ANTHMETHGRP2-2425-MAREKA-INO

[Last modified: December, 3 2024 08:01 PM]

Case1: women survivors of domestic abuse in Pakistan

I consider this research to be high risk. Even based on my actual interactions with these women who have suffered domestic violence, being in a shelter does not guarantee their safety. In order to design this research, I think that the use of words should be carefully considered. I would like to suggest several points in this case.

First of all, the researcher should be clearer about the research questions and the situation of the victims. Living in the shelter means that they are still not free from the fear of encountering abusive partners. It must be a temporary base and should be treated with care. I’d like to know, for example, whether the researcher’s purpose in listening to these women’s lived experiences of domestic violence is to highlight the social/cultural aspect of domestic violence in Pakistan or to use it to improve the institution’s role in protecting women. In addition, the researcher can use more in-depth definitions to get a whole perspective of the victims, such as dividing each woman’s status based on the length of stay in this shelter, the route of access to the NGO and age.

Second, the researcher should obtain informed consent, preferably in writing, as this is a high risk. Even if the informant says there are no problems, she should consider her positionality and the impact of publishing the report using their stories. The victims should also be informed which stories to be used in the report because they do not prefer some contents not to be published. Due to the vulnerable and unstable status of victims, their environment can change at any time and the researcher should be accountable, and to avoid legal risks involving the victims.

Third, it would be better to anonymise all informants and store the collected data in a secure cloud with encryption to prevent it from being leaked to others. Their background information such as name, age, background, education may be enough to identify the person and put them in a high-risk situation. In this case study, the researcher played a role in facilitating a woman’s story to be published in the local press beforehand, but the academic report should be separated from this as the purpose is different and also to avoid generalising the image of domestic violence victims.

[Last modified: November, 27 2024 12:52 PM]

I live near one of the largest urban wetlands in Europe. To take a break from reading and refresh my mind, I went there alone for the first time since I moved here in September. There was a big lake and I walked around it. It was a weekday and not crowded. Some people were jogging, some were couples and some, like me, were just enjoying the solitude. Being in the middle of the city, it was a stark contrast to the surrounding buildings, most of which were under construction.

Despite the noise outside, it was really quiet inside the wetland and all I could hear was birds chirping. I felt more comfortable spending time with the birds and some of the small animals. For some reason, the wetland reminded me of the park I used to go to with my dog in my home country. The atmosphere there gave me a nostalgic feeling of home. The sound and the scenery were the strong factors that stimulated my senses. At the same time, I saw several construction sites visible from the hill in the wetland and could see that the city’s ongoing development initiative and the surrounding environment have changed rapidly in recent years.

In this setting, if this is to be a multimodal ethnography, I suppose I can delve deeply into the sense of home or the feeling of the city’s landscape changing over a period of time for the local people. First, sound in the wetland. Since it is really a huge space, it can be divided into several blocks, and each block has some characteristics, such as the presence of a park cafe or benches. Secondly, films or photos that visualise the place. They are good for capturing how people interact, both human and non-human, and how the atmosphere of the place affects the people there. They will provide more sensory information than textual descriptions. They will open up interpretation to the audience. By incorporating these multimodal methods, I could add more emotional aspects of the place and the people, and coherence with the textual descriptions.

[Last modified: November, 20 2024 01:11 PM]

During the Reading Week, I spent three days in Lyon. Since moving to Europe, it’s become normal for my iPhone to track over 5,000 steps a day, but my time in Lyon took walking to another level. Part of this was because I wanted to save on transport costs and enjoy the sights along the way, but also because Lyon is full of stairs—lots and lots of them.

I traveled with a friend, and the trip turned out to be a lesson in balance, both figuratively and literally. Having lived in Tokyo, I’m used to a fast-paced lifestyle and walking briskly to match tight schedules. However, while walking through Lyon, I found myself needing to slow down consciously. To keep the pace enjoyable for both of us, I adjusted my speed and made a point to engage in conversation while taking in my friend’s expressions as we moved through the city together.

Exploring Lyon on foot allowed me to experience the city in an intimate way. The charm of the narrow cobblestone streets, the vibrant riverside, and the stunning views from the hilltops were even more rewarding after the effort it took to reach them. The walk up to Fourvière Basilica, in particular, was breathtaking in both senses of the word.

