ResearchNotes: The First Real One
I’m back from my first week in Oxford. I have photographic proof of looking like I’ve been there. I’ve collected my cheque, my library card, my cap, gown and bow tie and am now sufficiently qualified (apparently) to read some books and stroke my chin at a level I had never even dreamt of before.
The big trouble I’m finding is how to introduce both myself and the project. I find new settings and people a bit daunting sometimes, and trying to explain my DPhil feels like doing a Countdown puzzle, but instead of time, you are fighting the other person’s confusion and attention span.
So let’s do a run of what the topic is, and where I’m drawing lines and definitions at the moment.
The title is “Does civic technology work and who does it work for? Historical and ethnographic perspectives”. I think what that means to start off with is to try and define some of the terms although I think this might change.
Civic tech: I’m defining it as the space online where things are made that are meant to broadly improve civic life (as in, I think if you make a social network for the Liberal Democrats, that’s not it).
Does it work? Ooh boy. Maybe? Let’s find out. Definitely sometimes, not always.
Who does it work for? I think this is the most interesting bit. Trying to look at whether the products that exist actually work (by making life easier, changing behaviour etc).
There are other questions that are starting to be problems in my head:
Where is the research site?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to talk about this. Anthropology of the internet is a nice starting point, but it doesn’t really help. The internet is a convenient shorthand, but the spaces I think I’m researching are meetups, conferences, talks, Slacks and twitter.
But then I’m trying to work out what my cadence of conferences should be. Where is civic tech happening and what spaces outside my (admittedly, pretty civic tech focused) bubble should I be going to.
For example, I got an email with a speaker list for a doteveryone thing. Now, I think pretty much everyone on here is interesting, but are they… well… are they just going to give me their stump speech? Is there discussion or is it listening and drinking bad coffee? Will it be reckons, experience, evidence or just “the internet is hard”. I’m not wanting to pick on this event, as I do genuinely want to go to it, but instead to illustrate that trying to pick apart what a useful space for my research is can be hard to settle on.
How to record an argument in an academic text
I’ve been thinking a lot about this too. I do disagree publicly with quite a few people. Sometimes it’s fine and we’ll get stuff sorted, and sometimes the argument lingers. If I’m trying to record this in an ethnography, how do I record my part in arguments (that in the spirit of participant-observation I should have and not gloss over) where I then need to report on the part played by the other party. It is going to be DEEPLY COMPLICATED/AWKWARD. There is a class on Ethnographic Portraiture next term that I think I’m going to go to to explore this.
Next week:
- First non-induction seminars. Will I immediately sink?
- An overview of the weirdness I’m feeling about class and privilege.
- Matriculation. White tie.
- My adventures in trying to talk to people in different departments about this project to be nice and interdisciplinary.
Places where some stuff about this project is going to be
- Research students page (soon, I am told)
- My Github Pages site for the Doctorate.
Anxieties
- It’s hard traveling between Oxford (academic), Cambridge (home life) and London (gov work) in a week and being sharp for all of them.
- I want to get a seminar list for the Oxford Internet Institute so I can make internet friends there too
- I want to get a seminar list for Cambridge’s anthro dept so that I can (timetable permitting) go to things here that are relevant.
- It’s hard being Part Time. In our induction one of the lecturers made a big deal that this year’s Student Handbook had a section for PT students. Upon inspection, this was not true.
- There are not enough desks in the department or my college to really get some work done. I may have to do no work.
THANKS
- The AHRC for the fat government cheque.
- Democracy Club for participating in the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership.
- Liz and Terry for the bedroom.
As ever, comments and suggestions for books, articles, people, conferences and small bits of working you need doing for £££ are appreciated. Either here, on twitter or by email.
