Dan PodjedResearch Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts | ZRC SAZU · Institute of Slovenian Ethnology
Dan Podjed
PhD, Anthropology
About
68
Publications
14,645
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386
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Dan Podjed is an applied anthropologist from Slovenia, devoted to developing ethnography-based IT solutions for the promotion of a sustainable lifestyle. From 2010 to 2018 he served as Convenor of the EASA Applied Anthropology Network. He is the founder of Why the World Needs Anthropologists international event, annually organised since 2013.
Additional affiliations
January 2017 - present
Institute for Innovation and Development of University of Ljubljana
Position
- Researcher
Description
- EU Horizon 2020 project MOBISTYLE (www.mobistyle-project.eu): analysing how people at home and work interact with IT tools and devices for reducing energy consumption and improving health and wellbeing; preparing development recommendations.
February 2012 - present
February 2012 - June 2017
CVS Mobile, IT Solutions, Inc.
Position
- Fellow
Description
- Development of a smartphone solution for promoting a sustainable mobility (DriveGreen project), management of R&D projects, public presentations.
Education
October 2004 - September 2010
Publications
Publications (68)
This article focuses on drivers involved in various modes of personal transport in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and describes their interactions and conflicts, often resulting in verbal or nonverbal expressions of anger. Using various approaches, ranging from semi-structured interviews to “participant driving,” it describes in great detail a small part of...
A bstract
The article presents the state of applied anthropology in Europe, in particular focusing on the application of anthropological knowledge and skills within the private sector. Firstly, the text depicts the historical context, which has had a strong and often negative impact on the developments in contemporary applied anthropology and speci...
More than mere means of transportation, vehicles play an important role in the creation of stereotypes about individuals and communities. They define our social position and install us within the network of social connections and cross-gender relationships. The paper discusses some stereotypes about vehicles in connection to social power and cross-...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis of anthropological research has occurred that requires both methodological and epistemological considerations. The basic tool of anthropology is field research based on participant observation in situ and in close contact with people. However, during the pandemic, it has become almost impossible to conduct res...
The study presented in this article focuses on the role of a smart waste bin (waste container) designed for waste management and explores what types of interventions people consider more appropriate in promoting environmentally responsible behaviour—based on norms or on an individual’s emotions. The smart waste bin development process was people-ce...
With the current health crisis and the introduction of new research approaches, ethnographic fieldwork and physical presence among people do not end but, on the contrary, gain an even greater value. Building upon ethnography using the tools we present in this article can increase its potentials and facilitate access to people also in uncertain peri...
This article examines an innovative approach to teaching and learning anthropology, developed within an EU Erasmus+ project PEOPLE. Learning Cycles address the mismatch between skills gained by students and the ones expected by employers in industry. It elaborates on the example of university-industry cooperation established in Slovenia, in which s...
Why does the world need anthropology and anthropologists? This collection of essays written by prominent academic anthropologists, practicing anthropologists and applied anthropologists aims to answer this provocative question.
In an accessible and appealing style, each author in this volume enquires about the social value and practical applicatio...
Spletni portal Sentimenter je namenjen prikazovanju sentimenta v medijskih objavah za različne družbene skupine. Te smo identificirali z interdisciplinarnim pristopom, pri čemer smo izhodiščne skupine določili z vprašalnikom ter metodo hierarhičnega razvrščanja v skupine, dokončno pa smo jih potrdili in izoblikovali z intervjuji in fokusnimi skupin...
Spletni portal Sentimenter je namenjen prikazovanju sentimenta v medijskih objavah za različne družbene skupine. Te smo identificirali z interdisciplinarnim pristopom, pri čemer smo izhodiščne skupine določili z vprašalnikom ter metodo hierarhičnega razvrščanja v skupine, dokončno pa smo jih potrdili in izoblikovali z intervjuji in fokusnimi skupin...
