Online qualitative research: Can you help to represent and distribute significant data about a place in a way that affects how a community look after it?
This is my dissertation as a PDF. Below are excerpts.
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the development of an online collaborative mapping tool called theirwork. The tool continues to be developed and delivered using web and open source mapmaking tools. The thesis sets the work within an evolving project framework of qualitative research and critical theory and asks if theirwork, which is developing a shared language about peoples’ places, can affect how a community look after their environment.
Note, I am in the midst of creating a second draft of this dissertation. These are the main changes taking place
- The chapters section of the introduction is getting tidied up - made clearer
- The end of chapter 1, i.e. 1.3 is moving to chapter 3
- Approx 500 words are being removed from chapter 3 and this chapter is in the process of being split into two. I want the second part to become a 'pull out' ethnographic methodological guide
- The conclusion has slightly expanded - it will expand further once the project is externally launched
- I might move chapter 2 ahead of chapter 1, however, I am going to make the above changes first and see how it reads
Also, I want to make stronger links between the fact that the bibliography/netography and storyboard continue to be shaped outside of the PDF i.e. http://del.icio.us/theirwork and http://www.flickr.com/photos/theirwork/ (Really, I would like the whole dissertation to be a tag based editable online PDF/wiki.)
Notably, because the project theirwork is work in progress, this thesis is only capturing qualitative fieldwork and theory that is in a state of progression itself. A qualitative researcher is continuing to advise on the fieldwork as it develops online. They will help to read the transcripts in conjunction with new data as it is added to the mapping tool. The http://theirwork.org/blog will be used, in addition to this site, to add new ideas and new theories that emerge so that articles can be shaped up for submission. Therefore, this site and the blog will address issues and philosophy that the dissertation cannot because of project times scales and restraints.
A theirwork project audit PDF will be published in the near future.
Dissertation excerpts
(These excerpts are helping me to shape
articles for publication and will help to prepare for a presentation paper due in August.)
(method)
This is a descriptive, reflective and analytical thesis that explores the methods and theories inherent within the making of a live Web-based mapmaking tool. The methods within this thesis are two-fold. Firstly, there is the method actually employed in relation to co-producing the mapmaking tool, and secondly, the method refers to an ethnographic method that has been central to building content and ideas for the project. The two methods are co-dependant – there is a symbiotic relationship between the tool itself, and its production, and what I feel is a political commitment that set out to enable people at ground level, through ethnography, to craft and shape the tool itself. In the dissertation, an ethnographic methodolgy drives the first three chapters, whilst a production methodology shapes the final chapters.
(Intro: p4)
(my existing theory)
Whilst I appreciate Foucault’s theories on the relationship between institutions, power and the dissemination of discourse, I needed to find an approach, which would empower others, the informants, and myself in relation to hegemony. I found his notion of the impossibility of a ‘self-governing subject’ too bleak and disempowering – I wanted at some level to believe in the concept of agency and a self-governing subject, with the power to enact change. This led me to research what I will call a ‘governmentally de-centred conceptualisation of the term sustainability’ – that the term sustainability is best understood when re-conceptualised from a subjective, person-centred, body-centred standpoint, and from within a grounded communal context. Such a change of perspective inevitably led me to a more phenomenological approach. The following quote by Edward Casey informed much of my research:
The self has to do with agency and identity of the geographical subject; body is what links this self to lived place in its sensible and perceptible features: and landscape is the presented layout of a set of places, their sensuous self-presentation as it were (Casey 2001: 405).
(Chp 1: p13)
(my new theory)
I became particularly inspired by the work of David Abram and his book the Spell of the Sensuous. He calls for a re-habitation of place and of body so that we can inhabit places like coastal forests and grassland again (1996: 273-4). To do this, he claims, requires action. And that action is efficacious when bioregional communities develop a language that is of the local soundscape. This theory was supported and re-enforced by my informants, and then re-introduced in ethnographic analysis...
Methodologically, my aim was to facilitate a project that introduced a more empowering understanding and production of the term sustainability. For example, by introducing and facilitating sustainable practices via bioregional mapping empowers individuals within their localities - rather than the term remaining a fairly disembodied abstract concept. From this position, I aimed to develop an innovative theoretical and practice-based model that would explore, de-centre, and re-frame the concept ‘sustainability’, in order to generate new meanings and practices.
(Chp 1: p14)
(mapping places)
Whilst it would be stupid to follow this argument through to a rarefied, held-fast conclusion, given even the most transient places, like an airport for instance, are sensually felt and apprehended, and become spaces/places of imaginative and emotional importance, this project argues for a more localised sensual experience of immediate locality through bioregional activism. I suppose I am saying that such activism has the potential to de-centre globalisation.
