Presentation by Felicity Heathcote-Márcz at the 2018 Construction Mobile IT Conference 'Digital Construction: Lighting the Way' at the Hallam Conference Centre, London on 24th and 25th May 2018. More information at http://www.comit.org.uk/cconference-2018

1. 1
Felicity Heathcote-Márcz
Thursday 24th May 2018
Immersive approaches to the future
of construction:
The role of the cyborg
ethnographer

2. 1. Introduction
Immersive research for construction/infrastructure/IM
2. What is cyborg ethnography?
Summary of method and history
3. Why use cyborg ethnography?
USP and key benefits
How can Cyborg ethnography help ready the
construction sector for the future?
Case study – cyborg ethnography at a global bank
4. How is cyborg ethnography done?
What the ethnographer does
5. Construction and the revolution of ‘progress’
2

4. What is Cyborg ethnography?
An immersive research method for the
understanding, design and future-proofing of
organisations, construction & transport solutions.
Focussed on:
• Context
• History
• Culture
• Socio-technical interactions
 An immersive study of specific sites
 Highly contextual understanding (local knowledge)
 Rich data provides valuable solutions to complex problems
 Proven method for org change in the financial sector

5. Why use Cyborg ethnography?
• Most immersive, context-driven
method of research available
• Different method from traditional
stakeholder engagement,
culture change and human
factors approaches
• Ethnographic methods are in
vogue

6. How can Cyborg ethnography help the
industry prepare for the future?

7. What does the cyborg ethnographer do?
• Shadowing
• Ethnographic interviews
• Participant observation
• Visual research
(photographs/archives)
• Immersive research over different
time periods- often long-term to
help design, implement and analyse
change initiatives over time
“
Social worlds are
interpreted worlds,
always under
symbolic
construction”
Emerson et al
‘Writing Ethnographic
Fieldnotes’
2011

8. ARCHITECTURE HAS
MIRRORED SOCIAL
REFORMS – INNOVATION
IMITATING ‘THE SOCIAL’

9. People today try to realise their
romantic craving for
freedom…by electronic gadgets,
in romantic technologies
New Romantic Cyborgs
Mark Coekelbergh
“

10. Technology is becoming the
‘Innards of the city’
Saskia Sassen
Professor of Sociology
“

11. Construction is becoming “appified”,
attempting to drive innovation to users…
… and users are driving it back

12. Get in touch:
Email
Felicity.Heathcote-Marcz@atkinsglobal.com
Twitter
@sharpsister
Visit our website
www.atkinsglobal.com/im
12
THANKYOU