In recent years, food waste has become an important issue that attracts attention from scientists, consumers, and activists. According to the World Bank, one third of food produced for human consumption is wasted. In Slovenia, almost 131,800 tons of food waste were generated in 2017, or 64 kg per person on average. This article presents the finding...
The authors look into two environmental movements that arose from grassroots initiatives. The first is Ecologists without Borders, the leading NGO promoting waste reduction in Slovenia. The second is Critical Mass, an international cyclists’ movement that seeks more public space for urban cyclists, which the authors studied in Belgrade and Budapest...
The central message of this journal issue is that the social science and humanities in collaboration with other fields of science should put more attention to redefining sustainability as a concept which has been used and abused from its inception and has meanwhile lost a part of significance. The covid-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to carry...
The article highlights the need to rethink and reconceptualise the accepted concepts of smart cities and villages by shifting the attention from technology and technological solutions and moving it towards understanding the significance of communities and sustainability. The conceptual framework combines four essential features—community, village,...
A prevailing perception within the research field of energy and buildings is that buildings-and not people-consume energy. Researchers and practitioners often neglect the important effect of the actual behaviour of people living or working in buildings, together with the values, habits, motivation factors, and other practices connected to the energ...
This paper presents the outcomes of a survey questionnaire deployed in the buildings of the Faculty of Economics (FE) and Faculty of Arts (FA) of the University of Ljubljana (UL), Slovenia, in a cross-cultural comparison of previous results gathered in three analogous university buildings in Italy. Objective of this study, which was in the Slovenia...
While social sciences and humanities are increasingly including computational methods in their research, anthropology seems to be lagging behind. But it does not have to be so. Anthropology is able to merge quantitative and qualitative methods successfully, especially when traversing between the two. In the following contribution, we propose a new...
A prevailing perception within the research field of energy and buildings is that buildings – and not people – consume energy. Researchers and practitioners often neglect the important effect of the actual behaviour of people living or working in buildings, together with the values, habits, motivation factors, and other practices connected to the e...
This paper presents the outcomes of a survey questionnaire deployed in the buildings of the Faculty of Economics (FE) and Faculty of Arts (FA) of the University of Ljubljana (UL), Slovenia, in a cross-cultural comparison of previous results gathered in three analogous university buildings in Italy. Objective of this study, which was in the Slovenia...
The article presents and compares the rise of two self-made politicians, Donald Trump in the US and Ivan Kramberger of Slovenia. Their presidential candidacies were based of their fame and fortune, rather than on the basis of their political experience. The author notes that the self-promotion strategies, utilised by Trump and Kramberger, are not u...
This paper attempts to alter a prevailing assumption that buildings use energy to an understanding that in fact, people use energy. Therefore, to successfully accelerate the transition to a low-carbon society and economy more emphasis should be on motivating people and increasing their awareness by making them energy conscious building users and th...
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2016. Overheating: An Anthropology of Accelerated Change. London: Pluto Press. 192 pp.
Miller, Daniel, and Jolynna Sinanan. 2014. Webcam. Cambridge: Polity Press. 220 pp.
V prispevku predstavimo razvoj in delovanje aplikacije za pametne telefone 1, 2, 3 Ljubljana, ki smo jo na podlagi primerjalne raziskave v Ljubljani, Beogradu, Budimpešti, Newcastlu in Durhamu razvili v triletnem interdisciplinarnem projektu DriveGreen: Razvoj aplikacije za spodbujanje eko-vožnje pri prehodu v nizkoogljično družbo. Najprej namenimo...
A screening of the science-fiction blockbuster Avatar immerses the audience equipped with special glasses for viewing 3-D images into a spectacular, previously unseen world. Having seen the film, the flora and fauna of our home planet seems rather boring, as we can only hope to see the normal, every-day variety of animals and plants. It would thus...
Vehicles have become so commonplace in our day-to-day lives that anthropology has,
oddly enough, all but overlooked them. Some researchers (e.g. Miller 2001) have taken
on this subject but focused mainly on the material image and meaning of vehicles. The
symbolic role of vehicles, however, remains largely ignored. Vehicles attempts to fill that
voi...
