My Journey from Sociology into Business Ecosystems by Nazish Zafar Sociologists & anthropologists examine how our lives are shaped by society, and their research is often focused on uncovering these 'invisible' structures of influence. Nazish will share some of the interesting projects she has done around the world, such as the study of orphanages in Russia, public health education in Brazil, interviewing families in high poverty neighbourhoods in Baltimore and, most recently, examining the small business and start-up economy in Singapore. With a decade of academic research in Sociology, she shows us how she is applying her skills to the sphere of design thinking, with practical takeaways for everyone.

1. Sociology

2. SOCIAL + ORDER
ORDER
Sociology identifies
patterns of behavior
SOCIAL
Then searches for the
social causes of these patterns

3. Status Quo

5. Social Institution
“a complex of positions, roles, norms and values lodged in
particular types of social structures and organising
relatively stable patterns of human activity with respect
to fundamental problems in producing life-sustaining
resources, in reproducing individuals, and in sustaining
viable societal structures within a given environment.”
Jonathan Turner (1997)

6. Ethnography at orphanages in Russia

8. ETHNOGRAPHY
ETHNOS
FOLK | PEOPLE | NATION
GRAPHIE
WRITE | DESCRIBE

9. “Understanding a people's culture
exposes their normalness without
reducing their particularity...
It renders them accessible: setting
them in the frame of their own
banalities, it dissolves their opacity.”
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures [1973]

11. THICK
DESCRIPTION
“Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture” by Clifford Geertz [1973]

12. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A
TWITCH AND WINK

13. FIELDWORK ON
SMALL BUSINESSES
IN BRAZIL

15. LEAVE ROOM FOR THE
UNEXPECTED

25. How would we approach an ethnographic study of customer service centers?

26. Kids bored and waiting. Could they
be browsing digital content from the
hotel instead of their own phones?
Only one person doing
the check-in while the
rest of the family huddle
Standing in line after a
flight. Killing time.
How can the hotel lobby be transformed into a more
meaningful and engaging part of the customer journey?
Rethinking the entire paradigm can also reveal unexpected revenue opportunities
Interaction of
people with
their habitat

27. “The innovation group can’t
just dictate innovation.”
Neal Cross
DBS

28. Good ethnographers will discuss their research methods in great detail

29. “How can we comprehend types of
behavior such as sidewalk sleeping,
urinating in public, selling stolen
goods, and entangling passerby in
unwanted conversation?”

30. Suicide
Émile Durkheim [1897]
“Man is the more vulnerable to self-destruction the more he is detached
from any collectivity, that is to say, the more he lives as an egoist.”

32. LISTEN TO YOUR
EMOTIONS
EMOTIONS ARE DATA
THEY ARE CLUES TO THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE

33. nazish@jhu.edu
@ShopkeeperStories
ShopkeeperStories.com