(Chp 2: p20)
(inner abstract)
Accordingly, this project has aimed to de-centre governmental legislative practices by creating a highly personalised, visual, kinaesthetic, emotional, sensory and tactile copyright-free bioregional map, via actual bodies walking and talking in real-time space. These bodies are located in the importance of place through the sensory body, and through human interaction. The map aims to make the ‘world into a home’ via re-experiencing the importance of small places through texture, sound, image and emotional experiences through positive localised action. In a sense place is valued and brought into consciousness via theirwork.
(Chp 2: p23)
(detail about method)
A hybridisation of traditional and innovative qualitative research methods has been used in this project. Hybridisation has been achieved by applying different theoretical lenses to the data; I have drawn from literary studies, philosophy, feminist and phenomenological studies. Under the influence of Ezzy, given he states a multi-disciplinary approach is integral to good ethnography (2002: xiii), I have also integrated processes from my prior fine and design arts, and sustainable design practice education. These processes have enriched what the term ‘one-to-one-interview’ and workshop meetings within the qualitative arena of fieldwork have also achieved through hybridisation.
(Chp 3:6 p29)
(grounded theory)
Landscape
wetland, willow land, chain sawing, agriculture / fields, wood, countryside heath land, archaeology, conifers
Walking
avoids it in this location, only walks if has to, drives the edges, no exercise, no running, walks on days off and somewhere else
Community
exterior, maybe environmental community but not a member yet / coming together, building a society, living together, interacting / agriculture slash commuter, fishing, farming, insular, interact, history, lack of education, on the edges, interlopers like me, some people trying to escape
Favourite place
trees, the spiky trees, exotic, the cliff view
Sustainability
confines of community, not travelling to somewhere else, living and working together, take ownership of, money is earned in locality / growth and development / not rigid, not stagnate, incorporates different cultures / doesn’t belong to sustainable organisations
Nature
ever changing / self-seed woodland, not monoculture, a variety of things in a system / nature is me, you can’t destroy nature, ignores what others say about it
Culture
belongs to individuals and groups, regions have their own cultures, it grows from individuals not from families
Difference between nature and culture
nature is organic, culture is fluid, culture is created by man, nature is sometimes created by man, nature can be influenced
(Chp 4 p38)
(emergent themes from questions)
Feeling isolated from one or more community
Feeling part of one or more micro-communities
Feeling part of communities
Nature was fundamental to well-being
Nature on a day-to-day basis was vital to well-being
(Chp 4 p40)
(emergent themes from walking)
Co-participant one - rocks, water
Co-participant two - agriculture
Co-participant three - birds, water
Co-participant four - meditation, plants
Co-participant five - trees, fields
Co-participant six - trees, birds
Co-participant seven - memories, events
Co-participant eight - fish, water
(Chp 4 p41)
(closed questions)
- Do you agree that these are the key themes that emerged as you walked the lake?
- Would you agree that these subjects, when thinking about the lake, interest you the most?
- What other things are important to you as you walk the lake?
- A lot of you felt you were part of more than one community; some of you felt a bit isolated from communities, do you ever feel isolated from nature?
- It seems that everyone felt that nature was fundamental to his or her well-being and on a day-to-day basis. Do you agree with this?
- If you go for a walk down there, does the place affect your mood?
- A lot of you walk the lake nearly daily - does the lake therefore affect your day-to-day mood?
- Does the lake at different times of the year affect your mood?
- What smells do you associate with Loe Pool
- What sounds do you associate with Loe Pool
(Chp 4 p41)
(contrast questions developing)
It isn’t clear whether co-participants feel they are part of nature
It isn’t clear what a sustainable organisation means to the co-participants
It isn’t clear if co-participants believe a sustainable organisation exists
It isn’t clear if some co-participants believe they can change how the lake is looked after
It isn’t clear if some co-participants want to engage with an online community or know what an online community is
(Chp 4 p43)
(future ethnographic work)
I am continuing to evolve the qualitative research. Having coded the co-participants open questions; dividing answers into definable themes and admitting to my agenda, and having evolved and asked a set of closed questions from this coding, I am now analysing the workshop transcripts with a qualitative advisor and community facilitator, so as to engender a set of contrast questions that I can post on a project forum. This serves the purpose of being able to double-check these discrepancies in the data. I am then considering an integration of the questions and replies in a further workshop that co-participants have requested – this will check that I am continuing to be transparent about my research and its findings, but also that I am continuing to involve the co-participants in the coding, analysing and sharing of data, so that those involved in the project can learn from each other and can self-reflect.
