[Last modified: December, 6 2024 05:37 PM]
As we reach the end of the Methods module I’m reflecting on what I’ve learnt and how my pilot project has been adjusted. Whilst my pilot project will not be my Environmental Anthropology MSc dissertation it is an area of great interest for me so I did enjoy thinking about it.
My pilot project is:
“What is the changing shape of crew kinship in the small-scale fishing fleet of Whitby, North Yorkshire?”
In week 1 I didn’t really understand what a “research question” was in an anthropological context. Hence my week 1 pilot project set out a long list of questions which I had assumed would be part of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, etc. with my interlocutors.
So week 2 started with my adjusting my research questions to simplify them down to just two: 1) To what extent are non-biological crew regarded as being kin or ‘family’? and 2) Which crew members are not deemed kin or ‘family’? In addition whilst at first I didn’t see how I could practice participant observation for my pilot project outside UCL. However, having spent time observing people in a park considering ‘what is kin’? I realised that whilst my focus had planned to be on whether non-biological kinship emerges from the close and stressful experiences in a ‘band of brothers’ such as a fishing crew I was forced to recognise that there is a continuum of relations and thus consider when non-biological kin is really just a friendship.
In week 3 I recognised my own positionality. This was manifest in various different ways – my own ‘stress’ experiences in the British Army, my age as a ‘student’ and my memories of growing up in the area. Whilst these are important considerations I didn’t feel they required a material change in my project.
In week 5 I considered the application of politics. UK fishing is a very contested political space given issues surrounding Brexit, subsidies, EU fishing boats, the history of the Cod Wars, migration, small boats, broken promises and half-truths. I anticipate this backdrop will colour the dialogue I will have with my interlocutors and indeed may make some unwilling to participate.
In week 6 & 7 I was able to consider how I write and what other modes of communication I can include in my write-up such as sound scapes. There may also be additional modes of research I can include in my project such as photo prompts perhaps of scenes of Whitby and fishing boats in previous decades.
I think on balance I learnt a considerable amount about what ethnography is and how I should conduct it taking due account of ethics and my positionality whilst integrating novel methods to draw out my interlocutors and present their stories. So a good module – thank you!
So it is sadly sunset over Whitby…
