Hi guys,
FYI- SAGE are giving free online access until the end of March to many of their methods journals including some we at Exeter appear not to have - worth a look esp. Qualitative Inquiry which seems to have a range of ethnography stuff in it.
( thanks to Ian for mentioning this in a reading group several weeks ago )
Happy reading
Hatti
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Hello from Birmingham
I just thought I should say a quick "hello" and introduce myself. I'm afraid that I'm in the middle of re-working a chapter of my thesis (topically...all about the methodology) and juggling a few other things, all of which is keeping me rather busy this week but I promise I will come back here in the near future to participate and blog about all things ethnographic.
So, a quick introduction. My name is Emily and I'm a PhD student at Birmingham. Ian is one of my supervisors and Jon Sadler (an ecologist) is my other. This year I am writing up my thesis and am aiming to finish in October/November time. My work is on ornamental plant hunting (and when the Uni server is back up I'll post the link to my website!).
As well as writing up my thesis I also run my own photography business Emily Quinton Photography. This may seem unconnected with this blog but if you take a look at the blog on my website you will see that I am also busy connecting my photography with my academic work and will be taking an exhibition to this year's RGS/IBG.
I look forward to meeting you all (virtually and hopefully in Exeter/Birmingham too) soon and to seeing where this blog takes us.
So, a quick introduction. My name is Emily and I'm a PhD student at Birmingham. Ian is one of my supervisors and Jon Sadler (an ecologist) is my other. This year I am writing up my thesis and am aiming to finish in October/November time. My work is on ornamental plant hunting (and when the Uni server is back up I'll post the link to my website!).
As well as writing up my thesis I also run my own photography business Emily Quinton Photography. This may seem unconnected with this blog but if you take a look at the blog on my website you will see that I am also busy connecting my photography with my academic work and will be taking an exhibition to this year's RGS/IBG.
I look forward to meeting you all (virtually and hopefully in Exeter/Birmingham too) soon and to seeing where this blog takes us.
Gang Leader for a Day
Couldn't come along to the meeting yesterday (endless lecture writing these past weeks), but just had to share this with you: a book by Sudhir Venkatesh called Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Crosses the Line. Published last month. In the same vein as the reading for Contemporary Debates on illegal organ donorship, this is a naive south Asian man who walks into the projects in Chicago with a questionnaire asking the inhabitants: "What does it feel like to be young, poor and black?". He then gets taken hostage overnight, and then becomes a confidante to the leader, and understands the social structures and strange economics of crack gangs in the projects. Absolutely riveting. And from that naive start he is now Professor of Sociology at Columbia.
Here is the New York Times review of the book. So riveting it kept me up til 4am. And a strange entry into the 'mainstream' for ethnography: on the one hand we are complicit in voyeurism, on the other hand we have a complete first-person point of view of the trials and tribulations of qualitative 'hanging out', where the gang leader himself takes one look at the proffered questionnaire and says "Sh*t. That's not how you find out that information - you have to hang out with the people, get to know them..."
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Post from Emma
Hello
I am away at the moment, but wanted to join in on this group. And I've just finished reading Ian's chapter - that's quite a chapter... it made me think a lot, which is the point, it also made me laugh along the way, which makes a nice change.
And so perhaps to share a few things - the first is about the struggle of writing research. I am in the midst of a struggle with my thesis writing. It's a frustration with what writing seems to be doing to what I encountered and collected (if those are the right words). How it seems to be simplifying the complexity which is what I had wanted to reveal, but feel only partly able to. How to get around that?
The other thing is about Ian's comment on identity politics and stating exactly where you're coming from. I think I tried to avoid doing this in Cambodia. Not with the group I was doing my research with (we tried to talk about this a lot), but in our relationships with people in the provinces and villages we worked in. We said as a research team that we should attempt to not judge what anyone said, but just listen and try to understand their positions - and we told this to the different people we talked to and spent time with. We thought that by almost hiding our positions people would be less threatened and find it easier to talk 'openly' - looking back that perhaps wasn't the best approach to take? Because of course you cannot avoid being positioned by others, even if you don't do it yourself. And as we listened and observed we not suprisingly encountered contradictions: like the village chief telling us what he thought people in our 'position' would like to know, while we saw his sons doing the opposite and met him later on doing the opposite too. And what do we do with those contradictions, should I expose them as juicy bits of 'data', or keep them silent?
Ok that's enough.
Looking forward to hearing about the meeting.
Bye - Emma
I am away at the moment, but wanted to join in on this group. And I've just finished reading Ian's chapter - that's quite a chapter... it made me think a lot, which is the point, it also made me laugh along the way, which makes a nice change.
And so perhaps to share a few things - the first is about the struggle of writing research. I am in the midst of a struggle with my thesis writing. It's a frustration with what writing seems to be doing to what I encountered and collected (if those are the right words). How it seems to be simplifying the complexity which is what I had wanted to reveal, but feel only partly able to. How to get around that?
