Paris Spring School Ethnographic Exercise

Research Framework

• An anthropological approach offers a holistic perspective designed to show how concepts and ideas are linked in a cultural context
• Assumptions that certain phenomena, for example, car electronics and/or circular economy, are known and understood as self-evidently good
• But the relationship between technological innovations and people’s understandings of themselves as cultural actors, consumers, and environmental stewards can be nuanced and complicated
• The ethnographic method is a primarily qualitative social science method employed to reveal how cultural meaning is formed and experienced from the perspective of the interlocutors under study. It helps us understand what people think and feel, not what we imagine they should think and feel.

Paris School Exercise

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• This presentation is a scaled mini-exercise designed to show how the combination of ethnographic material (perspectives elicited by thematic prompts) and semantic visualized network analysis) help us see how concrete goals and initiatives (sustainability in the car industry; circular economy) are linked to broader beliefs (about power, consumerism, the role of the individual, etc.)
• The topics mimic the topics explored as a part of the ethnographic study within the framework of TREASURE
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Methods

• Data is procured primarily through interviews (in this case, through Q&A on the Edgeryders platform)

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Data is coded

• Data is coded then visualized using techniques from network science

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Data is visualized (P-Y will add visualizations)

• 79 codes total
• 607 links

• 7 clusters
• coherent communities of meaning

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Example: lilac community

• we see that promoting circularity is connected to three conceptual nodes
• one (SE) focuses on knowledge in the car industry
• one (SW) that focuses on policies and macro concepts like laws and profit
• one (N) that focuses on granular considerations involved in considering a shift to circularity

Example: blue community

• Full circular economy is utopia
• Connects with, on the one hand, considerations of the different practical possibilities of sustainable behavior
• Connects with, on the other hand, considerations of mental and cultural shifts necessary

Methodologically

In a real project, iteration would follow

Visualizations are followed by audits of codes, then revised visualizations

In a multi-stage process insights from visualizations are used to produce new survey and interview questions

Conceptually

Visualizing what concepts people are connecting to other concepts and mapping these resonances can inform actionable recommendations

What the visualizations show us

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• The combination of two methods allows us to see not only what people are saying, and how they are saying it, and also explore what things are mentioned together by the same people
• The sample for this exercise to inform policy recommendations, but if the same results were achieved with a larger sample, the following insights could be actionable:

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• There are positive expectations associated with knowledge and expertise about sustainability in the car industry. Auto manufacturing companies could consider creating prominent public platforms for sustainability experts and invest in creating educational campaigns for the general public
• People may consider full circularity utopian and impossible without a major paradigm shift, but are at the same time see circularity as a spectrum and are excited about practical measures to move along the spectrum. This insight can be used to shape awareness-promoting initiatives
• People distinguish between recycling and reuse, and reuse is seen more favorably (this mirrors real findings in our study). A focus on reuse may prove to be a stronger force in convincing the public that a move towards circularity is meaningful and something they should participate in in their role as car consumers.

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