The Real World: Teaching Anthropology as if it Mattered

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-43
Author(s):  
Margaret Everett
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Real World ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
American Anthropologist ◽  
The Real ◽  
Human Organization ◽  
The Future ◽  
Decision Making Processes

In James Peacock's 1995 address on the future of anthropology given at the AAA meetings in Washington, D.C., he spoke persuasively about the discipline's need to move "beyond the academy" and warned that in order for anthropology to flourish, "we must press outward" ("The Future of Anthropology," American Anthropologist 99(1): 9-29, 1997). Efforts to broaden anthropology's contribution to society "beyond the academy" are already under way, as Human Organization, this publication, and this column, in particular, attest. Specifically, renewed interest in public policy reflects the growing conviction that anthropologists' work today needs to be more relevant to decision-making. Applied anthropologists often express frustration at their lack of influence in decision-making processes. Again, as Peacock argues, "Applied anthropology is often a mop-up operation, identifying and solving problems caused by bad policy. Instead, anthropology must move to shaping policy." Efforts through the AAA, SfAA, and elsewhere suggest a turning point for applied anthropology and the discipline in general.

The Real World: Words and Things

1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 42-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Winthrop
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Real World ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Good Position ◽  
American Anthropological Association ◽  
Dysfunctional Family ◽  
The Real ◽  
Policy Debates

The dysfunctional family that is American anthropology muddles on. A case in point: a much publicized forum on "public interest anthropology" at the 1998 American Anthropological Association meetings, concerned with demonstrating how anthropology can make a contribution to significant national policy debates, managed to avoid any reference whatsoever to applied anthropology. When challenged about this omission, one panelist explained helpfully that applied anthropologists, being of necessity "supplicants" in the marketplace, lacked the independence needed to play a useful role in policy debates. One might have thought that his applied colleagues-having spent their careers in work shaped by policy decisions—would be in a good position to comment on matters of public policy, but apparently not.

Comparing two context-driven approaches for representation of human tactical behavior

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
AVELINO J. GONZALEZ ◽  
PATRICK BRÉZILLON
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Real World ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
The Real ◽  
Specific Objective ◽  
The Future ◽  
Contextual Graphs ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Representational Level

AbstractThis paper describes an investigation that compared Context-based Reasoning (CxBR) and Contextual Graphs (CxG), two well-known context-driven approaches used to represent human intelligence and decision-making. The specific objective of this investigation was to compare and contrast both approaches to increase the readers’ understanding of each approach. We also identify which, if any, excels in a particular area, and to look for potential synergism between them. This comparison is presented according to 10 different criteria, with some indication of which one excels at each particular facet of performance. We focus the comparison on how each would represent human tactical behavior, either in a simulation or in the real world. Conceptually, these two context-driven approaches are not at the same representational level. This could provide an opportunity in the future to combine them synergistically.

scholarly journals Real-world decision making in the upstream oil and gas industry—prescriptions for improvement

2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 329
Author(s):  
Steve I Mackie ◽  
Steve H Begg ◽  
Chris Smith ◽  
Matthew Welsh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Real World ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
The Real ◽  
Decision Outcomes ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Decision Making Model

Business under-performance in the upstream oil and gas industry, and the failure of many decisions to return anticipated results, has led to a growing interest in the past few years in understanding the impacts of decision-making processes and their relationship with decision outcomes. Improving oil and gas decision making is, thus, increasingly seen as reliant on an understanding of the processes of decision making in the real world. There has been significant work carried out within the discipline of cognitive psychology, observing how people actually make decisions; however, little is known as to whether these general observations apply to decision making in the upstream oil and gas industry. This paper is a step towards filling this gap by developing the theme of decision-making process. It documents a theoretical decision-making model and a real-world decision-making model that has been distilled from interviews with many Australian upstream oil and gas professionals. The context of discussion is to review the theoretical model (how people should make decisions) and the real-world model (how people do make decisions). By comparing and contrasting the two models we develop a prescriptive list of how to improve the quality of decisions in practice, specifically as it applies in the upstream oil and gas industry.

