Cross-Cultural Investigations: Technology and Development
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this course on conducting social science and applied research in unfamiliar cultural settings, aimed at students preparing for exploratory or applied fieldwork abroad. Materials cover the practical, ethical, and epistemological problems that arise when researchers cross cultural lines, including questions of consent, positionality, and interpretation. A research practicum runs alongside the readings, giving students practice with interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative techniques, and case studies are discussed critically rather than presented as models to imitate. Graduate students complete additional assignments beyond the undergraduate requirements. The course draws on anthropology and science, technology, and society perspectives, and materials are available under MIT's open license for self-study, though there is no instructor feedback or certificate outside formal enrollment.