(Chp 4 p45)
(walking and data)
Adhering to the participatory approach, I am ‘fitting into’ the co-participants’ agenda - they chose the location of the walk in relationship to the lake - they chose the date and time – some co-participants brought their binoculars or dog along, others even brought ‘somebody else along’. As a result they took me on ‘their’ walk. Therefore the ‘type of walk’ they liked to do became an integral part of data analysis and data collection, and I felt this was vital to achieve, because it would ‘obtain a story or interpretation of the person being interviewed’ (Ezzy: 2002: 68).
Hence, the act of walking and recording the walk became an integral part of the one-to-one interview. The co-participants and I tracked the walk; sites of interest, favourite places, memory spots, stories connected to a place, objects, plants and animals, and questions and answers were recorded using a GPS unit. I also encouraged co-participants to photograph “anything that was of interest to them”. These activities helped capture the walk and created a supplementary resource to each recorded conversation that took place. There were two main reasons for recording the conversations. Firstly I could analyse their questions, and secondly - equally important, if not more so - to capture a walk that could be used as a public record if informants wanted to share their ideas, feelings and stories.
(Chp 5 p48)
(group codes)
Co-participant one – air, fresh, walk, drink, doebury-furkin
Co-participant two – pool, cold, woodland, sea, beach
Co-participant three – birdsong, water, sky
Co-participant four – plants, tranquil, green, muted
Co-participant five – scenic, natural, tranquil, peaceful, relaxing
Co-participant six - parkland, tranquil, wooded, muddy
Co-participant seven – green, sunny, open, quiet, clean
Co-participant eight – rocky, sunny, high, blue
Co-participant nine – sea, pssh, sunny, sky
(Chp 5 p50)
Feeling: air, fresh, relaxing, doebury-furkin, tranquil, peaceful, clean, natural, open, safe, tranquil, birdsong, quiet, peaceful, relaxing
Colour: blue, green, muted, blue
Physical: walk, drink, pool, sea, wooded, muddy, pssh, wild, natural, water, sea, rocky, sandy, scenic, clean, high, sky, open, woodland, parkland, beach
Weather: sunny, sunny, muddy, fresh, mild, cold, sunny, sunny
(Chp 5 p51)
From further words: “flowers, negative, animals, grasses, people, activities, cars, benches, rain, history, squirrels, trees, bracken, scenery, birds, reeds, cyclist, woodland, marsh, habitat, bog, rootlet, to rootle” the following tags were developed: ‘bad, animals, plants, history’
(Chp 5 p52)
(a part-coded part walk)
(Co-participant 6)
==
wp 397 (The woodpecker and favourite tree)
bird, feeling
n 50.08767
w 005.29901
-
Long: -5.29901
Lat: 50.08767
==
wp 398 (Looking out over the fields, the textured and flat looking ones.)
feeling
n 50.08685
w 005.29497
-
Long: -5.29497
Lat: 50.08685
==
wp 399 (Walking along the path towards the lake)
physical
n 50.08541
w 005.29334
-
Long: -5.29334
Lat: 50.08541
==
wp 400 (The oaks that three other co-participants have highlighted)
feeling
n 50.08364
w 005.29243
-
Long: -5.29243
Lat: 50.08364
==
wp 401 (Looking at the bit of field that can turn into a lake)
physical
n 50.08450
w 005.29483
-
Long: -5.29483
Lat: 50.08450
(Chp 5 p53)
(conclusion developing)
To date, what has been successful about the project is that a participatory research action project has taken off. Data has been transcribed, redacted and moreover, coding and continuing refinement is taking place through the project’s map interface – it is highlighting feelings, sounds, knowledge and stories from the material that came from co-participant interviews. Also informants are starting to bring material independently to the project. I have received cold calls and emails from three co-participants now offering images and drawings about the lake. In addition to the map interface, a forum has been set up to facilitate discussion about the project - general discussions, technical discussions and maybe, in the future, philosophical questions. A rich picture - a resource of ideas, and perhaps a new way of sharing language through maps is being co-created.
(Conclusion p60)
Whilst this qualitative theory is still developing, my biggest deductive theory remains that counter-discourses to sustainability are created, owned and spoken with a mighty force - economies that disregard long-term development, but rather aim to fill pockets now and short-term and at the expense of the earth. This almighty narcissistic force can be termed late-capitalism. However, the project has most certainly influenced and found new theory for me - I am situated in practice-based work that is about immersing others and myself in landscape. Inductive theory has informed my deductive theory and I hope that as this project evolves, it will not just be about ‘red dot-making’, but about an economy of maps that share a way to belong to landscape – a tool that is helping people to re-inhabit their place.
(Conclusion p60)