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Studying Emerge. A Center for Nanotechnology in Society @ ASU event ethnography. Monday 20 th February 2012: Emerge preparation. Situating the Emerge ethnography: qualitative research, ethnography and material cultures. Our research: background, research questions, and design.
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Studying Emerge A Center for Nanotechnology in Society @ ASU event ethnography
Monday 20th February 2012: Emerge preparation • Situating the Emerge ethnography: qualitative research, ethnography and material cultures. • Our research: background, research questions, and design. • Practicalities: tools, deadlines, workshops and research partners.
What is ethnography? “We see the term as referring primarily to a particular method or set of methods. In its most characteristic form it involves the ethnographer participating, overtly or covertly, in people’s daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions – in fact, collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research.” Atkinson & Hammersley 1995, p.1 “Ethnography is a particular form of knowledge that develops through specific techniques. Defining ‘ethnography’ is increasingly difficult because … it is increasingly polysemous in meaning. There are at least three terms that merge with ‘ethnography’: ‘participant observation’, ‘fieldwork’ and ‘case study’.” Gobo 2008, p.11 “During this long, slow, but apparently inevitable process of ‘coming home’ ethnography lost its single most defining feature as the study of others, or at least of others who differed dramatically from the ethnographer. Such differences are implicated with a single term, but one confounded by its double meaning: culture. Culture refers to the various ways different groups go about their lives and to the belief systems associated with that behavior.” Wolcott 2008, p.22
What is ethnography? “We see the term as referring primarily to a particular method or set of methods. In its most characteristic form it involves the ethnographer participating, overtly or covertly, in people’s daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions – in fact, collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research.” Atkinson & Hammersley 1995, p.1 “Ethnography is a particular form of knowledge that develops through specific techniques. Defining ‘ethnography’ is increasingly difficult because … it is increasingly polysemous in meaning. There are at least three terms that merge with ‘ethnography’: ‘participant observation’, ‘fieldwork’ and ‘case study’.” Gobo 2008, p.11 A reverse diaspora… “During this long, slow, but apparently inevitable process of ‘coming home’ ethnography lost its single most defining feature as the study of others, or at least of others who differed dramatically from the ethnographer. Such differences are implicated with a single term, but one confounded by its double meaning: culture. Culture refers to the various ways different groups go about their lives and to the belief systems associated with that behavior.” Wolcott 2008, p.22 …and a diaspora.
What are its methods? “In ethnographic methodology the pivotal cognitive mode is ‘observation’. … participant observation has the following attributes: 1. the researcher establishes a direct relationship with the social actors; 2. staying in their natural environment; 3. with the purpose of observing and describing their behavior; 4. by interacting with them and participating in their everyday ceremonials and rituals, and; 5. learning their code (or at least parts of it) in order to understand the meaning of their actions. … This purpose is also served, in a secondary and ancillary manner, by other sources of information used by the ethnographer in the field: informal conversations, individual or group interviews and documentary materials … However the over-riding concern is always to observe actions as they are performed in concrete settings.” Gobo 2008, p.5 “In its most characteristic form it involves the ethnographer participating, overtly or covertly, in people’s daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions – in fact, collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research.” Atkinson & Hammersley 1995, p.1 “It is impossible to predict, and mistaken to prescribe, precise methods for ethnographic research. … our specific uses of visual images and technologies tend to develop as part of the social relationships and activities ethnographers engage in during fieldwork.” Pink 2007, p.40-41
Okay…what kind of theoretical commitments does it involve? “Naturalism proposes that, as far as possible, the social world should be studied in its ‘natural’ state, undisturbed by the researcher. Hence, ‘natural’ not ‘artificial’ settings, like experiments or formal interviews, should be the primary source of data. … in order to understand people’s behaviour we must use an approach that gives us access to the meanings that guide that behaviour.” Atkinson & Hammersley 1995, p.6-8 “Central to positivism, then, is a certain conception of scientific method, modelled on the natural sciences, and in particular on physics … the process of testing involves comparing what the theory says should occur under certain circumstances with what actually does occur – in short, comparing it with ‘the facts’.” Atkinson & Hammersley 1995, p.4-5 Realism and reflexivity: “Many critics of positivism and naturalism today reject them on the grounds that they both assume that the task of social research is to represent social phenomema in some literal fashion … what both positivism and naturalism fail to take into account is the fact that social researchers are part of the social world they study.” Atkinson & Hammersley 1995, p.10, 16
So…what can we say about ethnography in this research project? • We are drawing on ethnographic techniques and operating under some of its assumptions. • Participant observation. This is not an experiment, or an interview study. We are interested in observing a ‘naturally occurring’ process… • …and in doing so in a way that renders it strange (using ‘techniques of estrangement’, or an ‘anthropological gaze’). We want to be attentive to what may seem mundane, or taken for granted, by other participants. • We also want to emphasise reflexivity. It is important to be conscious of our roles as actors within both the event itself and the construction of ‘data’ as we write fieldnotes and research accounts.
