Thing Ethnography

Ethnographic research that shifts focus from humans to things—objects, materials, or infrastructures—to explore how they shape and participate in social and material practices. It challenges anthropocentric views by treating agency as distributed across human and nonhuman co-performers. Used to reveal hidden dynamics in socio-material arrangements, it may involve tracing how things are (mis)used, maintained, or resisted, and employ speculative methods (e.g., Interview with Things) to imagine alternative roles and relations.

Thing Ethnography was proposed as a research method in 2016 by design researchers Elisa Giaccardi, Nazli Cila, and Chris Speed, in collaboration with anthropologist Melissa Caldwell.