0 approaches to area studies (2) :conducting field work
TRANSCRIPT
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Approaches to Area Studies
(2)
:Conducting Field Work
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Why Do We Need Fieldwork?
I35003 Suh Hee Jong
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01. Fieldwork in Area Studies
IntroductionCONTENTS
02. Based on Area (Vietnam, Doi Moi)
03. Interdisciplinary (India, Worshiping Cow)
04. Bottom-up (Guns, Germs, and Steel)
05. Conclusion
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01. Fieldwork in Area Studies
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Q. Why do we need fieldwork in area studies?
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01. Fieldwork in Area Studies
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Features of Area Studies
(1) Area studies is based on the Area.
(2) Area studies is the Interdisciplinary approach.
(3) Area studies is the Bottom-up perspective.
Role of Fieldwork in Area Studies
(1) Field work provides the true understanding of Area.
(2) Field work is the starting point of Interdisciplinary work.
(3) Field work helps to raise the question from the Bottom.
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02. Area Studies is based on the Area
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“There is difference between knowledge and understanding.”
- William W. Cressey -
Knowledge ← Classroom
Understanding ← Field experience
The understanding of other people can be fully developed by in-
volvement or experience in field rather than readings or lectures.
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02. Area Studies is based on the Area
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Vietnam economic reform policy, Doi Moi
Class
: Economic reform policy liberalizes market.
Field
: Why are there so many luxurious buildings?
1) Safe investment
2) Geomancy
→ How Doi Moi takes effect in real world.
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03. Area studies is the Interdisciplinary approach
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“The success of interdisciplinary research depends on assimilating him-
self into the environment.”
- Narifumi Maeda Tachimoto-
Cast away the prejudice and escape from our own disciplines.
Fieldwork is the starting point to rebuild the research design.
Without the background of understanding in local situation, it is
hard to achieve the interdisciplinary work in area studies.
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Worshiping Cow in India.
Q. Do people in India really “worship” cow?
- It doesn’t make sense in political science.
- Indian people sometimes kick them out.
- It requires historical & cultural explanations.
1) Sacrificing cow for ritual costed too much.
2) Hunting society → Agricultural society
→ Comprehensive understanding of culture
03. Area studies is the Interdisciplinary approach
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04. Area studies is the Bottom-up Perspective
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“It is not just that there are different answers;
there are different questions.”
- William W. Cressey -
Q. Why Papua New Guinea couldn’t be US?
A. Because of different natural environments
Bottom-up perspective → Generalization
↑
Fieldwork
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05. Conclusion
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Fieldwork Knowledge
Fieldwork in included in the process of data collection.
Next step should be followed by disciplinary methods.
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How Should Fieldwork be Performed?
: Essence and Techniques of Fieldwork
I36003 Kim Seung Ju
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01. Fieldwork and Rinchi-kenkyu
IntroductionCONTENTS
02. Encounter
03. Rapport: Association with people
04. Rapport: Interaction with a place05. Parting
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01. Fieldwork and Rinchi-kenkyu
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Evolvement of the Definition
Field-Work in 1777: Work done in the field, or in the fields.
“Argonauts of the Western Pacific” by B. Malinowski published in 1922
have proved that fieldwork can develop a perspective for a new theory.
The continuous research of collecting numerous data about every aspect
of people’s life by staying in a community for a long period of time was
accepted as a methodology in social sciences.
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01. Fieldwork and Rinchi-kenkyu
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It is only recently that field work started to be used as “a general term to
indicate practical aspects of studies in archaeology, linguistic and sociol-
ogy conducted in target and related areas, distinguished from theoretical
and laboratory research”.
This fieldwork has not only been developed as a valuable approach to un-
derstand different cultures but it is also recognized as an effective ap-
proach across disciplinary boundaries in studying areas of investigation in
general.
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01. Fieldwork and Rinchi-kenkyu
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In Japan, the translation of the word “fieldwork” are associated with the
discriminatory nuance that fieldwork is the “work” of data collection and
the real study is only possible in the laboratory or office with data gath-
ered for examination.
