scholarly journals Field as Archive / Archive as Field

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-261
Author(s):  
Eray Çaylı
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Architectural Research ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Do So ◽  
Critical Reflections

Abstract This article introduces the special issue 'Field as Archive / Archive as Field': a set of critical reflections on archival research and fieldwork in academic studies focused on space. The special issue asks, how might the experience of carrying out research in the archive and the field, with all its contingencies and errancies, be taken seriously as empirical material in its own right? In other words, rather than reducing the research process to an empirically insignificant instrument through which to access useable data, how could scholars and practitioners of architecture treat this work as the very stuff of the histories, theories, criticisms, and/or practices they produce? In raising these questions that remain relatively underexplored, especially in architectural research, this special issue works from the contemporary historical juncture that is marked by an increasing visibility of rhetorical and physical hostility throughout social and political affairs. Probing how this historical juncture might impact and be impacted by spatial research, contributors to the special issue explore these impacts through the markedly urban and architectural registers in which they take place, including heritage, infrastructure, displacement, housing, and protest. They, moreover, do so through a variety of contexts relevant to the journal's scope: Egypt, Zanzibar, Turkey, Greece, Iran, and Israel/Palestine.

Me, Myself, and iPhone

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-86
Author(s):  
Adam Badger
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Field Site ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Delivery Platform ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
And Performance ◽  
A Site ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Critical Reflections

This chapter explores methodological approaches to the study of gig economy work through the deployment of the researcher’s smartphone. Set within the context of a covert ethnography of a delivery platform in London, the phone became a site to both experience work and record empirical findings in the workplace. Specifically, this chapter considers the sociomaterial construction and performance of the smartphone at work to highlight how its capacities and affordances shaped the empirical output. Critical reflections on the limits of the smartphone work alongside reflexive considerations of the researching self to position the researcher and phone as active agents in the research process; in which methodological decisions bear impacts on the nature of the empirical material produced. Of particular significance is the deployment of various apps, tailored to the needs of the field site and research to create diverse, multi-modal datasets, in addition to their synthesis into a coherent and curated ethnographic field diary for subsequent analysis.

scholarly journals Pre-understanding: An interpretation-enhancer and horizon-expander in research

2021 ◽  
pp. 017084062199450
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson ◽  
Jörgen Sandberg
Keyword(s):  
Idea Generation ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Empirical Base ◽  
Positive Input ◽  
Empirical Material

Pre-understanding – our presuppositions of reality – underlies all research. Many researchers probably also draw productively on their pre-understanding in their studies. However, very few rationales and methodological resources exist for how researchers can enrich their research by mobilizing their pre-understanding more actively and systematically. We elaborate and propose a framework for how researchers more actively, systematically and visibly can bring forward their pre-understanding and use it as a positive input in research, alongside formal data and theory. In particular, we show how researchers, in dialogue with data and theory, can mobilize their pre-understanding as an interpretation-enhancer and horizon-expander throughout the research process, including stimulating imagination and idea generation, broadening the empirical base, and evaluating what empirical material and theoretical ideas are interesting and relevant to pursue.

Governance and Business-Society Relations in Areas of Limited Statehood: An Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 000765032098508
Author(s):  
Sameer Azizi ◽  
Tanja Börzel ◽  
Hans Krause Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Global South ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Collective Goods ◽  
International Ngos ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Critical Reflections

In this introductory article we explore the relationship between statehood and governance, examining in more detail how non-state actors like MNCs, international NGOs, and indigenous authorities, often under conditions of extreme economic scarcity, ethnic diversity, social inequality and violence, take part in the making of rules and the provision of collective goods. Conceptually, we focus on the literature on Areas of Limited Statehood and discuss its usefulness in exploring how business-society relations are governed in the global South, and beyond. Building on insights from this literature, among others, the four articles included in this special issue provide rich illustrations and critical reflections on the multiple, complex and often ambiguous roles of state and non-state actors operating in contemporary Syria, Nigeria, India and Palestine, with implications for conventional understandings of CSR, stakeholders, and related conceptualizations.

