People, Identities, and Situations

Our company’s name, Ethnoscapes Global, was inspired by 1990s globalization icon, Arjun Appadurai, and his contribution to the re-imagination of how anthropologists should study people outside of bounded cultural, ethnic, or national groups. In Modernity at Large, he writes that “by ethnoscape, I mean the landscape of persons who constitute the shifting world in which we live:  tourists, refugees, exiles, guest workers, and other moving groups and individuals constitute an essential feature of the world and appear to affect the politics of (and between) nations to a hitherto unprecedented degree” (1996: 33).

Tailoring the Research to the Context

In choosing the name, Ethnoscapes Global, we are choosing not to depend upon tired stereotypes of ethnic, national, cultural, or gender difference for our analysis. In our work, we appreciate that individuals’ sense of self, their relationships to others, and their everyday practices are based on context. In some research projects, we will look at populations defined by individuals’ location and consumption of particular products. In other cases, we will pay particular attention to individuals’ profession, their status as a student, their economic decision making, their healthcare choices, their racial or gender identities, or their income levels. Several (or many) of these factors will come into play in understanding people’s thoughts and actions in relation to a particular research question.

We Listen, and You Get Actionable Insights

In the end, we wade through the complexity of human behavior and perception – and the ever “shifting world in which we live” – to produce actionable business insights for our clients. We talk to people, we listen to people, and we observe people. We get down to the nitty-gritty of why and how people do what they do so that our clients can make better products or services for them.

Reference:

Appadurai, Arjun (1996)  Modernity at large:  cultural dimensions of globalization.  University of Minnesota Press.  Minneapolis, MN:  Page 33.