This trip wasn’t just a chance to explore a new city; it was also a reminder of how different people approach travel and daily life. Slowing down and being present, whether it’s for a scenic route or a meaningful conversation, turned out to be one of the highlights of my visit.

The experience left me reflecting on how much there is to gain from adapting to the pace of others, whether in travel or in life.The physical condition and the situation at the time effectively spoke to me to be aware of my behaviour and to look out for others and surrounding environments.

[Last modified: November, 13 2024 01:35 AM]

My pilot research will focus on refugee entrepreneurs, so it will have many policy dimensions, ranging from legal to political issues. I’d also like to point out that my findings may inadvertently support neoliberal economics and be exploited by policy makers. Therefore, it is important to critically review political and historical research on the social situation of informants.

Firstly, informants are vulnerable in terms of their legal status in London. UK government policy is constantly changing and the policies of their home country could at any time affect their status in London. Although the focus of my pilot research is not to evaluate UK refugee policy, my political stance could influence my analysis of the field notes. I should be aware of my choice of words, as the way I frame my informants could have unintended political implications.

Secondly, the fieldwork could touch on some sensitive aspects of refugees’ experiences and there is always a risk of harming them indirectly. This means that building trust by keeping the research transparent and always seeking consensus is very important. My position as a Japanese Masters student at UCL could create an unequal power relationship, so I’d like to make the interview more casual and personal so that it doesn’t feel like an interrogation or a news report. I’d like to use peer review because I should always question my subjectivity, especially as it has several political aspects.

Finally, I’d like to point out that my ethnography of refugee entrepreneurs in London could lead to a generalisation of refugee entrepreneurship and support economic success as a solution for refugee life in London. The risk of orienting the pilot research towards neoliberalism is not anthropological and the focus should be on the informants’ experiences and the realities that could be seen through the lense of those people.

[Last modified: October, 29 2024 02:04 PM]

Keyword: Time

My fieldwork took place in Russell Square, where I found a spot facing the fountain, which allowed me to easily observe the interaction of many people due to its central location in the park. I used the sketch and added the short description or my thoughts next to the illustration because it seemed more appropriate to capture the lively interactions rather than just taking notes in words.

It was around midday and the contrast between the stillness and the movement of the people was striking: passers-by crossing the fountain square and people sitting on the bench around the fountain. There were about 15 people sitting, some alone, some with others, while there were always about 10 people per minute constantly crossing the intersection of the Fountain Square. The fountain also seemed to be a relaxing place for pigeons and dogs. Strangely, it felt quiet around the fountain, probably due to the sound of the water splashing, which also created a chill environment for the people spending their time there.Most of the lone people were concentrating on their smartphones or reading books, while others were involved in serious discussions with each other, talking little and just chilling out, being together and killing time, waiting for someone to come along. Each person lived in their own time, and it made me interested in how their personal concept of time affects the way they live.

However, since I was only observing and not actually interacting with the people in front of me, my understanding of them was likely influenced by my own biases and perspective. Their actions on their smartphones, the books they chose to read, their relationships with one another, and their reasons for being there—these details remain hidden without engaging in direct communication. At the same time, this excercise taught me the importance of observing the surrounding environment and visualisation of what I observed because they helped me a lot to add more insights on the people by capturing in space and motions. In addition to producing outputs in writing and visualizations, I aim to bring more clarity to my future fieldnotes by clearly distinguishing between what I observed, my interpretations, and the informants’ own understandings of their actions.

[Last modified: October, 23 2024 12:29 PM]

The purpose of my pilot research is to see the role of digital platforms for migrants starting their business in London. The platforms mean the place where people make professional connections in London. To highlight the role of digital platform and its implications for migrants, I aim to include the comparison with physical platform such as co-working space in the city.

In this setting, one commonality with my interlocutors is the outsiderness in London. Both interlocutors and I need the visa support to gain the official permit to live here and come from culturally different place in the world. We all need to make special efforts to adapt to the life here. At the same time, the migrants I will encountre might have more diverse background than myself since I grew up and live my whole life based in Tokyo and have no family connections outside Japan.Having said that, it is important to be aware of my priviledged status as I am from one of the economically developed countries and have endowed with higher education both in Japan and the UK. In addition, I have more flexible options as to where I live and where I work as protected by governmental treaty. This can be a barrier when they will open up about their experiences. While I am also foreign to this land and understand the toughness of professional world based on my previous experience, I should consider my priviledgeness and need to search the personal connection with them through the dialogue that will require the commitment.

