Hi Terry,
thank you for your interest in our project. The project is still at data generation stage and early
analysis, but we will be publishing next year about both the methodological approach and the
'research findings', although this is a term I am not particularly comfortable with because I don't
think one 'finds', but rather co-constructs data and knowledge.
The methodological approach is collaborative or team ethnography involving two (differently
positioned) researchers and a range of local and international participants such as I briefly
described, using a range of ethnographic methods, traditional and non-traditional, that is,
observation and fieldnotes, structured observations, interviews, videoing (both as data and analysis
as described with international practitioners), analysis of extremely slowed down video sequences
(similar to Streeck 1996) and sketches (of bodily gestures and spatial relationships between
practitioners and clients in the material environment in which the research is situated).
There is a range of literature about team or collaborative ethnography, the former situated primarily
in business contexts pairing western and non-western partners, and the latter in anthropology
focusing on ethical research partnerships with participants. Streeck however, focuses on bodily
gestures in communication. His paper below describes in detailed the embodied pedagogical process
in which an experienced practitioner shows a novice how to do a particular procedure that happens
to be quality control in the cookie industry. Very interesting in terms of knowledge that becomes
embodied in material objects through a process that he calls symbolic transformation.
I'll let you know when we publish,
kind regards, teena
Streeck, J. 1996, 'How to do things with things. Objets trouvés and symbolization',
Human Studies, vol. 19, no. 365–384.
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