Social Situations and Context

Earlier this semester I was asked to come up with at least 20 social situations. Three or maybe even four weeks ago I was asked to come up with a mini ethnography topic I could study in preparation for going to the field. Then I was asked to do multiple methods practice such as interviewing and participant observations. This culminated with last week’s assignment of simply trying to get in the way. Not just blocking people from walking down the sidewalk, but actively trying to create social situations or speech acts. After all of this our discussion in class was focused on the skills of being able to understand social situations and context.

I spent most of the last month trying to avoid the assignment or at the very least letting it slide to the bottom of my very long to do list. This was to my great detriment. I have been thinking over social situations, context, and even the skills necessary to understand what is going on around me. I have been wondering what social situations I am likely to be placed in while in the field. I am likely to be waiting at a bus stop with members of the community of all ages, sitting on verandas with elderly and young children, eating meals with my host family, participating in interviews, and even participating in religious services to name a few of my predicted situations.

Context, wow, context can be any and everything right? What might be some of the context that I will encounter while in the field? Maybe it will be an informant that no longer wants to participate because they are clearly busy with to many other things, but don’t want to be rude. It could be me being laughed at while trying to buy bread or a bus ticket; it could in fact be almost anything? The best part is I might not know the context until it is over. If I am lucky I will be able to pick-up on it during the situation and mitigate what is happening.

I have been giving a lot of thought to what skills will help me with recognition and mitigating situations. Some skills may include being observant, easy going, out going, willing to make mistakes, willing to ask questions, conscious of others feelings, and teachable to name a few that came to mind. I recognize that there are a lot of skills that I could use development in. One that I think I can use the most work developing is being descriptive with note taking. I can be really descriptive in some things and not acknowledge others. Looking from old notes I am pretty good at describing the weather (physical environment, sounds, smells, and even people. I am not nearly as good at describing an event as a whole. Along with being able to recall things enough to write good notes I need to practice being aware of them in the first place. I will never be able to grasp everything all at once, but I can practice trying to focus on those things that I tend to forget.

Fast/Slow, Now/Later

I am someone who likes to go as quickly as possible, or as slowly as possible. I either pay attention to every minor detail, or no details at all. I want things now, or I could wait for years. I may be hungry, but I would choose not to make food. I will walk half an hour to save a dollar, but then I won't walk down the stairs to pick something up. The first field visit I had was in Ghana nearly four years ago. At the time we would pick our highs and lows for the day or week. I remember mine often being one in the same. My high would be the trotro ride where I would indulge in plantain chips and fanyogo. While my low would be the exact same trotro ride that took 3 hours in stifling heat with a crying baby on my lap and a goat under my legs. I share these personal character traits and brief experience to illustrate my often fluctuating motivation and strong ability to be selective in my attitude to a situation or task.

I mentioned in my previous post about attending the Inquiry Conference. There is another topic from the conference that I wanted to devote more time to thinking about. This was the idea of motivation. This topic came out in several presentations that I was able to watch. It was most commonly associated with being able to recognize our own motivations and biases in cross-cultural interactions and research. I have been thinking through how this relates to my project on multiple levels.

What are my motivations for going on a field study to Chavadi Pudur, India? I had life changing experiences on my previous studies. I am excited to have another experience. I am especially interested in being able to be participate in another culture that I am not familiar with. Everything that I have read about Tamil culture only makes me want to visit more. I love learning about people and cultures. I think the best ways to do this is to be within the culture making mistakes and being open to new perspectives and ideas. I think it is equally important to be able to admit that part of me is just ready for a new adventure.

Learning/study as a motivation. I am highly motivated by the opportunity to be able to learn more about the aging process including perceptions and experiences. I am fascinated by the aging process, and because of my experiences with individual who have grown older I want to learn all that I can about it.

I believe it is also crucial to acknowledge similar themed biases in order to have ethical and accurate data. If I am going to Chavadi to prove that aging is one way or another I guarantee that as a researcher I will be able to support it. I think that any research with enough of a bias recognized or not is capable of doing this. This is a concern that I have had for a while. I want to learn what is happening not determine what I may already perceive to be the case. I hope that by being aware of this I will be able to mitigate my biases with appropriate methods. Particularly, through the choosing of interview questions and making sure that my field notes are descriptive.

Recognizing motivations and biases will help in all of my preparations and through out the field. Taking the time to think through my motivations and painfully acknowledging them will likely make the subtle difference between my perception of my experience as being a high, low, or in most cases both. Which will make all the difference in the world.

Inquiry

This last week was the annual Inquiry Conference. I spent a significant amount of my week listening to different presenters from across many disciplines discuss countless topics based on their cross-cultural research experiences. While fighting off strong feelings of nostalgia of student and projects past I was reminded of how important and exciting the process of inquiry is. As one keynote speaker similarly put it, inquiry is the finding of dots of knowledge/experience and then connecting those dots. Watching students present on their experiences with inquiry was fascinating to me. Each one had their own points of interest and process of learning. In many ways for me it was like plugging in a dying battery to be recharged.

One of my favorite topics throughout the conference was on collaboration. Collaboration between faculty, students, and the members of the community that we as students visit. This may include our top informants, host families, neighbors, or the person that we talk to while waiting for the bus. When I interact with these individuals it is not just me becoming educated or gaining knowledge. Sharing and collaboration are taking place. Am I being a good collaborator? How am I sharing my knowledge? How am I treating these groups of people? What are my intentions for treating them that way? Am I going above and beyond with some people and ignoring others simply because I want something from them? What is appropriate? Can I ever 'repay' what I am given?

These are some of the thoughts that I have had about the ideas of collaboration and inquiry. In my project specifically how will I be a good collaborator? I think recognizing and being honest with my motives is a great place to start.