This article presents the development of business anthropology since the 1930s. The authors examine the position of business anthropology in science and the business world, and highlight the key events that marked and shaped the discipline. The authors also delineate the advantages and drawbacks of using anthropological methods in the business worl...
Drawing on Gregory Bateson's theory of cultural schismogenesis, the authors analyse such processes within two organizations: the Birdwatching and Bird Study Association of Slovenia and VU University Amsterdam. Both cases illustrate internal cultural divisions typical for non-profit organizations whose goals go beyond optimizing financial profits an...
The different approaches presented in this thematic section of Traditiones help broaden the concept of volunteerism, but also establish and reinforce its importance, which enables us to expand the limits of the social world that we live in, and increase the cognitive range of people in communities that strive to understand why individuals, as well...
The article, based on ethnographic research, highlights the dynamics of relationships in DOPPS, the Slovenian ornithological and nature conservation society, and describes a mixture of voluntary and professional activities in the organization. The article also addresses the conflicts among different groups that exist within DOPPS and describes the...
Prispevek, ki je nastal na podlagi etnografske raziskave, osvetli dinamiko razmerij v slovenskem ornitološkem in naravovarstvenem društvu DOPPS, v katerem se prepletajo prostovoljske in profesionalne dejavnosti. Na primeru društva prikaže konfliktna razmerja med skupinami, hkrati pa opiše recipročnost in sodelovanje ter poenotenje kulturnih predpos...
This article discusses how supervision and observation encourage altruism and prosocial behavior. It focuses on several types of observation: surveillance, sousveillance, peer-to-peer surveillance, and self-surveillance. These aspects are analyzed in greater detail in a case study of various approaches to encouraging eco-driving.
Applied Anthropology Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) started its activities in 2012 and has since then grown to 120 members. The newly established network has already tackled some of the crucial issues in Europe related to applied anthropology, and has so far identified at least three key challenges: (1) how to...
From collecting to protecting birds
Birdwatchers are, at least stereotypically, known for their tendency to “collect” bird-sights, and order them into neatly organized categories – taxonomic groups. But is it necessarily true? Members of the largest Slovenian birdwatching association provide an opposite example. They started to perceive birds from...
The paper presents three types of surveillance by telematics systems: 1. top-down surveillance, e.g. governmental control of traffic and fleet management, carried out by companies; 2. peer-to-peer surveillance, i.e. reciprocal and mutual control of drivers participating in social networks; 3. self-surveillance, i.e. self-control of individuals who...
The article presents four Slovenian bubble celebrities who have suddenly and unexpectedly gained fame: Fredi Miler, Artur Štern, Urška Hocevar Cepin, and Damjan Murko. The author explains how their celebrity status is influenced by online social networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) and investigates the role of websites such as YouTube, for example,...
Display of Human Remains in Slovenian Museums : an Ethical Problem
The article focuses on the ways the human body is exhibited in museums. It presents two examples of such remains that have become museum objects in Slovenia – a strap made of human skin and a shrunken human head. Museums have not yet made a decision to completely remove such objects...
The article focuses on the ways the human body is exhibited in museums. It presents two examples of such remains that have become museum objects in Slovenia - a strap made of human skin and a shrunken human head. Museums have not yet made a decision to completely remove such objects from their exhibitions, since the museum audience desires and seek...
Based on life stories of amateur and professional ornithologists, the paper explores bird watching practices, or the process of formation of the so-called ornithological habitus. According to Bourdieu, this habitus functions as a system of dispositions that ensures a constant, and active, presence of experience. The author argues that central to th...
Multiple Paradigm Research on Organisational Culture: An Introduction of Complexity Paradigm
The author presents multiple paradigm research into the organisational culture of a birdwatching association, where he conducted his ethnographic research. On top of the functionalist, interpretive, radical structuralist and radical humanist paradigms as pr...
