Abstract
The practice of design anthropology has continued to evolve since the publication of Design + Anthropology: Converging Pathways in Anthropology and Design in 2018. At that time, design anthropology was described as “an emerging transdisciplinary field.” ([1], [2]: 10, [3]). Working collaboratively with Ken Riopelle who provided analytical expertise in social network analysis, we approached this claim from the perspective of social network analysis “to investigate the human and nonhuman actors (i.e., people and institutions) that have contributed to design anthropological practice and theorizing.” [3]. Our initial goal was to determine if—and, if so, to what extent—design anthropology qualified as a disciplinary “field”. In our original analysis, we began by establishing a set of benchmarks that serve as indicators to identify a disciplinary field. In this paper, we revisit our initial analysis, updating it with new publications, contributors, blogs, groups, and other developments, to investigate if and how design anthropology has diffused.
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Notes
- 1.
Thompson Reuters’ Web of Science (Accessed July 12, 2016) http://ipscience.thomsonreuters.com/.
- 2.
We do not envision this trajectory as a linear progression, rather we see it as nonlinear with “progress” marked by ebbs and flows of events and periods of activity.
- 3.
Refer to Chap. 4 in Design + Anthropology: Converging Pathways in Anthropology and Design [3].
- 4.
For a detailed explanation of the Ngram searches please refer to pp. 78–80 in Design + Anthropology: Converging Pathways in Anthropology and Design [3].
- 5.
Google Ngram (Accessed July 12, 2016) https://books.google.com/ngrams.
- 6.
Data is continuously being added. These searches on Google Scholar were conducted on July 12, 2016.
- 7.
For a detailed explanation of the Google Scholar and ProQuest searches in the original research refer to pp. 76–82 in Design + Anthropology: Converging Pathways in Anthropology and Design [3].
- 8.
The spreadsheets, including a complete list of URLs and the search results, were made available on the companion website for Design + Anthropology: Converging Pathways in Anthropology and Design.
- 9.
Personal communication with Wendy Gunn in December 2019.
- 10.
A cursory Google search (December 18, 2019) revealed ten individuals with a Ph.D. in Design Anthropology. Two of the degrees were from U.S. institutions (Duke University and the University of Texas, Austin); most were from institutions outside the U.S. including Curtain University in Australia, Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, Mads Plank Institute at the University of Southern Denmark.
- 11.
Refer to the Business Anthropology website https://www.businessanthro.com/ and Global Business Anthropology Summit https://www.businessanthro.com/2019-summit
- 12.
It was pointed out by a reviewer that this is not true in the European context, who noted that anthropologists often participate in design conferences.
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Miller, C., Riopelle, K. (2020). Mapping Design Anthropology: Tracking the Development of an Emerging Transdisciplinary Field. In: Przegalinska, A., Grippa, F., Gloor, P. (eds) Digital Transformation of Collaboration. COINs 2019. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48993-9_17
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