ANTHMETHGRP4-2425-TIANRAN-XU

[Last modified: December, 1 2024 01:59 AM]

Week9 task(case study: Indigenous identities and disempowerment)
I choose Indigenous identities and disempowerment to explore the potential ethical issues.
Firstly, students in this project should obey the transparency and consent rules. All the participants they will choose should be able to give free, prior, and informed consent. Their research should be open and announced to the indigenous migrants, especially on potential risks and benefits. Because students want to explore some sensitive perspectives including displacement from their homeland, poverty, and exposure to violence, they need to inform all the participants of the questions they will ask and aspects they will explore. Researchers should make sure written consent is written in the appropriate language(in Brazil) and in the appropriate details.
Secondly, students should try their best to protect the privacy of participants. Students will collect personal opinions about the political situation of urban Indigenous communities and Indigenous people’s hopes which are very personal and private. Participants should have the right to control what personal data researchers hold on them, and researchers collect the minimum amount they need. also, researchers should keep the data secure and delete them after finishing the research. And researchers should also consider pseudonyms(for people and locations), and protect ID separately and fieldnotes.
Thirdly, researchers should pay attention to power dynamics. The participants are all Indigenous migrants to the favelas of Brazil who may be vulnerable people compared to the researchers in terms of social class. Researchers should build rapport with the participants who are in very marginal situations to mitigate the influences of power dynamics. Also, researchers should respect the life histories of participants and consider how their words and research are understood by their participants and how they explain the meanings and information of their research.
Finally, this project could be an ethically medium-high project, so researchers should submit an application to UCL REC. researchers should register with the Data Protection Office, finish the ethics via the online system, upload the participant information sheet and consent form, finish the risk assessment via RiskNet, and get additional permissions including local ethics approval from Brazil, certain field settings, and DBS check(vulnerable adults).
Students cannot begin any data collection until they have received their ethics approval number. Researchers also should protect their rights and dignity of themselves including safety, emotions, property, and so on.

[Last modified: November, 24 2024 07:48 PM]

Week 8 Multimodal Ethnography
This week, the team I attended showed a very interesting performance and theatre. The students played ice-breaker games first, in which we gained insights into gaming culture, social interactions, and collective actions by participating in games and virtual worlds. Then, the students showed their performance by only using expressions and gestures without any verbal or textual content. What is more interesting is everybody has a different interpretation of the gestures and expressions given by performers. For example, in the first scene, the man shook his hand with the woman, and he was staring at her while the woman did not look at him directly. My interpretation is that they had a divorce and said a final goodbye to each other. The woman didn’t want to forgive him while he was still concerned with her. Another student also thought this scene with the structure of power and the possible quarrel between two performers.
Even, students were allowed to participate in or replace the actor and actress with themselves to change the environment, the behavior, the expression, and so on. Let me put it another way, we can intervene in the performance which may totally change the performance. maybe to some extent, anthropologists and ethnographers also change and intervene in the lives of participants by doing participant observations. My question is how we can avoid or mitigate the intervention and changes, and my answer is maybe we need to make the participant observations become part of their lives.
I can also feel the structure of power and the power relationship between two performers by observing their actions, voices, expressions, and behaviors which also makes me realize the social dynamics and the implications behind the performance.
Performance can be used as an ethnographic tool but the researchers should get permission from actors, actresses, and institutions including what is appropriate to collect data. Otherwise, this could have some ethical considerations.
However, even though performance as a method has many benefits and advantages, I still cannot use it in my research because I need to explore what is the most appropriate scene and condition by using it as an ethnographic method. I want to explore the digital identities of international students which may be not very useful to use performance as the method. But, performance still provides me with insight into the structure of power and social dynamics behind the expressions, gestures, and behaviors between people.

[Last modified: November, 17 2024 01:11 AM]

The social experience chosen by me this week is taking the underground of Piccadilly line every day when I go to or back to school.
Most of the experiences are not very good because the crowded conditions and the smell of it are always horrible, especially at peak times. More importantly, the Piccadilly line is so old that the cushions of it are not clean even a little bit dirty.
As a result, my bodily sensations really play an important role in this crowded experience. I may touch some people’s clothes, bags, and doors of the Piccadilly line in crowded conditions especially when I grab the pillar or touch the doors of the Piccadilly line to help me keep my balance and keep my feet on the ground. It creates a very special feeling when I grab the pillar of the Piccadilly line and feel I am moving with the train as well and can smell the fragrance or the sweat of people around me. Of course, I can hear people talking and smiling as well.
In this context, all the passengers are expected to be polite and obey the rules. For example, I should queue up well and give my seat to the people in need due to the social norms and cultural expectations.
So by experiencing this context, I can feel and remember the touch, sound, and smell of taking the Piccadilly Line by watching the posters and provisional performance of the underground, hearing people talking, and even the crowded feelings in the Piccadilly Line, which constitute my experiences and memories of taking the Piccadilly Line.
What makes me interested is that I can feel the lifestyle and the experience of London as an international student. Sometimes, I walk in a hurry to go to school and can feel the people around me also in a hurry. Sometimes, I watch the posters, the performances, and the advertisements in underground, where I can feel people also enjoy the environment and music of London.
My sound, my touch, my feeling, etc. constitute my overall experiences of the Piccadilly line. And by experiencing that context, I can feel the flow of people and London.

