Anthropology and Policy Making- Because you know we are humans and not robots

This week we were instructed to read Collaborative Event Ethnography: Conservation and Development Trade-offs at the Fourth World Conservation Congress. This article was very interesting as it was an anthropological approach to policy making. They aimed to understand the both formal and informal nature of conservation policy-making in WCC international forum. This is very important to analyze because behind all policy we are all human and social structure and presentation effects our decision making. They noticed through their research that the most productive theme that arose was the way in which the structure and processes of the meeting influenced what was happening. When they entered the conference the pavilion hall was decorated with wall-sized illustrations. Throughout the conference each meeting they experienced large slideshows containing images with great detail and spectacular visuals. Structurally they noticed the organization of journeys, an experiment to facilitate communication and help attendees navigate the complex schedule of the WCC, greatly affected the participants. The journeys had hard copy colorful illustrated packets. These journeys allowed people to look through to see what meetings, what sections, and what times they were interested in. While this was convenient it affected the conference’s success in many ways because this way certain people were showing up to the same themed events. This helpful journey packet turned into a a communication barrier to the conferences attendees. This is interesting to a fact that you can argue this can be kind of corrupt. Policy making is a serious concrete thing that comes with a lot of thought and time. It is scary to think that not all thought and opinions could be incorporated because of structural things like journeys at these conferences.