Material cultures • Ethnography has been impacted by the wider ‘material turn’ that has taken place over the last two decades (see Miller 2008, for instance). • This has involved a heightened awareness of the role of objects or artifacts – as well as talk, interactions, and behaviours – in constructing social worlds. Ethnographers have sought to both examine the cultural meanings built up around objects, and to explore their agency in affecting particular cultures or practices.
// Reading: Ocupa Rio and the Material Culture of Protest //// Discussion (in twos or threes): What does being attentive to material culture add to Thompson’s analysis? How does his piece compare to your object-oriented text (activity 1)? //
Studying future-oriented deliberation • There is now a substantial STS literature around the practice of public and stakeholder deliberation on science (including both overtly future-oriented techniques, such as scenario workshops, and more general ‘public engagement’). • What do we know about such deliberation? • From analyses of process: • That publics tend to raise a relatively standardised set of questions about emerging technology, including who it will benefit and what the (social) risks might be; • That replicating deliberative ‘ideals’ – such as representativeness or equity – is in practice very difficult; • That much public engagement and deliberation does not live up to its stated aims and objectives; • That there is a tendency for discussion to default to prioritising elite expertises. • From analyses of effects: • That the interface between deliberation and policy is a complex one. • “…in most countries, and in most cases, engagement initiatives are kept at arm’s length from formal decision-making. Understandably, governments will not guarantee in advance their response to deliberative recommendations. … However, a refusal to take outcomes seriously risks undermining public trust” (Hagendijk and Irwin 2006, 176). • From analyses of framings: • Publics are often framed in ‘deficit model’ terms, as lacking in some way (knowledge, trust)… • …and such framings, which are implicit throughout science-society interactions, are a large part of apparently ‘anti-science’ sentiment. • From analyses of contexts: • That engagement and deliberation are inflected by the cultures that surround them… • …for instance in terms of mobilising particular national imaginations, or by assuming a neoliberal market framework for technology.
Emerge in the context of research on deliberation • The Emerge workshops are an example of future-oriented discussion and deliberation which moves away from the purely logical, discursive, and technical to incorporate attention to the material, affective and creative aspects of the futures afforded by contemporary scientific research. • At CNS, we have argued that this move is a vital next step in public and stakeholder engagement with (science) policy. What remains unclear, however, is what such incorporation of the material and creative into future-oriented discussion means, in practice, for that discussion. • What is different and new? • How is the quality of deliberation changed? • What are the interactions between reasoned arguments, objects, artistic interventions, and emotive narratives or anecdotes? • In other words, what happens to future-oriented discussion when it is anchored in the material and affective? Davies, Sarah R., Cynthia Selin, Gretchen Gano, and Ângela Guimarães Pereira. In press. “Citizen Engagement and Urban Change: Three Case Studies of Material Deliberation.” Cities.
Research questions • Studying Emerge enables us to take a first pass at exploring future-oriented deliberation as it is anchored in the material and affective. We are interested in what deliberating the future through the use of objects, stories, and images looks like, and will use the different workshop strands of Emerge to examine this. Taking an ethnographic approach, we will develop a ‘thick description’ of Emerge focused on understanding what is happening within its different workshop activities, and what that means to its participants. • We will ask researchers to attend to two key sets of questions as they act as participant observers within Emerge workshop strands. The first set emphasises a broad-based interest in the ‘culture’ of the workshop, while the second focuses more narrowly on the role that the material and affective are playing within it. • Q1: What is happening in this workshop? • Q2: What do these actions and behaviours mean to participants? • Q3: What role is the material and affective playing in shaping the content and outcomes of the workshop?