We present comparative ethnographic material on volunteer biodiversity monitoring from environmental organisations in three postcommunist countries: Poland, Slovenia, and Lithuania. We chart and discuss aspects of the heritage from socialism and communist rule in terms of their effect on the present-day running and operations of four case-study org...
In the 18th century, the philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed a special building (Panopticon), in which people living in cells could be constantly observed from a central "inspection house". The author suggests that a similar but much more extensive observation platform has been created by the development of the World Wide Web. The YouTube portal en...
In the book, the author presents organisational culture of the Bird Watching and Bird Study Association of Slovenia (DOPPS), i.e. from its formation in late 1970's, noting the transition from a voluntary association into a hybrid organisation integrating volunteers and professionals, to the current cohabitation of three generations of amateur and p...
The article presents the role of an individual who at the end of 1970’s established the Slovenian ornithological
association in cooperation with a group of enthusiasts. The author analyses his leaders’characteristics,
especially his charisma, which made him the central authority in the association, even though he never took
over a formal position o...
Throughout the member states of the European Union a large number of volunteers work alone on biodiversity monitoring across a range of species and habitats. They send their records to electronic databases via nature-based websites and sometimes talk to one another via discussion boards. One recently established example is the UK phenology network...
Recently created social networking websites such as Facebook, for example, have thoroughly changed the dissemination of information among people and, as a result, interpersonal connections. Their impact upon everyday lifestyle in our modern society has been considerable. Some people even achieved worldwide popularity in this manner. Suggesting that...
There is a pressing need for volunteer amateur naturalists to participate in data collection for biodiversity monitoring programmes in Europe. It is being addressed in some countries, but less so in others. This paper discusses the results from qualitative research using semi-structured interviews, focus groups and participant observation within ni...
The paper presents a case study of the changes in organisational culture of volunteer biodiversity monitoring organisations and is based on ethnographic research of Bird Watching and Bird Study Association of Slovenia (DOPPS). In the authors’ opinion, the dynamics of organisation’s culture is influenced by the emerging opposition between profession...
The article focuses on the ways the human body is exhibited in museums. After examining the concept of ethics in contemporary ethnology and anthropology, and especially in museum work, it centers on the dilemma of exhibiting bodies and mortal remains. By closely examining two museum objects, a strap made of human skin from Celje Regional Museum and...
Examined are the activities of the Slovenian Bird Watching Society (Društvo za opazovanje in preučevanje ptic Slovenije - DOPPS) from an ethnological/anthropological perspective. Listing the Society's many activities the author wonders why its members participate in volunteer work and why they donate a substantial part of their time and effort to a...
This paper is based on an ethnographic study of the Bird Watching and Bird Study Association of Slovenia (DOPPS), and a rapid appraisal carried out on the Italian whale- and dolphin-watching organisation Tethys Research Institute. The findings of the research are linked to a concept of use of mobile telephones as a mobilisation tool for voluntary b...
Author of the article analyses anthropological and sociological aspects of organizations, adapted to contemporaneous individual, which should end the tradition of modern, bureaucratic or mechanistic organizations as conceived by 20th century management theoretics. Key factors of success in modern organizations were planning, hierarchy, centralized...
Projects
Projects (6)
The overall aim of MOBISTYLE is to motivate behavioral change by raising consumer awareness and by providing attractive personalized combined pro-active knowledge services on energy use, indoor environment, health and lifestyle, by ICT-based solutions. Measurable benefits raises behavioral change by the awareness of feedback loops. This awareness will support and motivate end-users to well informed pro-active behavior towards energy use and health, thus empowering consumers and providing confidence of making the right choices. The combination of awareness on energy, health and lifestyle will offer consumers more and lasting incentives than only information on energy use.
The main goal of the project is the development, implementation, and evaluation of a new model of knowledge transfer between higher education and industry. Interdisciplinary teams of students formed in the PEOPLE project will use different people-centred development approaches to test and improve existing products or services and to seek new development solutions for the industry.