[Last modified: November, 8 2024 12:42 AM]

Week5 The political dimensions of my pilot research project
In terms of this week’s topic, I think my research project may not be very relevant to political points. I want to explore the different identities that Chinese international students have brought to online digital platforms including Real me, Similar me and Fake me. I focus on the cultural, social, or emotional implications behind these phenomena and am interested in the possibility that even one person can show different online identities among different platforms.
Due to my background information also as a Chinese international student, we always avoid talking about any political stuff, especially on digital platforms. Just like my parents said, do not talk about politics. Even though my parents have the right to vote for the delegate of their district, they never use that right because they do not know the nominees and do not know the political ideas of the nominees.
What about talking politics online? We even try our best not to get involved in anything like politics except expressing some celebrations of our country. Of course, we are still keen to share our ideas online. For example, young people in China are very unhappy about the official adjustment for their rest time like holidays which means their rest time is reduced for economic purposes and delayed retirement because of the aging population. So most young people in China use other forms to express their feelings like memes or emojis to metaphor some political meanings because they do not want to be overseen by the government, which I think is very common in China.
However, my participants are Chinese international students who use digital platforms to build their identities online. As a result, they may have different ideas about political expression and show their political assumptions online.
For my positionality, I try to avoid talking about political elements online for my practical research. But if my participants build their online identities by expressing their political ideas, I will respect this point and explore more on their online identities not on their political ideas.
My participants and I have similar cultural and social backgrounds, so we can easily understand our different positions and attitudes toward politics.

[Last modified: October, 27 2024 01:52 AM]

I think this week’s task is more like giving us the chance to write down or type some field notes as an anthropologist. However, due to the limitations, I can only ask some general questions to the participant I chose.
At first, Betty and I went to the UCL coffee to try to observe and have an interview with the people sitting there. But we found it very difficult and embarrassing to talk to people when they focused on their own studies Then we went to Gordon park to find the potential participants and had an interesting talk with Max.
Here are my field notes.
1.
Place: UCL Student Union Coffee Shop
Time: 12:15 am 25th OCT 2024
Anthropologists(?): Betty Fang and Tianran Xu
Weather: Cloudy
Atmosphere: quiet compared to the street’s
Useful findings: None
Other findings: it is very awkward to ask people our research questions when they are studying.
2.
Place: Gordon Park
Time: 12:30 am 25th OCT 2024
Anthropologists(?): Betty Fang and Tianran Xu
Weather: Cloudy
Atmosphere: not very quiet
Interlocutor: Max( UCL biology undergraduate student)
Keywords: Biology, Photography, Future, Writing Program
Max often goes to Gordon Park to relax and takes photos of animals especially squirrels and birds in the park. He showed us his photographs. Apparently, Max loves nature.
Max goes to this park a couple of times a week.
He is interested in science writing and taking photos.
He comes from a coastal city in the UK.
He also asked us where we came from. We described our city including the locations, temperature, and food. After hearing that, Max told us he would like to go to China one day.
When we talked about future plans, Max told us he still had no idea of his future but he wanted to have a further study in the USA and open a photography account in social media.
In terms of his interests, he would like to join the writing program including poetry, fiction articles, stories and magazines to link all the interest.
Conclusion of the experience of note-taking:
Because we only asked some general questions and had an easy talk, I chose to take notes on my phone. This experience made me rethink the relationship between researchers and participants. Betty mainly asked Max questions, and I mainly wrote down some important information which helped Max to relax just as a common talk even though I took notes alongside. It may be impolite for the researchers to write down information and have no eye contact when interviewing if the researchers and participants have not built rapport.

[Last modified: October, 21 2024 02:34 AM]

Week3 Writing positionality and reflexivity
My project is about the different digital identities in social media of Chinese international students including similar identities and fake identities. I want to look into the possible and potential implications of the various digital identities.
My positionality/ my position as a researcher:
Gender: Female
Race: Chinese
Class: Middle class
Religion: none
My digital identity: similar me
Cultural background: born in China with Chinese culture and education background but at the same time receiving Western education as well. ( similar to my potential participants)
My assumptions:
People who pursue the similar digital identities online may want to share the true life experiences to their family members and friends. People who pursue the fake identities and pretend to be luxurious and famous may have some emotional reasons including showing off and the fear that they afraid of being left behind if they show themselves truly.
My biases:
I was told by my parents and teachers that I should be true and honest when I was a little girl, which has influenced me the way I observe the world. I look up more to the people who show their real identities.
Consider my research context:
The type of my participants: Chinese international students
Location: London
How long my research will last: 2 months
Potential ethical concerns: I will try my best to protect their privacy and ensure the informed consent.
Methodology: ethnography and participant observation.
Some actions or changes that must be taken:
1. I should focus on building relationships with participants based on shared histories and cultural backgrounds
2. I will critically examine the power relations between me and the participants.
3. I will pay attention to listening to participants rather than coming with preconceived ideas( being led by ethonography and the stories people tell)
4. I should be honest and transparent to participants.
5. I will not cross the boundaries in fieldwork.
6. I should pay attention to allowing space for silence in research and how it can reveal more about something than filling it than words.
7. I should focus on power structures that are being produced through my work.