“Rinchi-kenkyu” by Mantaro Hashimoto: being-on-the-spot or facing-the-
place research
Rinchi-kenkyu: Conducting investigation and research while putting one-
self in a given place. A space, a location where something is happening or
being done, or a circumstance or atmosphere or ambience in which
something is being done is a “place”.
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01. Fieldwork and Rinchi-kenkyu
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Place also refers to where intuition is formed. Fieldwork start to form it-
self into a meaningful method only when a researcher questions the place
where he has lived as a given.
Doing a fieldwork means seeking a change of place. It is necessary to
leave a place and wander about but researchers must make themselves
the master in the study of an area and keep coming back to that place.
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02. Encounter
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What is most important in predicting success or failure of field work is the
understanding that the knowledge per se is not enough when doing re-
search because it has its own limitations. So a researcher goes abroad and
he encounters new circumstances.
Encounter is the initiation of an association comfortable to both you and
local people. So try to adjust your behaviour by holding a relative view of
the culture and an open-mind to accommodate the cultural difference.
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02. Encounter
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A student of area studies ought to know the common practices of the tar-
get country and to supposedly conform to it as “Do in Rome as the Ro-
mans do”. But if you know nothing about the local people, greeting peo-
ple in your own (cultural) way maybe effective.
The selection of a language is certainly based on the practical considera-
tion but at the same time, it openly demonstrates the existing power rela-
tionship.
Communication is impossible without conveying your own heart. When
neither side knows the other’s language, they may have to depend on a
common language.
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03. Rapport: Association with people
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For students of humane studies and social sciences, encountering, associ-
ating and interacting with people are the important objectives of field-
work.
Although observation seems to be the most reliable tool in studying a
“place”; that the observation is objective and bias-free, the researcher,
inevitably watches and perceives things in the framework taken for
granted in his own culture.
If you perceive cultures in a universal way with no regard to the subtle dif-
ferences, you would lose the ability to infer what people are thinking. To
understand a “place”, you need to be face-to-face with those who have
lived there and listen to them.
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03. Rapport: Association with people
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<Tips on how to carry out fieldwork>
Try not to limit the associations to a certain group.
If you want to know the privately shared esoterica, it is better to interview
an expert insider who knows everything.
Connecting, bonding and blending in with local people may be the best
way to form associations. Your top priority should be to establish an asso-
ciation with the local people. Association is not necessarily a function of
time
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03. Rapport: Association with people
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Not all researchers can be completely unbiased and it is not always best
from the strategic point of view. It is sometimes an advantage for a re-
searcher to maintain his own point of view.
It is also important to keep in mind that to investigate means to be inves-
tigated. Local people also observe and investigate the researcher. If you
forget this, you will never have any meaningful interaction with local peo-
ple.
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03. Rapport: Association with people
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Freedom of doing research vs the right to refuse
Protection of privacy vs non-violation of privacy
The first step to research and a study is to know what is considered pri-
vate and what is public and what are the rights of people in community.
You also need to do research in the framework of social and cultural con-
text of the local people while respecting their wishes.
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04. Rapport: Interaction with a place
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There are also interactions between a person and an object and between a per-
son and a place.
Elements of interacting with a place
1) To observe and think
2) To form links
3) To stand in an imagined world
“Expansion of a place”
: In doing fieldwork, a researcher has to think about the boundaries of a place.
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04. Parting
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Parting refers to coming back to the world of their (researchers) origin
and the manner of parting and the aftercare is important. It is necessary
to stay open and maintain the possibility of having future contacts.
It is also important to note that rinchi-kenkyu (fieldwork) is an initiation.
Initiation is a process where a person changes from being something to
something else.
Parting is followed by the act of sharing and reporting of the research. But
when making the research public, the researcher needs to take particular
care to give the highest priority to the privacy of informants.
