Anthropology of Business and Technology

Study Board of Business Economics

Teaching language: English
EKA: B150027102
Censorship: Second examiner: None
Grading: 7-point grading scale
Offered in: Odense
Offered in: Autumn
Level: Master

Course ID: B150027101
ECTS value: 10

Date of Approval:


Duration: 1 semester

Course ID

B150027101

Course Title

Anthropology of Business and Technology

Teaching language

English

ECTS value

10

Responsible study board

Study Board of Business Economics

Course Responsible

Name Email Department
Dorthe Brogård Kristensen dbk@sam.sdu.dk

Offered in

Odense

Level

Master

Offered in

Autumn

Duration

1 semester

Mandatory prerequisites

-

Recommended prerequisites

-

Aim and purpose

The purpose of this seminar is to provide the students with an anthropologically based understanding of business and technological development, focusing on the relationship between innovation, social change and consumption practices and reflecting on the managerial consequences of these relationships. The course covers issues that include: ethnographic practices in innovation, design and corporate culture, ways that people and technologies co-construct everyday conditions and futures, the role of technologies in mediating relationships between citizens, corporations and the state; and the Internet of Things as a new realm of social relationality. Overall the course equips the student with the knowledge and competence to claim such professional designations as business anthropologist, market ethnographer, design anthropologist and customer experience designer.

In the face of globalization and its challenge to community-based studies of cultural processes, anthropology has become increasingly interested in innovation and technologies. In order to tackle the notion of cultural complexities and organizational dynamics, students are presented to different cases of business anthropology and organizational culture as well as the use of ethnography in the study and design of devices, products, services and infrastructure. The course will deal with technologies in the following ways; 1) technologies used on an individual level a) social media and personal analytics (when people measure, track and monitor themselves) & b) medical or enhancement technologies such as plastic surgery, & medicines. c) personal interest: analog versus digital medias & materialities, 2) & technical systems such as communications networks, energy infrastructure, roads, and water and waste systems, that have become sites for conducting ethnographies of contemporary stakeholder networks, projects and relationships. 3) Robots such as drones and welfare technologies.

Content

  • Theories of business anthropology, organizational culture and technology
  • Theories and applied cases of innovation and design anthropology Information
  • Technologies and Social Life
  • Technological Infrastructure and Culture.

Learning goals

Students who complete this module should be able to:

  • Demonstrate that they possess the required knowledge by being able to:
  • Explain the contribution of anthropology to the analysis of technology-culture-business relationships
  • Portray the conceptual landscape of innovation. Discuss the theoretical relationships and interconnectivity between technologies, culture and human practices
  • Explain the cultural principles and methods used in the development of a specific technology.
  • Account for technology as a component of macrosocial, economic and cultural change.


Demonstrate that they have skills to analyze and assess a specific technological content

  • Application of the combined knowledge of innovation, design and anthropology in the area of services, products and infrastructure
  • Investigate and analyze the drivers and barriers surrounding technological innovation, in particular their cultural dimensions
  • Undertake analysis of the ethical issues at stake
  • Critically reflect on technological innovation in a societal framework
  • Be able to analyze the cultural context of innovation, and design, identifying responsible opportunities and obstacles
  • Be able to detect cultural patterns behind data analytics and apply this insight for strategic decision making

Description of outcome - Competences


Literature

For example:


  • Brigitte Jordan (ed.) Advancing Ethnography in Corporate Environments: Challenges and Emerging Opportunities, Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Pres
    Frank, Thomas 1997. The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. University of Chicago Press.
  • Kristin Asdal, Brita Brenna and Ingunn Moser (eds.) (2007) & Technoscience. The Politics of Interventions. Oslo: Oslo University Press.

  • Neff, Gina & Dawn Nafus (2016) Self tracking. Cambridge: MIT Press

  • Lupton, Deborah (2016) The Quantified Self: Cambridge: Polity Press

  • Hyysalo, Sampsa Torben Elgaard Jensen and Nelly Oudshoorn (2016) The New Production of Users Changing innovation collectives and Involvement strategies. New York: Routledge.