[Last modified: October, 13 2024 11:01 PM]

The weather on that day was so good that everyone could enjoy the warm sunshine and the breezing wind. We( digital anthropology students) just sat on the UCL portico and observed the people who went by.
We discussed some problems like the reading pressure every week which surprised me that even the native speakers still felt very stressed when faced with lots of essential reading. We talked about what some concepts and the meanings of courses mean to us. I noticed that sometimes people do not need special reasons to sit there(like UCL PORTICO) aimlessly talking with each other. Communication between people could really alleviate the pressure of every day. And everyone here found it quite awkward to ask people some research questions who went by especially for some deep questions to be delved into.
When talking, sometimes I could feel the smell of sunshine and the sounds of birds and people. Suddenly, a group of children led by a work staff ran over here. They smiled at each other and talked with each other. What is most important, even if they are very young, they still have the senses to build their identities and show their wonderful life experiences by taking photos at the symbolling architecture of UCL.
Then a young Chinese girl with a fancy dress also chose the UCL portico to take her graduation photos. I was very surprised that she wore that dress without any warming actions or equipment just to take her beautiful photos. In such weather, it could be nice to sit under the warming sunshine with coats. To take beautiful photos, she even asked a professional photographer to help her( I observed a girl with a professional camera following her and taking photos). All the efforts were made because she needed those photos to show her identity. Maybe she will upload those photos to INS and XiaoHongShu( Chinese digital platform).
Everything above made me thinking what this project could help to build on my personal project. Just wandering around for almost 45 minutes could mean nothing because we cannot have a cultural immersion just within 45 minutes. All I can observe I think is the relationship between us and the identities we are keen to create. Most people here walked very fast to go to class or just enjoyed their cozy morning. In other words, what I really observed was the daily life of UCL students and people here.

[Last modified: October, 6 2024 08:27 PM]

Topic: Explore the reasons and phenomena of “REAL me”, “SIMILAR me”, “DIFFERENT me” and “FALSE me” in digital platforms such as INS among Chinese international students
Why it could be interesting: Before arriving in the UK, I added some online friends and students of UCL through digital platforms such as INS and XIAOHONGSHU( one popular app in China). When I saw their posts and photos in their profile and posts, I just was surprised at how fabulous and beautiful they were. What is more interesting, the photos and posts they showed have more cultural implications such as status, salary, career, appearance, and hobbies.
However, I realized they were very similar or totally different when I saw them actually, which made me very interested in and want to know the reasons, implications, and consequences behind it.
Method: Participant observation, Immersion in cultural reality, and interviews by taking photos and audio recordings.
Pay attention to writing detailed, dated observations, building rapport, using interviews to capture participants’ voices, and avoiding potential problems with ethics.
Question: it totally depends on the period and may have some changes due to the interview and conversation.
With participants
Period 1:
Q1: what digital platforms do you usually use to share your life experiences?
Q2: Do you think is there any difference between popular digital platforms such as INS and Facebook?
Q3: What do you usually share on that social media or digital platform? How often?
Period 2:
Q1: What emotions and feelings do you have when people comment and like your post? And what are your expectations about their interaction?
Q2: Do you like to share your post with your friends and classmates?
Q3: Can you give me some descriptions of your post?
Period 3:
Q1: What styles and even some digital identities do you think you have created in your social media?
Q2: Do you think your friends have detected or determined that style and digital identity?
Q3: Is that style relevant or similar to your daily life or routine?
With some friends of participants
Period 1:
Q1: What digital platforms do your friend usually use to share his/her life experiences?
Q2: What does your friend usually share on that social media or digital platform? How often?
Period2:
Q1: What emotions and feelings do you have when you comment and like the posts of your friend?
Q2: Can you give me some descriptions of the posts of your friend?
Period 3:
Q1: What styles and even some digital identities do you think your friends have created in his or her social media?
Q2: Is that style relevant or similar to his or her daily life or routine?
Potential findings: it could be two different findings based on two digital identities participants create.
Digital identity1: Very similar me
Those who created this type of digital identity may just want to share their daily lives and experiences. Or just want their online friends or family members who are not with them currently to know their current circumstances and conditions.
Digital identity: Fake me ( including very fake or light fake)
The reason for this could be connected with some feelings about hypocrisy, envy, and even some fear. For example, if they pretended not to be that, they would lose the feeling of safety and happiness. They may not accept that they are not perfect or not the people they aspire to become.

[Last modified: October, 1 2024 06:27 PM]

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