Independent Researcher and Editor

Combining ethnography and interdisciplinary collaboration to better understand emerging phenomena across diverse social and cultural contexts.

  • Navigating emerging issues and sociotechnical phenomena
  • Advocating for cross-disciplinary thinking
  • Exploring how people make sense of the world
  • Bridging knowledges and challenging dominant narratives

Experience

Editor and Researcher (2019–present)
Freelance, Remote + York, UK

  • Horizon-scanning, qualitative research, writing, editing, and experimental publishing

Team Ethnography Trainer and Volunteer Researcher (2023)
The World Transformed, Remote + Liverpool, UK

Mentor (Observational Research) (2023)
La Plateforme_, Remote + Marseille, France

Founding Member and Co-Director (2014–2019)
Strange Telemetry, London, UK

  • Policy and innovation projects, project management, expert interviews, workshops

Senior Tutor (Anthropology) (2016–2018)
Angewandte, Vienna University of the Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria

Doctoral Tutor (2017)
SPRU-Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, UK

Instructor (2013)
Duke University Talent Identification Programme, Durham, USA

Associate (2011–2013)
Superflux, London, UK

  • Company strategy, desk research, trend analysis

Wired UK Editorial Intern (2009)
Conde Naste Publications, London, UK

Community Manager (2008)
Institute for the Future, Remote + Sausalito, USA

Education

Ph.D. in Development Studies (2022) Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK

  • Thesis: “Mutability, mobility, worlding: Appropriate infrastructure and urban sociotechnical change in Ahmedabad, Gujarat”

MSc in Science and Technology Policy (2013)

  • STEPS Centre, University of Sussex, UK
  • Dissertation: “Speech acts and space planes: A critical discourse analysis of UK government support for emerging technologies, 2010-2013”

M.A. in Digital Media: Technology and Cultural Form (2010)

  • Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

B.A. (Hons.) in International Relations and Anthropology (2008)

  • First Class Honours, University of Sussex, UK

Selected Papers and Publications

  1. Pickard, J. (2023) “Times like these”, in: Wabi-sabi: Weathering Transience (Anarchive), ed. Maja Kuzmanović, Nik Gaffney, Justin Pickard, Theun Karelse and Maya Weeks.

  2. Pickard, J. (2023) “Mud futures”, in: Green: Multispecies Entanglings (Anarchive), ed. Maja Kuzmanović, Nik Gaffney, Justin Pickard, Theun Karelse, Maya Weeks.

  3. Mehta, L., Parthasarathy, D., Pickard, J., Srivastava, S. (2022, March). “The political ecology of COVID-19 and compounded uncertainty in marginal environments”, Frontiers in Human Dynamics 4.

  4. Revell, T., Pickard, J., Voss, G. (2018) “Valuing utopia in speculative and critical design”, in: Economic Science Fictions, ed. Will Davies. London: Goldsmiths Press.

  5. Pickard, J., Voss, G. (2015) “Between open hardware and grassroots innovation: The case of the Global Village Construction Set”, Third International Conference on Innovation and Creativity at the Grassroots, IIM-Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, 19-22 January 2015.

Skills

  • Applied ethnography
  • Editing and proofreading
  • Observational methods
  • Research design
  • Writing (academic, journalism, creative)
  • Experimental publishing
  • Workshop facilitation
  • Interdisciplinary collaboration
  • Rapid and team-based research
  • Online teaching
  • Curriculum development

Download Full CV