“In the field of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind.”
- Louis Pasteur

Serendipitous discovery plays a big part in ethnographic research. Time and again the breakthrough that sends you hurtling in a new direction of thought is rarely the one you set out to look for.

Beginning as a genre of writing based on fieldwork, ethnographies describe human social phenomenon and are used as methods for social science enquiry based on qualitative research – in essence, techniques used to study people in their daily lives and activities.

The commercial use of ethnography has, until recently, been used primarily as a data collection method consequently isolating the researcher from the process of putting that data to work.

The integration of ethnography into other areas of commercial enterprise helps to keep people at the centre of your work – to put people first. As ethnographers we use research in an inductive way, to tell stories, generate understanding, and create meaning that goes beyond the global and into the heart of the local.

“We are not living in a global village, but in customized cottages, globally produced and locally distributed.”
– Manuel Castells