The other thing is about Ian's comment on identity politics and stating exactly where you're coming from. I think I tried to avoid doing this in Cambodia. Not with the group I was doing my research with (we tried to talk about this a lot), but in our relationships with people in the provinces and villages we worked in. We said as a research team that we should attempt to not judge what anyone said, but just listen and try to understand their positions - and we told this to the different people we talked to and spent time with. We thought that by almost hiding our positions people would be less threatened and find it easier to talk 'openly' - looking back that perhaps wasn't the best approach to take? Because of course you cannot avoid being positioned by others, even if you don't do it yourself. And as we listened and observed we not suprisingly encountered contradictions: like the village chief telling us what he thought people in our 'position' would like to know, while we saw his sons doing the opposite and met him later on doing the opposite too. And what do we do with those contradictions, should I expose them as juicy bits of 'data', or keep them silent?
Ok that's enough.
Looking forward to hearing about the meeting.
Bye - Emma
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Joining the group
Luckily I already had a Gmail account, so joining this blog community took seconds - would just like to share that with you, as you can be up and posting very quickly indeed. Good stuff.
For those without a Gmail account, let me encourage you in this area as well. Yes, they spy on you, yes they target advertisements at you, yes they're cleverer than you and earn far more money than you. But... I have *never* had any spam in the 1.5 years I've had the account. Now that's pretty impressive.
Look forward to Meeting no. 2
Monday, February 18, 2008
Politics of research - anthropology debates
Hi all
As our theme for the next session is on the politics of research (and as I mentioned it last time), some of you may be interested in checking out an on-going debate on the way research into counter-insurgency is funded in the UK and elsewhere. This is currently a hot topic in anthropology (check out the debates on http://blog.theasa.org/ ) and has just popped up on the Critical Geography Forum, so may be about to start in Geography.
Huw.
As our theme for the next session is on the politics of research (and as I mentioned it last time), some of you may be interested in checking out an on-going debate on the way research into counter-insurgency is funded in the UK and elsewhere. This is currently a hot topic in anthropology (check out the debates on http://blog.theasa.org/ ) and has just popped up on the Critical Geography Forum, so may be about to start in Geography.
Huw.
Joining as an author
Everyone who expressed an interest in becoming part of this group has been invited to become an author of this blog. These invitations don't seem to have been delivered, though. Apologies.
An alternative way in is to go to https://www.blogger.com/i.g?inviteID=3977163568252612580&blogID=2203797684186730698 and follow the instructions.
Let me know how it goes.
An alternative way in is to go to https://www.blogger.com/i.g?inviteID=3977163568252612580&blogID=2203797684186730698 and follow the instructions.
Let me know how it goes.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Report on meeting, 13th February 2008.
Five of us met today - Hugh, Kerry, Heather, Richard and Ian - to discuss why we were interested in getting together to discuss (our) ethnographic work, how we'd like the group to work, and when we'd like to meet. Many others expressed an interest in becoming involved, but couldn't make the meeting.
Why the group?
We talked a lot about this. We all had different reasons. Most of us felt we were doing 'ethnographic' work that we didn't really get the opportunity to discuss and work through with others. So, we agreed that this would probably end up being part reading group, and part support group for those involved. We also hoped that this could become a place for us to try some of our ethnographic writing on a sympathetic audience when the time was right.
How will it work?
The organisation will evolve, but we thought that we should start with two hour sessions which, roughly speaking, would be divided into one hour discussing a reading, and one hour moving things on through introducing other related readings, experiences, ideas, etc... In practice and over time, everything will no doubt get thoroughly mixed up. We thought that this blog would be a good idea to enable discussions to continue between meetings, if and when people had anything else to say, and/or others unable to come to the meetings to contribute to the discussions.
When / where?
3-5pm every other Wednesday for the foreseeable future. Our next meeting is on 27 February. I will book a room and post it here.
Reading for next time.
The politics of PhD research seemed like an issue that we should tackle first. I suggested that we read a paper about my PhD which discusses these issues. It's available online at http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/downloads/gesdraftpapers/iancook-directorscut.htm
Why the group?
We talked a lot about this. We all had different reasons. Most of us felt we were doing 'ethnographic' work that we didn't really get the opportunity to discuss and work through with others. So, we agreed that this would probably end up being part reading group, and part support group for those involved. We also hoped that this could become a place for us to try some of our ethnographic writing on a sympathetic audience when the time was right.
How will it work?
The organisation will evolve, but we thought that we should start with two hour sessions which, roughly speaking, would be divided into one hour discussing a reading, and one hour moving things on through introducing other related readings, experiences, ideas, etc... In practice and over time, everything will no doubt get thoroughly mixed up. We thought that this blog would be a good idea to enable discussions to continue between meetings, if and when people had anything else to say, and/or others unable to come to the meetings to contribute to the discussions.
When / where?
3-5pm every other Wednesday for the foreseeable future. Our next meeting is on 27 February. I will book a room and post it here.
Reading for next time.
The politics of PhD research seemed like an issue that we should tackle first. I suggested that we read a paper about my PhD which discusses these issues. It's available online at http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/downloads/gesdraftpapers/iancook-directorscut.htm
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