work presents.
Session Participants:MEERWARTH, Tracy L. (General Motors)GLUESING, Julia (Wayne State U)JORDAN, Brigitte (Palo Alto Rsch Ctr)GOSSETT, Loril (U Texas-Austin)
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.

Preparing Applied Anthropologists for the 21st Century (Part 2)

CHAIRS: GUERRÓN-MONTERO, Carla (U Delaware) and YOUNG, Philip D. (U Oregon)
Session Participants:FISKE, Shirley J. (Consultant, U Maryland)PILLSBURY, Barbara (Int'l Hith & Dev Assoc)CONZALEZ-CLEMENTS, Emilia (Dev Systems/Applications Int'l Inc) and Carla Littlefield (Littlefield Assoc)MAYNARD-TUCKER, Gisele (UC-Los Angeles)
 
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.

Preparing Applied Anthropologists for the 21st Century (Part 1)

CHAIRS: GUEERRÓN-MONTERO, Carla (U Delaware) and YOUNG, Philip D. (U Oregon)
ABSTRACT: These two sessions, organized by Carla Guerrón-Montero and the Consortium of Practicing and Applied Anthropology Programs (COPAA), featured practitioners andacademics who have contributed to NAPA Bulletin No. 29 (2008). Participants in these two sessions discussed, from a variety of perspectives, the theoretical and practical skillsthat anthropology students should develop during the course of their studies to prepare themselves for careers in applied anthropology, whether as full-time practitioners or asapplied anthropologists within academia. Speakers also provided specific advice to undergraduate and graduate students on the benefits and challenges of careers in appliedanthropology, in both the national and the international arenas.
Session Participants:VAN ARSDALE, Peter (U Denver)YOUNG, Philip D. (U Oregon)LASSITER. Luke (Marshall U)
 
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.

Working with Governmental Agencies

CHAIR: STEVENS JR., Phillips (SUNY-Buffalo)
ABSTRACT: This panel continues the conversation begun in Tampa, last year. The military interventions in rag and Afghanistan with their stated aims of regime change, and the2007 employment of anthropologists alongside troops, raise many questions about social science involvement in governmental efforts in other cultures. How can we worksuccessfully with governmental agencies, and persuade them to consider our advice in their planning and in their field operations - and should we, if we disapprove of their plansin the first place? How strong are memories of Project Camelot today? What are the ethical implications for our profession?
Session Participants:NIBBS, Faith (S Methodist U)FLUEHR-LOBBAN, Carolyn (Rhode Island Coll)SELMESKI, Brian (Air Force Culture & Language Ctr, Air U)
Session took place in Memphis. TN at the 68th Annual Meetina of the Society for Applied Anthropologv in March 2008.

2007 SfAA Awards Ceremony: The Malinowski Award

Malinowski Award Recipient: Gretel PeltoIntroduced by Peggy Bentley
Taking Care of Children: Applying Anthropology in Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health
This paper describes main features of a program of technical assistance in South Asia (primarily India) designed to help comm -unity health researchers develop more effectivedata gathering and analysis in applied studies of reproductive health issues. The program was funded by the Ford Foundation (India) and organized under a grant to JohnsHopkins University. Recipients of the technical assistance have been mainly small nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and some social science researchers in academicinstitutions in India. In most cases, the participants have been involved in community-based intervention programs, so the research activities have had a directly applied focus.The increasing challenge of the AIDS epidemic brought about a shift in emphasis in the program, as many organizations and individuals took up research on sexual behavior tobetter understand the patterns of individual actions that are associated with higher risks of HIV infection. An informal "sexual behavior research network" has developed as theprogram of technical assistance and the communications among the various participants matured. The use of computers for data management and e-mail communication hasfacilitated these developments.
Session took place in Tampa, FL at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2007.

Applying Linguistic Anthropology in the Classroom & Beyond

Due to audio issues, not all files are available
 
CHAIR: MESSING, Jacqueline (USF)
ABSTRACT: This panel includes several undergraduate students from the University of South Florida's Anthropology program and their mentor. We will discuss the teaching oflinquistic anthropology and applied linquistics in the classroom, including ideas for a variety of "real-world" research projects. The students wrote ethnographic papers based ontheir own research for a course on "Language and Culture" and then served as peer editors, to produce a special issue of USF's Journal of Undergraduate Research. This journalshowcased fourteen students, ethnographic research papers, including studies of lanquage as it relates to: health and community, identity, linquistic variation, archeology,religion, technology, and deaf culture.
Session Participants:CARDEW. Jen (University of North Texas)GILLOGY, Marianne (University of South Florida)
 
Session took place in Tampa, FL at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2007.

Environment & Conservation Policy

CHAIR: CATTANI, Jacqueline (University of South Florida)
Session Participants:KELLEY, Geoff (University of Georgia) From the State to the Local: Conservation along the Mexico-United States BorderCASAGRANDE, David (Western Illinois University) Residential Landscape Preferences in the Phoenix OasisGARTIN, Meredeth and WUTICH, Amber (Arizona State University) The Social Dynamics of Policy-maker CollaborationCATTANI, Jacqueline (University of South Florida) Lifting the Ban on DDT for Malaria Control: Health, Environmental, and Economic Perspectives
 
Session took place in Tampa, FL at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2007.