The school of Anthropology
Anthropology is a scientific discipline that studies people and their cultures from the perspective of those people themselves. Culture is seen as dynamic and constantly changing. Questions anthropologists ask include: What motivates people to do what they do? To live how they live and to think how they think? What behaviour can we observe and where does this behaviour come from? The methods used for this are called participating observation
is divided into different departments working together on various research projects, and in the trainingof students and their specializations in different areas
- Department of Archaeology and Museum
- Department of Ethnography
- Department of Interdisciplinary Area Studies
- Department of Geography and the Environment
Culture scan: our approach
A culture scan is carried out by one of our cultural anthropologists, using the research method participatory observation: sit in with meetings, observe, have lunch in the canteen, wait at reception as a customer, have coffee with colleagues and conduct interviews with a cross-section of the organisation. The observations and findings from this ‘field work’ are then ordered and act as input for more detailed questions based on observation, aimed at identifying the forces that feed and maintain the current behaviour. In more technical terms, you could call this a root cause analysis into dysfunctional behaviour at organisation / team level.
We will determine how many days we will need to draw up this ethnography of the workplace, depending on the assignment and the size of the organisation.
Implementing changes of culture
In order to arrive at a real implementation of new behaviour, we will challenge you to link the desired culture to your corporate strategy, and then translate this into very concrete behaviour. HumanDimensions can then support you in ‘injecting’ the desired behaviour into the organisation and then spreading this ‘desired behaviour virus’ through informal networks
The End of Poverty?
The aphorism “The poor are always with us” dates back to the New Testament, but while the phrase is still sadly apt in the 21st century, few seem to be able to explain why poverty is so widespread. Activist filmmaker Philippe Diaz examines the history and impact of economic inequality in the third world in the documentary The End of Poverty?
The Empire of Africa
The rebels who started the civil war in Sierra Leone 15 years ago wanted only one thing: to reclaim the richness of the country from foreign corporations in order to end the exploitation of its people. In response, the international community decided to wage a war on this country, with bombs, executions, torture, rigged elections and manipulation of the international media. This created one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 20th century.
The Atomic Cafe
One of the defining documentaries of the 20th century, THE ATOMIC CAFE (1982) offers a darkly humorous glimpse into mid-century America, an era rife with paranoia, anxiety, and misapprehension. Whimsical and yet razor-sharp, this timeless classic illuminates the often comic paradoxes of life in the “Atomic Age,” while also exhibiting a genuine nostalgia for an earlier and more innocent nation.
Darfur Diaries – Message from Home
The documentary DARFUR DIARIES features interviews with many victims of the devastating genocide taking place in the area. The filmmakers seek to shine some light on this dark chapter in human history.
The Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in favor of Sudanese Arabs.