The Real World

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Winthrop
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Real World ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
American Anthropological Association ◽  
The Real ◽  
Minority Member

In organizing a forum on anthropology and public policy at the 1985 American Anthropological Association meetings, Walter Goldschmidt recalled that it was quite easy to attract three responsible Washington officials to the panel (including Claiborne Pell, ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), but that finding three anthropologists willing and able to participate proved extremely difficult. "Anthropologists," said Goldschmidt, "know that they have important things to say with respect to policies that involve humans—especially people of alien cultures … But they have not prepared themselves for the serious and difficult task of translating their deep understanding into the workaday realities of decision making and the crossfire that goes with such a role" (Anthropology and Public Policy: A Dialogue, Walter Goldschmidt, ed., Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, 1986, pp. 3-4). That contradiction suggests the challenge we face in making anthropology a significant policy discipline.

Wellesley Girl: Emotion, Democracy, and the Contemporary Dystopia

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-296
Author(s):  
Abby Schroering
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Real World ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The Real ◽  
Emotional Reasoning ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Abstract Brendan Pelsue’s Wellesley Girl, which premiered in the midst of the 2016 U. S. Presidential election, depicts American democracy – as an institution, a mythology, and a practice – as a fundamentally flawed utopian framework that is susceptible to dystopian failure. In this post-apocalyptic community in which every adult is a member of Congress, it becomes clear that American democracy was systematically designed to exclude emotional reasoning – with a few notable, destructive, exceptions – and it therefore enforces performances of reason that tend to exclude women and produce a cognitive dissonance between politics and reality. Wellesley Girl merges its audience’s present with a recognizable dystopian future and implicates them in the decision-making processes of that future in order to render visible the real world consequences of that dissonance – consequences which are already manifest in our collective ecological crisis.

An Analysis of Congestion During Running Events from the Perspective of Runners: Prevalence, Impact on Safety and Satisfaction, and Preferred Controls

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Peckover ◽  
Aldo Raineri ◽  
Aaron T Scanlan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Injury Risk ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Electronic Survey ◽  
Safety Concerns ◽  
The Future ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The Impact

This study aimed to examine the views of runners regarding their experiences with congestion during running events, including its prevalence, its impact on their safety and satisfaction, and their preferred controls to mitigate congestion. Runners (n = 222) with varied experience participating in running events (1-5+ years, 5-km races to Ultramarathons, and a mixture of road, trail, and cross-country events) completed an electronic survey. The survey was developed to assess the characteristics of respondents, whether they have experienced congestion during running events, the impact of congestion they have experienced during running events on their safety and satisfaction, and their preferred controls for congestion during running events. Survey data indicated runners had experienced some form of congestion prior to the race in the start corrals (93% of respondents), as the race started (97% of respondents), and during the race while running (88% of respondents). In turn, 73% of respondents indicated their experiences with congestion somewhat to extremely (i.e., rating of at least 3 on a 5-point Likert scale) negatively impacted their satisfaction with an event, while 43% of respondents indicated congestion somewhat to extremely negatively impacted their safety during an event. Regarding the impact of congestion on runner safety, 38% of respondents indicated they had slipped, while 27% of respondents indicated they had fallen during running events due to congestion. Further, congestion was attributed to injuries sustained (9%) and not finishing a race due to sustaining an injury (5%) during running events in some respondents. Respondents identified seeding runners based on previous run times (91%), use of wave starts (91%), and designing courses with limited pinch points, U-turns, and narrow paths (89%) as their most preferred controls to mitigate congestion during running events. Respondents resoundingly indicated self-seeding is not an effective method of managing congestion during running events. This study provides novel evidence that congestion is an issue for runners during running events, subsequently diminishing their satisfaction with events and posing safety concerns. In this way, race directors should involve runners in their decision-making processes when implementing appropriate controls to combat congestion for minimising injury risk to runners and ensuring a viable participant base remains attracted to their events in the future.

