The Social Infrastructure We're Optimizing Away
Provo recently had a fight about how wide streets should be. The case for narrower streets was true in every particular, and yet it never stood a chance.
Wasteful and Pointless
Every year, right on schedule, someone asks why the city still bothers with the parade. It’s wasteful, the argument goes, and pointless. I want to take that critique seriously, because it’s half right. It is wasteful. That is the point.
From Dockworkers to Oil States
This year's season of the Premier League (England’s top tier of club soccer) is nearing its midpoint, and millions of supporters gather each week in pubs, living rooms, and internet forums, engaging in what might be my personal favorite demonstration of modern community.
Of Meaning and Metrics
For many of the most important and challenging endeavors that organizations in the social sector face, the question is not just what’s happening, but why is this happening? And how does it feel to live this way? This is, I think, the true power of an ethnographic approach.
