Thoughts from a 404 discussion

Today in class we talked about the continuum in ethnographic research about whether we are trying to save science from humans or whether we are trying to save humans from science. We talked about the extremes of pure objectivity in the social sciences as well as the danger of saying that whatever someone thinks is true makes it true. While I find the topic of the validity of science very interesting, this discussion also helped me to think about my own research this summer. Where does my project fit on the continuum? From my experience last summer, I hope that I won’t be so objective that I won’t let myself make connections with my subjects/informants/coresearchers (whatever it is that I want to call them (I haven’t decided yet)), as I really do want to get to know them, learn from them (not just about them), and gain more than just academic experience from the time I spend with them. On the other hand, I also hope that I learn something that really will help me understand how the social world really is. I hope that what I learn will help me to one day be a better social worker (if I get into an MSW program that is).

I also enjoyed the reading. Or rather, I enjoyed the perspective that the ethnographer’s experience is just as valid to write about as the people that the ethnographer is describing. I guess what I mean is that the characteristics about the ethnographer, such as race, gender, age, etc. are recognized and can be used for the benefit of the research. I guess that is confusing too, let me try again with an example. I am studying masculinity and rugby in South Africa, and the population I want to study is probably a team of rugby players aged 10-11. Now, being that I am female, American, white, and I have never played rugby, I am a definite outsider to this population (except for maybe the white skin thing. A lot of rugby players in South Africa are white). However, I appreciate that ethnography recognizes that I will bring a unique perspective to my project, and while someone else might learn different things doing my same project, my data will still be counted as valuable.

Goals for next week:
Umm, I think that that is all I have for this entry, but I hope to push myself to 1½ to 2 single spaced pages at the least in the future. I need to take better notes on the readings and in class in order to do this, as well as get into the literature on my topic to start my annotated bibliography and literature review.