On the basis of the above, I narrow down my target informants. Firstly, I’d like to focus on migrants who have moved and started their business after the outbreak of the HIV pandemic. Secondly, it is preferable for the migrants to be between 20 and 40 years old. In this way, it is expected to create a more friendly atmosphere to share, the generational divide is less big. I do not specify the nationalities of the migrants, but preferably people coming from outside the OECD countries to consider the political economy aspect. As Abu (1991) points out in “Writing Against Culture”, to depict more lively, fluid people’s experiences, detailed ethnographic descriptions, including the variety of connections and interconnections between communities that take place in multiple layers, would help to show the diverse reality to avoid the risk of treating “culture” as taking granted as if it is something unchangeable.

[Last modified: October, 15 2024 05:38 PM]

Location: Waterston Cafe

First of all, I have to note that this is not directly related to my topic, however, having exposed myself by just simply sitting in a book cafe gave me some insights on my research.

The reason I picked this cafe is because it has a good reputation among people from UCL and I wanted to try once in a while. The cafe is actually a lot more spacious than I thought as some eating spaces are surrounded by books on sale and the other part is simply for eating, drinking and chatting. I chose the space next to book rooms as they were more groups of people and I thought it would be helpful to observe people here. Against my initial thought, this place seems to be more chill and casual. There were around 20 to 30 people that time and seemed to be mostly students from the neighboring universities. Since there were several affordable cafe run by Student Union in UCL, I wondered how many of them were UCL students and why they chose this cafe over UCL cafe places.

Surprisingly or not surprisingly, even though it is a part of the book store, no one seemed to read paper books. They are either working on laptop, browising the apps on their phone or chatting with friends. Probably this was because of the location and the customers could be mostly students. It would be interesting to compare with other Waterston cafe in London.

One thing that took my attention was two girls next to me having study session of Arabic. When I first came to sit, a girl was anxiously waiting for someone and after a few minutes, the other girl came and sat next to me. I was not sure about their nationality, but one girl was a native Arabic speaker and the other girl seemed to be a serious learner of Arabic. Whether it was an academic purpose or other personal reasons for the girl to study Arabic, it seemed to be a perfect place to have this kind of activity in this cafe as most of the customers seemed to be from university that created a academically preferable environment. I did not get to talk to people this time, but it would be interesting to know, for example, on what occasions people choose this cafe and how often they come here. At the same time, since I study in Digital Anthropology, this observation taught me that even though many people spent their time using digital devices at cafe, their choice of location could implicate a lot about their preferences or needs depending on what activities they were on.

Last week I described my research topic draft as migrant entrepreneurs’ use of digital media. This observation gave me the inspiration that looking both physical and digital platforms is important as people’s lives are not divided by “digital”.

[Last modified: October, 9 2024 03:49 AM]

Topics

Building a business and a life through digital media by migrant entrepreneurs

Research Questions

The main theme of my research is to highlight the digital media practices of migrant entrepreneurs in both their business and private lives, and their implications for what it means to be a foreigner in today’s world.

In business, digital technology is expected to revolutionise current business by making possible what was previously impossible. If we focus on digital media, it completely removes physical boundaries and allows us to connect people all over the world at any time. This societal shift is certainly expected to accelerate global business and the diversification of entrepreneurship. By focusing on migrants, I expect to see the multilayered roles of digital media as their way of life strategy. My research questions comprised as follow;

-Does digital media provide more opportunities or more conflicts for migrant entrepreneurs? In what way they take advantage of digital media?

-How the migrant business landscape has been changed over a decade with the development of communication technology?

-What are their strategies to get recognized in business and host country? How do they express their value?

Research Methods

※business industry to be decided later

[Location]

London

[Methods]

Interview: Pick a few representative from migrant entrepreneurs and conduct an interview. The questions will be related to their education/migrant background, business purposes, and their business experiences in London.

Survey: Make questionnairs about their usage of digital media (i.g which social media?contents category, sucess/failed case)

Photo, Video, Art?: Approaching the output of migrant entrepreneurs, including both private and public (business). Even though it is difficult to pick one media as it depends on the type of business, by analysing the visual representation on digital media, I expect to see how they interpret their doing.

Findings

Please see the Reflect Blogging Resource for more information, policies, and how to guides:
https://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/x/KYODBQ