…was the main topic of last week’s first meeting in the Danish UX-network. I hoped that we would have discussed which UX-methods to apply to social software, because as I see it (from my limited experience though) UX and social software has different implications than if you’re doing more traditional stuff. I truly believe that when doing user research you have to focus more broadly on culture, communication, networks, relations, social capital in other words, because the technology has to be designed with relations in mind instead of “just” people or features for that matter.
However we ended up discussing the phenomena of web2.0 more than UX and web2.0- I’m to blame, I know - and it turned out interesting anyway. At least I’m glad that we (Wemind) was invited by 1508 to join in, and I look forward to contributing to the goals of the network: To share knowledge and make professional standards for UX in Denmark.
Social Capital in Business - Why exchanging (immaterial) gifts will enhance productivity, innovation, and loyalty in organizations is a new white paper written by my colleague Thomas Møldrup and I. What is Social Capital? Who builds and maintain Social Capital - and how can Business profit from it? That is some of the questions raised in the paper.You can download it here - the paper is in english, but the downloadpage is still in danish. If you experience any problems, please contact me directly at jane at wemind dot dk and I help you through the process.
It is a gloomy wednesday afternoon in mid December. I’m trying to orient myself in the concrete jungle of suburbia Copenhagen. My two o’clock interview appointment is probably already waiting for me. I imagine what he looks like, and I see before me a middle aged man, professional to the bone, but tired and with the disillusioned look of one who has taken on too many battles with the system and with the kids he is trying to create a reasonable everyday life for amidst the highrises of horribilis.
Just as the heavy grey sky is on the verge of falling I am entering one of those small barrack like buildings which J.G. Ballard would not even have dreamt about. I am talking about the prime institutional architecture of Denmark in the 1970s. Usually those buildings are all pretty run down by now. Years of uniformity, conformity, and concrete ideology have left an undismissible aura of disarray. But this particular building beats them all. It has to be one of the most dilapidated buildings I have ever entered, and as I step in my already dark mood drops below zero.
I guess when the building had its heyday in the 1970s it stood out as the image of modernity and civilization born and bred in new suburbia Copenhagen, but the stench of decaying liver paste on rye has marked the hall, and today that stench is trying to blend in with the smell of old curry, kebab, and finally dissolve up into the asbest like ceiling which demarcates the excact boundary between the concrete institution and the high up sky. I am expecting the worst.
A few minutes later I am warmly greeted by my interview appointment. He nonchalantly puts his arms out as to convince me of all the valuables in his world in one arm movement, and then he asks: “Did you know we have children here from more than 30 countries? It’s a challenge indeed. We keep them off the streets at night”. I instantly sense a person whose vigour and heart have saved at least one or two of those children and my motivation start to rise as he keeps on talking about the neighbourhood’s many challenged kids with both love and pride in his voice.
An hour later I find myself at the parking lot looking at the highrises which provide the clientele for the children’s and youth center. It has been a long day of pendling from one interview to the other. I’m hungry, and my coat is damp from the weather, but all of a sudden I feel the strong presence of the sun behind the skies, and I remember why I wanted to be an anthropologist in the first place. As my informant said “It’s all about relations. Relations will carry them through. I work to improve them everyday”. “Let’s help him do it”, I will say to our designer when my bus hits the big city lights.
It all started in June when a post on social capital caught my attention. Hans Henrik, the author, raised the question of a possible quantification of social capital in organizations in relation to the figures on the bottom line. Outrageous! To an almost-fresh-out-of-grad-school anthropologist it was blasphemic. How could he even suggest that the work of glorious sociologist AND socialist Bourdieu should end up in the hands of neoliberal capitalism!? Hence I commented in the usual manner of academic border patrolling. And somehow my rather arrogant comments resulted in rather productive meetings and on the 1st of oct. this year the Connecta team welcomed me onboard.
The last couple of weeks has been all about preparing, and in great excitement too. I’ve been reading academic texts, online notes, and classic work from my first year at university. The coming months will be even more exciting as it is here in the bright and spacious loft-like office a journey into the field of qualitative assessment of social capital in organizations will take its beginning.
Speaking of…: Don’t miss Granovetter’s (1974) work on how networking, essentially social capital, helps people finding jobs.