Anthropologist studying passengers at Manchester Airport
25.01.10
A university lecturer is begin paid £30,000 or £40,000 (depending on which paper you read!) of public money to spend up to 18 hours a day at Manchester Airport for a next year observing passengers’ and workers’ habits. Anthropologist Dr Damian O'Doherty is studying the ‘kinetic elite’ who pass through the airport, which he described as those who are ‘always on the go, fixing business deals on their laptops, at the same time talking on their iPhone and perhaps posting a Twitter to friends and family’. The project is being funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The research is to understand how airports affect people with a view to making their environment a better place to live and work. Dr O'Doherty, a lecturer at Manchester Business School (part of Manchester University), said: ‘I've been researching airports for five years and I thought this would be the opportunity to experience airport life for myself. It is very unusual for an anthropologist to do this, but this place is a vibrant hotbed of change and it fascinates me.'
'People have their own languages, customs, dress codes and conduct – they behave in particular ways and that’s what catches the eyes of anthropologists. People associate the airport with going on holiday but when you’ve been here more than a week the glamour flies away. There’s much more than the travel aspect.’
However, lobby group the TaxPayers' Alliance has deemed it ‘a complete waste of money’. Matthew Elliott, its chief executive, said: ‘This shows just how out of touch the Government is with the views of taxpayers. If the department wanted to find out how people interact in an airport, all they needed to do was to rent the Tom Hanks' film The Terminal.’
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