Ethnography for actionTalk given at the TU1204 MC/WG meeting in Glasgow March 23rd 2015

Helga Ögmundardóttir

Anthropologist

Faculty of social and human sciences

University of Iceland

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 1

My agenda today:

• A little bit about me and why I‘m here...

• A little about the historical context of qualitative fieldwork as a platform of co-research

• Anthropological participant observation and ethnography: mutual involvment built on trust and willingness to give

• My experience of qualitative fieldwork the last 15 years or so...

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 2

I

• Icelandic, live in Reykjavík, lecturer/assistant professor in anthropology at the University of Iceland, studied in Sweden and Denmark, PhD from Uppsala Univ., a dozen of research projects of varied lenght on different topics, all based on qualitative fieldwork/participant observation/interviews /document analysis, etc.

• Mark Dyer invited me here – thanks to him and all of you for being willing to listen and I hope we‘ll have a fruitful discussion today!

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 3

Historical context

• Change of focus and methods in social sciences and humanities from positivism to critical perspectives on the role of research and the scientist-society relationship: who do we serve, what is our agenda, what right do we have to probe people‘s lives?

• From research ON to research WITH: co-research• See also my Abstract

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 4

Anthropology and ethnography• Anthropology, as an academic discipline, grew out of colonialism:

know the natives =˃ better control• Emic view, thick description, small scale focus, empathy, participation in

people‘s lives for extended periods, sharing of space and information, stand up for the weak and marginalised, understand the human condition everywhere, what unites people instead of what divides them, transparency, trust, responsibility, activism, empowerment, objectivity is dead, funding, multiple voices, text production: for whom, by whom?, study on people becomes study with people ...

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 5

My fieldwork (1)

• My first lesson about the power of fieldwork:• Icelandic-indigenous relations in Manitoba and North-

Dakota in the late 19th and early 20th c.: ongoing processes and politics today – what is an entertaining story in one place is the hard fact of life in another; multiple voices, telling the stories, etc.

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 6

My fieldwork (2)

• Alternative vehicles in Reykjavík – hybrid cars and their owners – how novelties are introduced /come about, and are mainstreamed in communities: connections already out there, processes ongoing; a researcher can for instance concretise, encourage, and document and thus help to make a change

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 7

My fieldwork (3)

• CONVERGE – Greenschools in the Reykjavík-area – pioneers, leaders and visionaries and the power of youth in making a change: nourish the grassroot, listen to leaders and visionaries, bring them into the spotlight so that they‘re acknowledged for their work

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 8

My fieldwork (4)

• Invasive species in Iceland – Stykkishólmur municipality in western Iceland: the social, political and cultural prerequisits and impacts of getting rid of alien plants which spread because of climate change effects (rising temperature)

• Creating and recreating ties between specialists, local authorities, and the public

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 9

My fieldwork (5)

• The shepherds of Þjórsárver - my PhD research• Local resistance to development projects of the nation-state:

fieldwork for 5 years among farmers in southern Iceland who‘ve been resisting the dam-building Norðlingaölduveita in their community‘s highland commons for over 40 years

• Contribution to local empowerment, part of a democratic process of environmental decision-making, life-long friendships, strengthen the rural-urban ties, role of ENGOs ...

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 10

My fieldwork (6)

• NordStar: fieldwork in 4 Nordic communities: Reykjavík, Trondheim, Sønderborg and Växjö

• Emission and energy-use reduction: the importance of extended participation, revisiting, follow-up, feedback to participants, view from within, personal involvement, unexpected networking across spaces; tying the unconventional and contextualising local realities

• “Societal outreach” is not something you do isolated from research, but should be a fundamental part of the project, apathy towards the impacts of the scientists, but the agenda has to be set from the start…

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 11

While in the field...• A local perspective, local effects, local understanding• A comprehensive group, for the fieldworker, for the members: identities, roles,

connections, expectations• Processes already going on: “grab the goose”!• Connections already made and new ones constantly in the making and to be

made• Work with what‘s going on rather than try to create new phenomena, but when

new ones are, they better be in line with the local culture• Responsibility, trust, negotiations, clear roles, “I scratch your back, you scratch

mine“, transparent agenda and positioning, creative interactions, facilitate instead of force or command, no one is “right“ or knows better…

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 12

Some texts/bibliography• Crate, S. and M. Nuttall (eds.). 2009. Anthropology and Climate Change. From

Encounters to Action. Left Coast Press, USA.• Dove, M.R. (ed.). 2014. The Anthropology of Climate Change. An Historical

Reader. Wiley Blackwell, UK.• Hennink, M., I. Hutter and A. Bailey. 2011. Qualitative Research Methods. Sage,

UK.• Jackson, M. 2005. Existential Anthropology. Events, Exigencies and Effects.

Berghahn Books, Canada.• Jackson, M. 1995. At Home in the World. Duke University Press, USA.• THANK YOU!

15/04/2023 Helga Ögmundardóttir 2015 13