We publish actively in and with business and anthropology journals and associations. Many of our papers are downloadable as PDFs at right. Others are available upon request.
Our book, Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research, is available through Left Coast Press or with Amazon.com.
Publications
Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research
By Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny, November 2007.
Publisher's site
This book provides a window into the theory and practice of our ethnographic and semiotic work. It was written to be of value to those in business as well as anthropology, in academia as well as in practice.
Researching cultural metaphors in action: Metaphors of computing technology in contemporary U.S. life
By Rita Denny and Patricia Sunderland.
In Journal of Business Research, October 2005.
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In this paper, prepared for a La Londe Seminar, we illustrate the utility of cultural metaphor as an analytic tool and theoretical construct in consumer research. We take as our prime example the ways that computer and internet metaphors have impacted U.S. consumers.
Connections among people, things, images, and ideas: La Habana to Pina and Back
By Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny.
In Consumption, Markets and Culture, September 2005.
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This publication includes a video and print version of a photo essay of images taken in the fall of 2003. Through an analysis of the photographs, we tackle issues of representation, meaning creation and understanding--of marketplaces, consumption, brands, and culture.
Being Mexican and American: Negotiating ethnicity in the practice of market research
By Patricia Sunderland, Elizabeth G. Taylor, and Rita Denny.
In Human Organization, Fall, 2004
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Based on experience conducting research among Mexican Americans, we discuss the value and dynamics of collaboration among researchers and respondents across ethnicities and disciplines.
Psychology vs. anthropology: Where is culture in marketplace ethnography?
By Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny.
In Advertising Cultures, T. Malefyt and B. Moeran, eds. London: Berg, 2003.
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Part of an edited collection, this chapter outlines the meaning and heuristic value of using a cultural rather than a psychological analysis in ethnographic consumer research.
What is coffee in Bangkok?
By Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny.
In Anthropology News, November, 2002.
Strange brew: How semiotics became au fait with au lait.
By Rita Denny and Patricia Sunderland,
Research Magazine, November, 2002
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These articles, drawing on a training exercise investigation of coffee in Bangkok, explore the uses of semiotic analysis in qualitative research and point to the necessity of cultural knowledge.
Performers and partners: Video diaries in ethnographic research
By Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny.
In Qualitative Ascending: Harnessing its True Value. Amsterdam: ESOMAR, 2002.
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This paper explores the uses of videotape in ethnographic consumer research practices, examining why video is embraced so strongly in today's U.S. market.
Communicating with clients
by Rita Denny.
In The collaboration of anthropologists and designers in the product development industry, S. Squires and B. Byrne, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood. 2002
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The social life of brands
By Michael Donovan.
Presented at the Association for Consumer Research, Austin, 2001.
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This essay examines the social nature of brands. It presents an anthropologist's view of brands' dual nature as symbols and things. It provides a consumer focused framework for understanding brand value and identity.
The intimate geography of family farms
By Michael Donovan.
In Comparative Studies in Society and History, April, 2001
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This article considers how global ideas about development are locally understood and the powerful role that these global/local visions of development play in transforming the countryside in western Kenya. Implications for those who are interested in understanding processes globalization, particularly the reach and limitations of global brands.
Shopping at the Strand
By Michael Donovan.
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This short memoir of graduate school book shopping describes the organic process though which brand comes to life in shopping. Lessons for retail design and branding.
The anthropology of shopping
By Michael Donovan.
Revised version of paper presented at Society for Applied Anthropology, Annual Meetings 2004
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"Good" shopping environments (brick and mortar, paper, or electronic) provide the cues, symbols, and well crafted spaces that engage the cultural imagination. This paper takes examples from recent fieldwork in consumer anthropology to examine how retail myths can come to life.
Glancing possibilities
By Patricia Sunderland.
In Anthropology News, April, 2000.
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This piece outlines the possibilities of conducting ethnographic, anthropologically informed analysis in short periods of time. Argued also is that in consumer and corporate contexts, fast-paced research is both a necessity and refraction of contemporary realities.
"You may not know it, but I'm black": white women's self-identification as black
By Patricia Sunderland.
In Ethnos, Vol. 62, 1997.
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This paper discusses issues of ethnic identity in the U.S., showing how White women within the African American artistic world of jazz draw upon discourses of race and ethnicity in order to construct themselves as Black.
Speaking to customers: The anthropology of communications
By Rita Denny.
In Contemporary Marketing and Consumer Behavior, J. Sherry, Jr. editor. NY: Sage, 1995
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This paper focuses on communications by utility companies to respond to customer concerns about EMFs in the 1980s in which the implicit (or presupposed) content of customers' words are explored. The paper suggests that all communications (advertising or otherwise) set up an expected frame or relationship with customers, a frame that is grounded by cultural symbols.