Social Worlds of Technology A review of The Social Dynamics of Technology: Practice, Politics and World Views, by Marcia-Anne Dobres & Christopher R. Hoffman, 1999. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press; ISBN 1-56098-909-2 hardback, £26.95 & US$45, 240 pp., 28 ills.

Conducting ethnographic fieldwork in varied spaces, with different actors, enriches our understanding. A researcher may find paradoxes in practices and ideas and ask for clarification, or recognize that social dynamics and behavior are peculiar to group members present in a specific setting. This article highlights the usefulness of intentional variability and flexibility in the field. Researchers should plan to do multi-site analysis (MSA) to look for negative cases and opportunities to challenge commonsense notions. Additionally, this article emphasizes that the relationships built during fieldwork shape the data that are captured. Therefore, researchers need to consider the bases for their relationships, including what the subjects get out of them, and how subjects’ positionality affects what comes to be known. This perspective de-emphasizes false norms of objectivity and renders a more complete account of the social worlds we study.

Download Full-text

Cultural Models in Language and Thought. Dorothy Holland and Naomi Quinn, Eds. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1987. xii, 400 pp. $49.50; paper, $15.95; Discourse and the Social Life of Meaning. Phyllis Pease Chock and June R. Wyman, Eds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1986. 232 pp., illus. $22.50. Anthropological Society of Washington Series

Science ◽

10.1126/science.240.4855.1080 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 240 (4855) ◽

pp. 1080-1082 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

V. Crapanzano

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Social Life ◽

Cultural Models ◽

Smithsonian Institution ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Cambridge University ◽

Language And Thought ◽

The Social

Download Full-text

Patricia Wattenmaker. Household and state in upper Mesopotamia: specialized economy and the social uses of goods in an early complex society. xvi+248 pages, b/w figures. 1998. Washington (DC) & London: Smithsonian Institution Press; 1-56098-782-0 hardback £34.95 & $45

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00088074 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 73 (279) ◽

pp. 225-227

Author(s):

C. Knappett

Keyword(s):

Smithsonian Institution ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Complex Society ◽

The Social ◽

Social Uses

Download Full-text

The bromides of gods, the passions of humans

New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids ◽

10.1163/13822373-90002632 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 70 (1-2) ◽

pp. 107-112

Author(s):

Sidney W. Mintz

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Smithsonian Institution ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Material World ◽

The Social ◽

History Of

[First paragraph]Histoire du chocolat. NlKlTA HARWICH. Paris: Desjonquères, 1992. 292 pp. (Paper, n.p.)The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao. ALLEN M. YOUNG. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. xv + 200 pp. (Cloth US$ 24.95)A recent hurried look at some bookstore shelves on the Boulevard St. Michel was enough to convince this reviewer that French publishing has been infected with wild enthusiasm for the history of substances. This may reflect some older vogue; in France as elsewhere, fashions come and go. But today's trend is entirely separate from the Braudel era, from those preoccupations with the material world and the social struggles it embodies, which Braudel himself had sedulously popularized. Instead there is a concern with substances, especially edibles, and how good they are: a fascination with sensation that is not at all surprising at this historical juncture.

Download Full-text

Managing the Fears of Studying Technical Work

Work and Technological Change ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198795209.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 116-144

Author(s):

Stephen R. Barley ◽

Diane E. Bailey

Keyword(s):

Social Dynamics ◽

Social Worlds ◽

Clerical Work ◽

Technical Work ◽

The Social ◽

Technical Terms ◽

The Way

Technical work differs significantly from most other forms of work. This chapter explores those differences and how the differences pose important challenges for ethnographers who seek to study engineers, scientists, and other technical workers. The chapter summarizes the experience of thirty-five years’ of studying technical work to capture the social dynamics of technical worlds in the way that an earlier generation of scholars captured the social worlds of industrial, craft, and clerical work. The discussion revolves around how to handle six fears that ethnographers face when studying technical work: the fear of looking stupid, the fear of mishearing, the fear of failing to understand what technical terms mean, the fear of not capturing the complexity of the work, the fear of not finishing the study, and the fear of not being able to make sense of one’s data.

Download Full-text