Making things matter Article Swipe
YOU?
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· 2020
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003085867-11
· OA: W3096680928
In this chapter, the authors aim to demonstrate how a trajectory towards making things matter is not simply aspirational but is actually something they can hope to realise and that could drive material culture studies and digital anthropology in the future. They consider how an alternative to impact evaluation can be an integral part of research design through the use of ethnography. The primary product of ethnography is the monograph; no other format speaks to our ethnographic method of holistic contextualisation. Laura Haapio-Kirk is using her ethnography to unite patients, doctors, and state health officials in an effort to improve the experience of rural health care in Japan via the mobile phone. D. Fassin's edited collection presents the opportunities, challenges and limitations when ethnography 'goes public'. Furthermore, ethnography is rare in that it can accommodate contradictory ideals and practices, which is often the reality of welfare itself.
