September 17, 1999
FROM ANTHROPOLOGY TO ECONOMICS
NEWS TIPS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM'S OFFICE OF MEDIA RELATIONS
1. Anthropology Meets Marketing
Anthropologists aren't just hanging out in exotic places studying the local culture. Many companies, including Motorola, Xerox and Intel, hire anthropologists for their skills of observation and ethnography to analyze how people live and work in their natural habitats, their behavior in stores, and their buying patterns and produce usage.
UAB adjunct anthropology professor Andrew Jones, Ph.D., teaches a course on business anthropology that examines this growing field. "In marketing one has to analyze popular culture and consumption to understand what needs your company can address. Anthropology helps companies to demystify behavior to understand what people are doing, and why." Anthropologists also are working as consultants for company diversity training and conflict management programs.
Call Gail Short, Media Relations, 205-934-8931/[email protected]
2. Information Download
UAB economics professor Ted Bos, Ph.D., is saving students and businesses nationwide countless hours of research with his Web site, Economic Time Series Page [bos.business.uab.edu/browse/].
It provides quick, easy and free access to massive amounts of historical and current financial data, including housing statistics, interest rates and employment figures for many municipalities. Users can browse economic data from several sources, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve Board. And, the data can be converted to charts with one mouse click.
The site will provide forecasting calculations for a fee. "I started it for my economics forecasting class. I wanted to quickly retrieve and visualize large amounts of economic data. The start-up costs were minimal, but the payoff for users is huge.
"Call Bos at 205-934-8830/[email protected].
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