Open AccessScaling Through Meaning to Action: What the Australian Bushfires Taught Me about Ethnography
Author(s) -
COCHRANE CHARLIE
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/epic.12039
Subject(s) - meaning (existential) , ethnography , context (archaeology) , action (physics) , perspective (graphical) , sociology , government (linguistics) , scale (ratio) , epistemology , public relations , spectacle , environmental ethics , media studies , political science , history , computer science , law , geography , linguistics , philosophy , physics , cartography , archaeology , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , anthropology
This pecha kucha gives a personal perspective on the ethical dilemmas around the impact of an individual's actions, and the meaning of an ethnographer's projects in the context of the scale where these play out. The story begins with the spectacle of the 2020 Australian bushfires and reflects on their enormous scale. Within this context what is the meaning of individual actions to limit global warming? The story shifts to the work context and explores the dichotomy of human impacts vs. the marketing metrics that typically measure success. Using an example of a research project with an overtly purposeful aim we explore the tension between ethnography as a tool for understanding the problem and the question of whether the scaled result truly addresses the end‐users’ problem. Returning to the bushfires, we again look at the scaled government response and the question of how successfully this met the needs of those impacted. We explore the different ways that initiatives can be scaled and recognize that smaller initiatives, tuned to end‐users’ needs may be those that produce the most human impact. We conclude with the challenge to expand the remit of ethnography beyond problem diagnosis through to end‐results.