Dialogue between people-centred enthusiasts
On June 8th, 2021, I interviewed Ellen Bal and Dan Podjed. I had specific questions prepared on understanding the society’s need for anthropologists and translating the people-centred approach into a planet-centred approach. However, current affairs such as digitalization and COVID-19 were very present in our dialogue, since these challenges are top of mind and also easily linked to the topics of our conversation. Despite these side tracks, I did manage to get new insights and answers regarding the Active8-Planet challenge that I’d love to share with you here. If you’re curious to watch some snippets of the interview, you can view them on our Active8-Planet Youtube channel.
People-centred enthusiasts
I approached Ellen and Dan specifically because the people-centred approach, of which they are both great advocates, plays an important role in the Active8-Planet project. As they explain, it is important for our societies that we push for a paradigm shift from the expert mindset to what we call a people-centred approach. Which in short entails: asking the people. Who these ‘people’ we need to engage with are, might differ from case to case – they might be the existing users of a car-sharing service for whom we’re developing a better smartphone app – but likewise, we’d want to talk with those who are not yet registered users (but we’d like them to be), or to the local governance policy-makers who might integrate the app and the service into their local development agenda, and so forth. In short, our ‘people’ might be experts in their own right and in their specific fields. Identifying the stakeholders is therefore the first and crucial step in the research and development (R&D) process, which we will explain in more detail in a bit. Opening up this conversation allows for a more tailored design to their actual needs, whereas ignoring their input has often led to useless or unusable products, designs, services, or ideas. Do you want to hear Dan explain this? Watch the video ‘People-centred approach in four steps’ on our YouTube channel.
A short introduction to the expert-, people- and planet-centred-mindset
When you work in a field for many years and experience many different challenges, you start to consider yourself an expert. This is not only very normal, in our world this expert-mindset is powerfully rewarded. Experts are often rewarded financially, with more prestige, a larger audience, and sometimes even with more friends. On the other hand; being humble, expressing doubt and uncertainty is met with displeasure, less job opportunities, and a much smaller audience. Likewise, many organisations and businesses rely on the expertise of their employees. They rarely imagine that this may be exactly the thing that prevents them from achieving their goal. Unfortunately, this often happens in technical or engineering fields.
As social scientists we aim to understand people and societies they live in. Especially anthropologists have a lot of experience researching and analysing the practices, values and meanings people ascribe to their everyday experiences. As people ourselves, we unfortunately have this nasty habit of projecting our own ideas and needs onto others, in particular when we consider ourselves experts on the topic. However, people are not that predictable. The people-centred mindset acknowledges this knowledge gap and urges you to test your assumptions by talking to (engaging with, observing, spending time with) exactly those people that you’re targeting with your design, service, ideas or product.
This first paradigm shift from expert- to people-centred mindset already leads to a big improvement. But now we introduce the third layer of reality! We are not only no longer an expert (#Socrates “We know that we don’t know”), nor can we fill in the needs of other people with our own, neither can we ignore the environment a.k.a. our planet. We are as a species being challenged to think bigger and better of our actions and creations. Taking into account what we do to our environment, which resources we deplete, which toxins we exude is our final step into a better and more realistic future. This perspective is what we call a planet-centred mindset.
Becoming an anthropologist
When asked about their introduction to anthropology, neither Ellen nor Dan had a lineair start with their field of study. Both had not aimed to become anthropologists. Ellen simply picked the study that she felt had the broadest approach, social history, which would allow her more time to decide on a more concrete direction. During her studies, however, she discovered how anthropology particularly helps us understand people, diversity and cultural differences across the globe. Her own life trajectory led her to India and Bangladesh. Here, she slowly transformed into a historian cum anthropologist, realizing the beautiful combination the two disciplines make.
Dan, on the other hand, was more interested in the natural sciences and computer technology, and even dabbled in some astrology (I should still ask him to elaborate on this last one, next time we meet). However, failing to be admitted to his preferred studies, he ended up taking anthropology classes. It did not necessarily peak his interest in the beginning. But through some ethnographic experiences and reading up on some of the greats, i.e. Bronisław Malinowski and Marcel Mauss, he discovered anthropology actually had much to offer. Proving again that, though his current passion is unmistakable, it’s not always love at first sight.
