{"id":365,"date":"2026-07-19T08:42:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shivasalehnia.com\/?page_id=365"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:59:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:29:21","slug":"business-anthropology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/shivasalehnia.com\/en\/business-anthropology\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Anthropology"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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business-anthropology<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What do I do in Business Anthropology?<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Since 2023, my concern as a service designer for a deeper understanding of the groups under\nstudy in design projects has led me to anthropology. My goal was to be able to proceed in the\nsolution design process based on a deeper and more accurate understanding of the real daily\nlives of target groups in society, especially in projects aimed at social impact.<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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To achieve this goal, I participated in the theoretical and practical anthropology courses of\nAsghar Izadi Jeyran, Associate Professor at the University of Tabriz. With his guidance and based\non my professional resume and personal spirit, I chose the field of business anthropology to\nfocus on. As my first project in this field, I chose \u201cthe work life of service design practitioners\u201d\nas my research topic. Accompanied by my colleagues at a service design agency who hosted my\nobservation, and by adopting the research method developed by my supervisor, Mr. Izadi, I\nconducted the project \u201cOrganizational Anthropology of Service Design\u201d as my first work in this\nfield.<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Research in business anthropology and conducting practical projects in this field is a topic that\nhas been added to my work schedule in recent years and will continue to be so, although\nconducting projects in this field, as a "participant observer," will inevitably be tied to my\npersonal career path.<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Service Design Organizational Anthropology Project<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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My study focused on a service design team in Tehran. I observed this team, which was part of a service design agency, on a project related to one of the agency\u2019s employers for six months from July 2023 to January 2024. My presence in the field was both in the online space of the team\u2019s communication with each other and in person at the employer\u2019s organization, accompanied by team members. The team did not have a fixed office space at the time of my observation. The field study was conducted by observation, and a few informal interviews were also conducted during the observation. However, my own 8 years of experience in this field is both part of and complementary to the observation, which can also be considered a form of autoethnography. Therefore, in the texts presented, you will sometimes see scenes from my personal experiences. After completing the field observation in January, I completed the descriptive field notes. After reviewing my notes, the themes and categories covered in these descriptions were extracted.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This study aims to<\/b> reflect a small part of the vast world of Iranian service designers so that both those working in the profession and those unfamiliar with it can see a brief picture of what service designers experience in their work and their internal and external communications. <\/span>The results of the study<\/b> were communicated in detail to the manager of the studied team, and a small number of them, whose topics seem to be common to many service design teams, were selected for public publication. Sixteen essays, which are categorized under two main sections: 1) Challenges related to the design process and 2) Challenges of intra-team communication. In the first section, the emphasis is on the specific characteristics of service design that affect or are affected by its implementation and communication with the client and other project stakeholders. The second section is a more general topic that may be seen in non-design teams too, in the human and communication aspects of team members. On this website, the first section will be published first, followed by the second section, in order.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I hope that reviewing the results of this study will lead to some clues to improve service design practice. It would be a great favor not to leave me and the audience without the opportunity to express your opinions on the material.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Note: All names and, to some extent, the location information of the studied sites have been changed to respect the privacy of individuals.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Articles related to Business Anthropology<\/strong><\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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October 17, 2026<\/div>
\"Fragile<\/div><\/div>
Published by <\/span><\/i> Shiva Salehnia<\/a><\/span><\/span> at <\/span><\/i> October 17, 2026<\/span><\/span>
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Fragile Agreement, Fragile Accountability<\/a><\/h2><\/div>
A problem can be solved in different ways. One way is for a single expert to solve it alone. In this approach, a specialist is engaged, the problem is explained to them, and they are expected to present their solution after a set period, or even, once the solution has been implemented, to report the outcome to the client<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/article>
September 30, 2026<\/div>
\"A<\/div><\/div>
Published by <\/span><\/i> Shiva Salehnia<\/a><\/span><\/span> at <\/span><\/i> September 30, 2026<\/span><\/span>
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A Stranger Among You<\/a><\/h2><\/div>
The creation of a viable solution to the ongoing, complex problems of an organization is the primary aim of a service design project. Given the presence of diverse stakeholders within and outside the organization, the organization's constantly shifting environment, and the various cultural, economic, and ...<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/article>
September 14, 2026<\/div>
\"Service<\/div><\/div>
Published by <\/span><\/i> Shiva Salehnia<\/a><\/span><\/span> at <\/span><\/i> September 14, 2026<\/span><\/span>
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Service Designer: An Anchor for Innovation, or Merely Its Catalyst?<\/a><\/h2><\/div>
There is a hypothesis, one I have heard often among Iranian designers, which holds that the Iranian market neither understands design nor desires it. According to this hypothesis, the major merchants of the market\u2014whose long-established firms command high turnover\u2014occupy the central role in shaping other actors\u2019 roles in the market<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/article>
August 31, 2026<\/div>
\"Dark<\/div><\/div>
Published by <\/span><\/i> Shiva Salehnia<\/a><\/span><\/span> at <\/span><\/i> August 31, 2026<\/span><\/span>
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Dark Side of Empathizing<\/a><\/h2><\/div>
Service design projects carry businesses through a problem-solving process rooted in design thinking \u2014 a five-stage process comprising discovering the problem space, defining the problem, ideation, prototyping and testing solutions, and finally implementation. This process isn\u2019t run through just once, but repeated multiple times, and as quickly as possible, in order to reach the best possible outcome. But to get through the first stage \u2014 to more precisely discover the space in which the problem occurs \u2014 the designer must identify the key stakeholders of a problem and be able to describe the problem space from their point of view<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/article><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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