A friend of mine, Kristina Börjesson, has focused her research on affective sustainability, and how the notion of this can help designers to create more sustainable things.

“If designers are reactive: always try to make their design catch up with changing ways of living, what they design risks having a short life. It will feel outdated as soon as new ways of living are in place. If designers are proactive: always try to link the past to the future by recognising the pattern which forms the meaning of objects and buildings (which have proven to stand the time) and also observe human ways of being as manifested in thoughtless acts, the resulting design will have a chance of longevity.”

Christmas time is time to wait. Historian Wolfgang Schivelbush shows in a study of rail travel history how train travel meant that passengers were forced to share cramped spaces with strangers for long periods of time. Here the newspaper came to serve as an excellent means to create “semi-private” rooms in public. The same applies to the mobile phone, mp3 and the computer in today’s society. But there is a semi-privacy which has a double meaning. Either one seeks to define oneself and create personalized free zones, often with the help of music, radio, or a game. Or, one might share one’s private life openly in a completely transparent way. But going from reading over someone’s shoulder in the newspaper to listening to the most private conversation is a big difference. The “private” in life is no longer as private.

Crazy, but very relevant. You see, we’ve been doing fieldwork for Vägverket focusing on getting a holistic view of the total experience of driving in relation to road quality. When I was presenting the study yesterday, one of the Research Analysist said: “It is so weird. I have been analyzing details within this field for a life time, but when I read your report, I felt like ´Yes, this is how it is´.” Obviously he was victim for the complex question above. I told him that we have that response quite often from our clients. So the answer to the question above is: If you want to know what you didn’t know you knew or if you want to know when you know that what you knew was what you wanted to know – you probably have to hire us. Anyone up for the challenge? Just give us a call.

When holding a MA-seminar in commercial anthropology one of the students had beforehand submitted a paper titled: Krakschi jidolucka medigi Anthropology? The need of translation for normal people. Outside the academic world (some times inside as well) this field is sort of a mystery – you’ve heard about it in relation to non-profit organizations, exotic fieldwork, and so on. But there’re still questions, so let me “translate”.

Cultural/Social Anthropology is the study of us as cultural and social human beings. We strive for a “holistic” understanding and broad perspective in order to discover the world through ours and other’s eyes. We do not judge, we understand. This is the fuel for Commercial Anthropology. Through participant observation, interviews and cultural analysis we understand consumer behavior. With that in-depth information we also must have morals and principals. Our training incorporate ethics, self-reflection as well as skills. All in all – we are genuinely interested in people and the power of social and cultural communities.

*The title is stolen from a student paper. MA-course, Commercial Anthropology, Högskolan Dalarna.