Research plan What is happening in these future-oriented discussions… Q1: What is happening in this workshop? Q2: What do these actions and behaviours mean to participants? Research activities: 1: Take detailed fieldnotes describing what happens within the workshop. Include the timings of different parts of the workshop (for instance, how long any introductory discussion takes, how long any one person speaks for), how people move about the space, what kinds of activities they engage in, the kinds of things people talk about, and anything else that you notice and think is interesting. 2: Make a field sketch of the place where the workshop is taking place. Include features such as any equipment or machinery that is being used and any key flows of people or objects through the space (for instance, is everyone working in one particular location?). 3: Try and understand how people understand the process they are engaged in. How do they talk about it? Why are they here? What does it mean to them? (Feel free to ask them this in off-the-cuff interviews.) Include notes on this in your fieldnotes. …as they are anchored in the material and affective? Q3: What role is the material and affective playing in shaping the content and outcomes of the workshop? Research activities: 1: As you observe and take fieldnotes, play particular attention to the role of objects in the workshop. What is being used? How? What is being constructed or developed, and how? What effects do these objects have on the discussion and on participants? 2: Also keep an eye out for the emotional tone of the space. Do people talk about the way particular futures make them – or could make others – feel? In what contexts? What emotions do you detect being played out in the workshop (anger? Frustration? Joy? Pleasure? Fear?), and what are they drawn out by? Again, you may wish to ask people about how they’re feeling or why they have acted as they did. 3: As you pay attention to objects and emotions, take photographs to illustrate your observations or to remind yourself of particular key moments within the workshop.
// Discussion: Your research interests, plans and papers? //// Discussion: Potential publication plans //
Workshops You will also be working with a documentarian within each workshop: their names and contact details will be with you in a day or so.
Tools and resources • We now have a set of books covering different ethnographic methods and sites of study available for your perusal. Please sign these out so that we can keep track of them. Their ‘home’ will be my office in CNS (Interdisciplinary Building B, third floor). • Hardback notebooks for fieldnotes, sketching, and the collection of other materials are on their way. • The ‘After Emerge’ wiki is online and you should all be able to post on it. • And we have dinner booked for 7pm on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd (see schedule for details). • T-shirts: the saga continues…
Timeline, tasks and deadlines • Between today and February 29th: • Make contact with your documentarian research partner (details to be provided asap); • Together, make contact with your workshop leader and explain what you will be doing; • Within this discussion, we’d also like you to ask the workshop leader (making a note of their responses): • To sketch out what their plans for the workshop are; • What outcomes they are hoping for from the workshop; • What led them to be interested in the methods that they are using. • Thursday March 1st: Emerge day 1. • Meet at 9am in the foyer to Stauffer B for a final pre-event meeting; • Sit in on the plenary sessions 9.30am – 2pm (no fieldnotes required, unless you can’t help yourself); • Go to workshops 2-6pm; • Dinner at 7pm, House of Tricks (Red Room), 114 E 7th St. • Friday March 2nd: Emerge day 2. • Workshops 9am-4pm; • Sit in on plenary ‘report out’ 4.30-6pm, taking fieldnotes about your workshop’s presentation; • Dinner at 7pm, Monti’s (Senators Room), 100 S Mill Av. • Saturday March 3rd: Emerge day 3. • The event runs 9.30am-4.30pm, with an evening festival.
Between the end of Emerge and Tuesday 6th March, compile (and send to SRD) a ‘digital dossier’ comprising the following: • Notes from your conversation with your workshop leader, and their responses to your questions about their plans, anticipated outcomes, and methods; • Your fieldnotes, typed up and turned into readable prose. Please highlight any sections which you think relate directly to Q1, 2 or 3, colour coding such that text relating to Q1 is red, to Q2 is blue, and to Q3 is green; • Scanned versions of any field sketches or drawings you have taken; • Any photographs you have taken, along with notes explaining what each image shows and why it is interesting; • A brief note (maximum one page) summarising how you think the data you have collected speaks to each research question and – importantly – if there are other interesting or surprising features which you think emerged during the workshop. • Friday 9th March, 10am-12pm, Coor 5536: Final debrief and discussion, including: • Drawing together findings from the different workshops; • Publication plans and next steps; • Details of studio class activities, for those interested.
