Towards an implementation of Ethnographic Monitoring

Towards an implementation of
Ethnographic Monitoring
Jef van der Aa, Jan Blommaert & Massimiliano Spotti
Babylon / Dept. of Culture Studies
Faculty of Humanities
Tilburg University
E-mail: [email protected]
Superdiversity
✤
The diversification of diversity (Blommaert, Rampton & Spotti 2011)
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Not possible anymore to rely on ethnic grouping alone
when coming to grip with diversity
✤
Globalisation does not allow us to presuppose much
about migrants’ own background
✤
The idea of stability in social formation can also no longer
be presupposed because there is a lack of territorial,
linguistic and ethno-cultural predictability
Ethnography 1
✤
Method stemming from anthropology the descriptive analysis, owned
by anthropology, to generate more knowledge in order to understand
society
✤
Meten om te Weten
✤
No understanding for the pure sake of understanding and knowledge
forming, but knowledge in order to hit on the nail of social change
or
Weten om te Begrijpen?
Ethnography 2
✤
1. The epistemology of ethnography and the narrative character of
it fit well with the emphasis on understanding societal dynamics.
✤
2. The validation of ethnographic research needs people
themselves: the development of an accurate knowledge of the
meanings associated with behaviors, for both the institutions where
these things happen and for the people who deal with them and do
them.
✤
3. Ethnographic learning is open and democratic to all: it is an
extension of what people already do, namely it makes them
understand the dynamics at the core of socialization: the
understanding of meaning, norms and patterns of doing/being
member of a socio-cultural space.
Ethnographic Monitoring
✤
A low cost research program, that can be encapsulated in four steps:
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1. listen to the stories and to the possible problems / issues that
people in the field do report to us
✤
2. collect the right information in order to tackle this within the
dynamics of the socio-cultural space under investigation
✤
3. make the strange familiar: go back to the informants
✤
4. theoretical formulation, reporting, valorization
Concretely
✤
Research wise: be there and present, mapping, ‘deep out’:
participating in shifts, “use me” method (1)
✤
Consultation with workers and informants (1)
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Developing an understanding of the dynamics at play (2)
✤
Analyses (3a)
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Feeding back, reporting, asking the people themselves (3b)
✤
Bringing analysis to life through implementation (4)
✤
Valorization component of research (4)
Primary suspects …..
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Department of Culture Studies / Babylon
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Jef Van der Aa: neighborhoods and social inclusion
✤
Max Spotti: asylum seekers and e-citizenship
✤
Piia Varis & Fie Velghe: social media, mobile literacies in town ships
✤
Jan Blommaert: superdiversity, complexity and conviviality
Where does E.M. lead to?
✤
Cruciaal in de samenwerking die ontstaat door het vierstappenplan is
solidariteit: de onderzoeker komt niet om een vooraf bepaald
onderzoeksplan uit te voeren, maar is solidair en luistert naar en
observeert wat de werkelijke noden en foci zijn van de verschillende
actoren in het veld.
✤
Samen wordt dan gewerkt aan een onderzoeksplan, dat voortdurend
bijgesteld wordt op basis van gemeenschappelijk verkregen inzichten.
✤
Deze inzichten zullen dan zaak om optimaal gebruik te maken van de
manoevreerruimte binnen het bestaande beleid.
✤
Door deze dynamieken in kaart te brengen, kunnen andere
instellingen dit mogelijk succesvol implementeren.