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Conducting Fieldwork: Case Study
I37030 Aiste Zemaityte
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01. Understanding area concept: Southeast Asia
IntroductionCONTENTS
02. Conducting Field Work (1)- Introduction
- Field Work
- Introduction
- Getting Started
- Conducting Field Work in Japan
03. Conducting Field Work (2)
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01. Understanding area concept: Southeast Asia
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Sea is dominant and particular ecological feature in Southeast Asia:
- It effects selection of habitat, occupation, subsistence.
Social relations consist of radical pairing or dyadic equilibrium:
- A pair activity to cope with harsh environment;
- Creates flexible circle of people (no strict membership).
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01. Understanding area concept: Southeast Asia
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Limited and restricted locations of resources:
- In order to find a better location for hunting or fishing people were
moving around a lot.
No long-endured leadership:
- Short-lived charismatic leaders who fitted the diasporic situation.
(large supplies of water, mobile population, recources)
Southeast Asia does not have systematic integrity like China:
- Network society or an aggregation of networking societies;
- A unit-world deriving its uniqueness based on eco-identity
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02. Conducting Field Work (1)
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Chee Kiong Tong,
“Identity and Ethnic Relations
in Southeast Asia: Realizing
Chineseness”
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02. Conducting Field Work (1)
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<Introduction>
Different stances and strategies of Southeast Asian countries in relating to
and dealing with religious Chinese diaspora;
“One of the key aims of this book is to, based on empirical data collected
in the various countries in Southeast Asia, develop new conceptual mod-
els and to retheorize ideas of ethnic identity and ethnic relations in
Southeast Asia.”
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02. Conducting Field Work (1)
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<Field work>
Data used in the book was collected during field trips (10 days to 1
month) to each of the countries included in the study:
1. In-depth interviews with informants:
▷Open-ended, semi-structured interviews;
▷Casual interview-like
2. Visits to and observations of community organizations: temples, clan
associations, Chambers of Commerce, schools.
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02. Conducting Field Work (1)
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Interviews were conducted in English, Mandarin, and various of dialects
used among Chinese (e.g. in Thailand many interviews were carried out in
Teochew);
Field notes were made during interviews and after;
Interviews generally lasted 30 min to 3 hours;
In each of the countries, interviews were carried out with between 80 and
100 Chinese informants.
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02. Conducting Field Work (1)
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Interviews were also made with indigenous population;
A whole range informants were selected for interviews
(Chinese businessmen, taxi drivers, civil servants etc., age 18-70);
Visits to home of Chinese families;
A study also drew on secondary and archival materials.
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02. Conducting Field Work (2)
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Levi McLaughlin,
“All Research is Fieldwork: A Practical
Introduction to Studying in Japan as a
Foreign Researcher”
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02. Conducting Field Work (2)
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<Introduction>
This guide designed to assist researchers through initial stages of Japan-
based study.
In Japan all research situations are different:
- Different cataloging modes in different libraries;
- Each situation is structured by social connections
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02. Conducting Field Work (2)
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<Getting Started>
Formal introduction to Japanese university, research institute, or other in-
stitution of higher learning is required;
Start Japanese-based study at home country;
Researcher should start contacting people he/she wants to meet before
leaving to Japan (using Japanese language is preferable);
Be prepared to explain research project in about three minutes.
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02. Conducting Field Work (2)
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<Conducting Field Work in Japan>
The best way to be introduced to a group of people or institution in Japan
is through a personal connection to someone from the middle to the
bottom of the organization’s social hierarchy.
the more specific request is, the easier it will be for people to help.
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02. Conducting Field Work (2)
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Tips on interviews in Japan:
√ Friend of the friend: the person feels free to speak freely without
destroying social relations;
√ Do not call interview an “interview”;
√ Be prepared to abandon any pre-scripted questions
(structured interview);
√ Attempt to initiate the conversation in Japanese and carry out
the entire interview in Japanese;
√ Be prepared to answer a lot of questions about yourself;
√ Be sure to follow up every interview with a thank-you, either in writing
or by phone.
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02. Conducting Field Work (2)
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Japanese social protocol demands bring an omiyage, a simple gift, to
demonstrate sincerity;
Meishi, name cards or business cards, are ubiquitous forms of formal
introduction in Japan.
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Thank You