Applied anthropology
The way Dan and Ellen ‘bumped into’ anthropology by simply looking for theory and methodological approaches that would help them understand the world around them, definitely fits with their interest in applied anthropology. They truly see anthropology as a means to an end, an approach that can help us work towards a more just and nurturing society and a healthy planet. And that is what, to them, applied anthropology stands for. Anthropology should not be limited to knowledge production for an academic audience only. The world needs anthropologists! They need to share their findings and insights, and also their techniques and challenges, with a broader audience, where it can actually make an impact. Because our world, though in many ways an impressive place, can truly benefit from learning from and understanding its diverse inhabitants. And this is exactly what anthropologists do. Hence the alternative description of ‘applied anthropology’ as a people-centred approach.
Including the environment
But our planet is not only inhabited by many different people. We share this planet with many other species. Moreover, we are 100% dependent on its natural resources. Our treatment of our planet, however, does not relay this awareness. In many different forms we are extracting, polluting and destroying this planet in order to fulfill our consumption needs. This is a challenge that Ellen and Dan are most definitely aware of. And according to them, this being the biggest challenge of our time, anthropologists cannot ignore it. Setting up the Active8-Planet project is one of the ways anthropologists can help understanding its complexity and contributing to a way forward.
Expert advice
Both Ellen and Dan see different roles that anthropologists can play in tackling environmental decay by applying, what we are calling, a planet-centred approach. Interestingly, they mention first and foremost the people-centred approach as a solution. Simply by designing products (or services, or systems) that fit the people’s needs one can reduce consumption. This approach can result in solutions that actually add value to people’s lives, and therefore will not be discarded or replaced easily. Of course, the people-centred approach plays a big role in Active8-Planet.
Secondly, they argue that people need the planet. This conscious awareness is spreading throughout society, especially in the younger generations. Therefore, people’s needs are the planet’s needs, enforces Ellen. Nobody wants to trash the planet, destroy the rainforests or deplete our freshwater supplies. Collaborating with people from a planet-centred perspective, allowing their voices to change the process, will inevitably lead to a future proof planet-centred approach. I’m afraid this is where my views as an ecologist slightly differ from these people-centred enthusiasts. But it might be the case that this is exactly why inter- or even trans-disciplinarity is a key ingredient in Active8-Planet’s people- and planet-centred concept!
Sustainability Matrix
Of course, it’s not always 100% clear what the planet needs. Unlike people, we can’t just ask the planet or other species what they need. Therefore we risk slipping back into the expert-mindset when it comes to assessing the planet’s needs. Something I noticed, unfortunately, even planet-centred anthropologists can get tangled up in. Asking Ellen and Dan how to assess the planet’s needs, they recommend being aware of every action you take and asking yourself how to make less of an impact. My experience is that, though in some cases this indeed can work, it is not always the case. A people’s perspective on the planet’s need, is nothing less and nothing more than just that; a people’s perspective. When, what I believe we really need for this second paradigm shift is a true unadulterated planet-centred perspective.
To facilitate this, Griet Verbeek and Evy Puelinckx from the Hasselt University come to the rescue! They have designed a sustainability matrix for the Active8-Planet project to avoid assumptions on sustainability and use decades of independent quantifiable research on what the planet needs. Now, it’s up to all of us planeteers to acknowledge the priority of these needs and implement them in our challenges.
Active8 Challenge – Healthcare Environment
To give this generalistic story some body I’d love to introduce you to the Active8-Planet challenge that I’m working on with De Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) and Huygen Installaties (HIA), an engineering and consultancy agency specialised in technical building installations and building physics. Here you can see how we want to apply these two paradigm shifts, from the expert mindset to a people- and planet-centred approach.
The built environment can play an important role in the well-being of healthcare professionals and patients. Appropriately designed indoor heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, for instance, can reduce infection rates and medical errors, improve indoor air quality, speed up patient recovery and even shorten the duration of hospital stay. These systems, however, are often designed from an expert-mindset – in line with the technical standards. What’s currently often missing is a deeper understanding of the impact of the built environment on people. Likewise, we need to better understand how people perceive and (re)shape that environment according to their needs. How do staff and patients perceive the indoor environment and interact with the built environment? Does it contribute to their perceived well-being? How do vulnerable people respond to these systems?
This September, with the support of the VU faculty and HIA engineers, four students at VU will start tackling these challenges by experimenting with and testing the people- and planet.centred approach to examine a Dutch healthcare facility. They will use the research methodology and the theory they acquired during the course of their studies, supplement them with new skills and knowledge through engaging in interdisciplinary and cross-sector teams, and apply them to a concrete and challenging R&D problem. By June 2022, they will present their research findings and concept designs. (We will also get to see how the university, the higher education teachers, the engineering company, its employees, and the students benefited from and co-created impact through an intensive collaboration within an Active8-Planet team!)
Sounds interesting? Follow our challenge on www.active8-planet.eu/vu
