Culture - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 87

a tramp, but I did not merely translate the one term into the other for my ethnography. Instead I worked
to elucidate the full meaning of this concept, to describe their culture in its own terms. civ
Ethnography is tricky since we aim to discover from our informants not just the answers but the
questions as well. It's all too easy to impose our assumptions on their culture. In observations
and interviews, we should aim for what Zen Buddhists call “beginner's mind” - an attitude of
openness, awareness, and curiosity without beliefs or expectations. If we study high school stu-
dents, for instance, instead of starting with specific questions about academics or athletics, we
might say “If I sat at your table at lunch, what sorts of things might I hear?” This invites our in-
formants to tell us about topics that are important to them in their own language.
Of course, perfect openness is neither possible nor desirable. As ethnographers, we seek insights
to advance our goals. Spradley's list of universal cultural themes serves as a good place to start.
He suggests we look for social conflict, cultural contradictions, informal techniques of control
(e.g., gossip, rewards), strategies for dealing with strangers, and ways of acquiring and main-
taining status. Similarly, Hofstede offers an interview checklist, but his is aimed at corporate cul-
ture.
Symbols: What are the special terms that only insiders understand?
Heroes: What kinds of people advance quickly in their careers here? Whom do you consider as particu-
larly meaningful persons for this organization?
Rituals: In what periodic meetings do you participate? How do people behave during those meetings?
Which events are celebrated in this organization?
Values: What things do people like to see happening here? What is the biggest mistake one can make?
What work problems can keep you awake at night? cv
And Edgar Schein tells us to “decipher the reward-and-status system. What kind of behavior is
expected, and how do you know when you are doing the right or wrong thing?” cvi While pay in-
creases and promotions do matter, less obvious forms of social currency may also be powerful.
Finally, as information architects, we may ask about the use of systems and services. What tools
do you use, and why? Can you show me how you achieve that goal? What happens when this
tool doesn't work? Where you do go to find answers? How do you know who to trust? It ap-
pears we could ask questions all day, but as Spradley reminds us, we're less interested in
surface-level specifics than deep structure.
Cultural knowledge is more than random bits of information; [it] is organized into categories, all of
which are systematically related to the entire culture. cvii
Culture is a system of symbols and relationships. Using domain analysis and taxonomy con-
struction, ethnographers make maps that show how people have organized their knowledge.
The first step is to describe the domain by identifying categories, connections, and boundaries.