Eula Bingham—Experience Bares “The Real World” and Smart Politics Saves Lives

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Mary Lee Dunn ◽  
Polly Hoppin ◽  
Beth Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Professional Life ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
The Real ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Look Back ◽  
The Future

Eula Bingham, toxicologist and former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is now at that place in her professional life where she can look back over her long career and identify its turning points and evaluate what worked and what didn't, what was important and what of lesser significance. In two interviews, she also looks at the present and the future and expresses concerns about the way we live now.

scholarly journals Virtual Prototyping for Open Building Design

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 46-56
Author(s):  
ŞEule Taşlı Pektaş ◽  
Bülent Özgüç
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Virtual Prototyping ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Enabling Technology ◽  
Conventional Design ◽  
Building Systems ◽  
The Future ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Design Media

This paper re-visits the basic premises of open building: designing for change as well as for stability, including the users in the design decision-making processes, and disentangling the building systems into the levels and allowing replacement; then, addresses the limitations of conventional design media in terms of the capabilities to support these aims. It is discussed that the design media should be predictive, dynamic, and interactive. Virtual prototyping as an enabling technology is reviewed and proposals are made for the future use of this technology for open building design.

scholarly journals Feminist Judging in the 'Real World'

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1275-1306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Real World ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
The Real ◽  
Judicial Practice ◽  
Tools And Techniques

The various feminist judgment projects (FJPs) have explored through the imagined rewriting of judgments a range of ways in which a feminist perspective may be applied to the practice of judging. But how do these imagined judgments compare to what actual feminist judges do? This article presents the results of the author’s empirical research to date on ‘real world’ feminist judging. Drawing on case study and interview data it explores the how, when and where of feminist judging, that is, the feminist resources, tools and techniques judges have drawn upon, the stages in the hearing and decision-making process at which these resources, tools and techniques have been deployed, and the areas of law in which they have been applied. The article goes on to consider observed and potential limits on feminist judicial practice, before drawing conclusions about the comparison between ‘real world’ feminist judging and the practices of FJPs. Los proyectos de sentencias feministas, a través de la reelaboración imaginaria de sentencias judiciales, han explorado multitud de vías en las que las perspectivas feministas se podrían aplicar a la práctica judicial. Pero ¿qué resulta de la comparación entre dichas sentencias y la práctica real de las juezas feministas? Este artículo presenta los resultados de la investigación empírica de la autora. Se analiza el cómo, el cuándo y el dónde de la labor judicial feminista, es decir, los recursos, herramientas y técnicas feministas que las juezas han utilizado, las fases de audiencia y toma de decisión en las que se han utilizado y las áreas del derecho en que se han aplicado. Además, se toman en consideración los límites observados y potenciales de la práctica judicial feminista, y se extraen conclusiones sobre la comparación entre la labor judicial feminista en el “mundo real” y la práctica de los proyectos de tribunales feministas.

Prison Crowding and the Evolution of Public Policy

1985 ◽  
Vol 478 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOAN MULLEN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Budget Constraints ◽  
The Public ◽  
Minimum Standards ◽  
Eighth Amendment ◽  
The Future ◽  
American Prison

While crowding has been a persistent feature of the American prison since its invention in the nineteenth century, the last decade of crisis has brought more outspoken media investigations of prison conditions, higher levels of political and managerial turmoil, and a judiciary increasingly willing to bring the conditions of confinement under the scope of Eighth Amendment review. With the added incentive of severe budget constraints, liberals and conservatives alike now question whether this is any way to do business. Although crowding cannot be defined by quantitative measures alone, many institutions have far exceeded their limits of density according to minimum standards promulgated by the corrections profession. Some fall far below any reasonable standard of human decency. The results are costly, dangerous, and offensive to the public interest. Breaking the cycle of recurrent crisis requires considered efforts to address the decentralized, discretionary nature of sentence decision making and to link sentencing policies to the resources available to the corrections function. The demand to match policy with resources is simply a call for more rational policymaking. To ask for less is to allow the future of corrections to resemble its troubled past.

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