  • Mumford, Lewis. "Authoritarian and Democratic Technics." Technology and Culture 5 (Winter 1964): 1-8.
  • Verbeek. Paul (2011) Moralising technology, Understanding and Designing the Morality of things. London: University of Chicago press.
  • Larkin, Brian. Signal and noise: media, infrastructure, and urban culture in Nigeria. Duke University Press, 2008.
  • Bartmanski, Dominik, and Ian Woodward. Vinyl: The analogue record in the digital age. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
  • Mitchell, Timothy. Rule of experts: Egypt, techno-politics, modernity. Univ of California Press, 2002.

Teaching Method

Seminar carried out as roundtable discussions between students and teacher. Furthermore students are expected to do an oral presentation of 1) readings that relate to the themes in the course and their own individual research project 2) their own projects

Workload

Scheduled classes:
11 seminars (introductory seminar 2 hours, hereafter 3 hours). 

Workload:
Participation in seminars 32 hours
Independent work on research paper 238 hours.

Examination regulations

Exam

Name

Exam

Timing

Exam: January
Reexam: February

The form of the exam is subject to change. The students are informed about the change in format after the students have signed in for the reexam.

Tests

Exam

Name

Exam

Form of examination

Take-home assignment

Censorship

Second examiner: None

Grading

7-point grading scale

Identification

Student Identification Card - Exam number

Language

English

Duration

Date for submission will appear from the examination plan.

Length

25 standard pages excl. Appendices.

Examination aids

Aids allowed: All exam aids allowed.  

Assignment handover

Not relevant.

Assignment handin

Via SDU-assignment in the course page in Blackboard.

ECTS value

10

Additional information

The student’s achievement of the learning goals will be assessed through a written report that will be prepared based on the student’s independent research and incorporate data collected during the semester. Such materials may be appended to the 25 page body of the report. The report should conform to standard research paper formats.  

Supplemental information on reexam:

An improved research paper. A short supervision is granted in the form of an explanation of major weaknesses in the original paper.

EKA

B150027102

External comment

NOTE - This course is identical with the former course 9269601 Anthropology of Business and Technology.
Used examination attempts in the former identical course will be transferred.
Courses that are identical with former courses that are passed according to applied rules cannot be retaken.

The student is automatically registered for the first examination attempt when the student is registered for a course or course element with which one or more examinations are associated. Withdrawal of registration is not possible, and students who fail to participate in an examination have used one examination attempt, unless the University has made an exemption due to special circumstances. 
If a student does not meet the established university prerequisites for taking the exam, he or she has used one examination attempt, unless the University has made an exemption due to special circumstances.

Courses offered

Offer period Offer type Profile Education Semester
Fall 2018 Mandatory Market Anthropology (ikrafttræden pr. 1. september 2016) MSc in Economics and Business Administration | Master of Science (Msc) in Economics and Business Administration | Esbjerg, Soenderborg, Slagelse, Odense, Kolding 1
Fall 2018 Mandatory Market Anthropology (ikrafttræden pr. 1. september 2017) MSc in Economics and Business Administration | Master of Science (Msc) in Economics and Business Administration | Esbjerg, Soenderborg, Slagelse, Odense, Kolding 1
Fall 2018 Optional Brand Management and Marketing Communication MSc in Economics and Business Administration | Master of Science (Msc) in Economics and Business Administration | Esbjerg, Soenderborg, Slagelse, Odense, Kolding
Fall 2018 Optional International Business and Marketing (ikrafttræden pr. 1. september 2017) MSc in Economics and Business Administration | Master of Science (Msc) in Economics and Business Administration | Esbjerg, Soenderborg, Slagelse, Odense, Kolding
Fall 2018 Optional Global Marketing and Consumer Culture MSc in Economics and Business Administration | Master of Science (Msc) in Economics and Business Administration | Esbjerg, Soenderborg, Slagelse, Odense, Kolding
Fall 2018 Optional Management of Innovation Processes MSc in Economics and Business Administration | Master of Science (Msc) in Economics and Business Administration | Esbjerg, Soenderborg, Slagelse, Odense, Kolding
Fall 2018 Exchange students

Teachers

Name Email Department City
Alev Kuruoglu alev@sam.sdu.dk Odense
Dorthe Brogård Kristensen dbk@sam.sdu.dk Odense
Ian Woodward iawo@sam.sdu.dk Odense

URL for Skemaplan