Cultures of the Future: Emergence and Intervention in Design Anthropology

Abstract

The research field of design anthropology is emerging between the fields of anthropology and design research. This chapter argues that more attention to the ways in which design anthropologists engage with the complex challenges of emergent cultural forms, and with exploring directions for possible futures. It explores some central epistemological questions concerning this kind of knowledge—transformative knowledge, created in and through action and engagement rather than by observation and reflection alone—to explore and to provoke intentional change. The chapter focuses on emergence and intervention as central concepts for design anthropology, and argues that these concepts are intrinsically connected in a dialectical movement of exploration, knowledge production and transformation. It also explores the possibilities of an anthropology that engages with emergent cultural practices as a way of producing knowledge that is part of, and itself constitutes, transformative practices.

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