For research to have an impact in any organisation it needs to circulated. Creating outputs that travel well is all important to developing what we call "ethnographic liquidity" -- the ability of research to be converted into something of value by its audiences. However, the impact of ethnographic research in the context of large organisations, and beyond, can often be impaired by issues of circulation. One of our own responses to this issue of liquidity has been to focus on high quality, printed material: booklets. Perhaps counter-intuitively, moving ethnographic material out of digital formats in to paper can make it easier to circulate and increase its liquidity. Further, its existence in an organisation becomes more durable. We will present two artefacts created by anthropologists in the Digital Health Group at Intel Corporation: the Global Ageing Experience (first printed 2007; reprinted 2008) and Community Supports for Ageing booklets (2009). These booklets, the result of long term ethnographic studies, summarise significant research programmes.
Creating Ethnographic Liquidity with Printed Materials
Submitted by epicadmin on Sat, 08/15/2009 - 03:35.
Artifact Number:
5Names:
Simon Roberts and David PrendergastOrg:
Digital Health Group, Intel Corporation

