scholarly journals Evidence-informed teaching and practice-informed research

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
Leila E. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Epistemic Cognition ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Roles Of Teacher ◽  
Do So

Abstract. In this commentary, I seek to join the ongoing conversation about evidence-informed educational practice that has been threaded through this special issue. I do so by drawing on related insights from the fields of teachers' beliefs and epistemic cognition and considering the roles of teacher education and educational research in improving (preservice) teachers' use of educational research. In particular, I focus on the merits of explicit research-based practice in teacher educators' teaching and ways that they can encourage preservice teachers' interactions with educational research in class, and methods of changing the beliefs that may underlie (preservice) teachers' engagement with educational research evidence, and finally, the need for clearly communicated research, including details of implementation.

scholarly journals El archivo de la “Fundación Rodríguez”. Análisis, potencia y gestión del legado

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 36-57
Author(s):  
Iker Fidalgo Alday
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
Concrete Case ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Artistic Work ◽  
Do So

El presente artículo parte de un caso de estudio concreto que es la investigación en torno al archivo del colectivo artístico “Fundación Rodríguez” (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1994-2012). El proceso de investigación estará marcado por todo lo que conlleva enfrentarse a un archivo compuesto por contenido digital y con formatos a punto de la obsolescencia, así como las dificultades para su conservación y mantenimiento. Partiendo de esto, se contextualizará la práctica de “Fundación Rodríguez” y el papel que juega el concepto de archivo en varias de las fases de su producción artística. Para ello analizaremos su posición desde el trabajo colectivo, la disolución del rol del artista y la desmaterialización de la obra artística como los tres frentes principales desde los que se erige su producción. Con todo, podremos valorar desde la actualidad la vigencia y relevancia de su legado, así como la potencia del mismo en el contexto artístico al que pertenece. This article starts from a concrete case study that is the research around the archive of the artistic collective “Fundación Rodríguez” (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1994-2012). The research process will be marked by all that is involved in dealing with an archive composed of digital content and formats on the verge of obsolescence, as well as the difficulties of preserving and maintaining them. Starting from this, the practice of “Fundación Rodríguez” and the role played by the concept of archive in several of the phases of its artistic production will be contextualized. To do so, we will analyze its position from the perspective of collective work, the dissolution of the role of the artist and the dematerialization of the artistic work as the three main fronts from which its production is built.With all this, we will be able to evaluate from the present time the validity and relevance of his legacy as well as its power in the artistic context to which it belongs.

scholarly journals Funding, financing and governing urban infrastructures

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 1291-1303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter O’Brien ◽  
Phil O’Neill ◽  
Andy Pike
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Urban Infrastructure ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Infrastructure Provision ◽  
Infrastructure Policy ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Empirical Material

This Special Issue aims to further understanding and explanation of the funding, financing and governing of urban infrastructure amidst its engagements with contemporary financialisation. Drawing upon empirical material from international cases from Europe, North America, Africa and Asia, it identifies critical issues to advance work in this area. These themes concern: the impacts of financialisation upon shifting the definitions and conceptualisations of urban infrastructure; the worth of adopting more actor-oriented and grounded approaches to financialisation; the importance of affording greater recognition to national and local states as the objects and agents of financialising relations, processes and practices; the substance and ramifications of the emergent informalisation of infrastructure policy-making and governance; and, the implications of financialisation for the evolving and uneven landscapes of urban infrastructure provision. The arguments are, first, that how infrastructure is funded, financed and governed is integral to explaining socially and spatially uneven infrastructural provision and its urban development ramifications; and second, the engagements of urban infrastructure with contemporary financialisation have become central in such accounts. Future research avenues are identified. These comprise: identifying exactly how revenues are generated from infrastructure assets; specifying the relations of financialisation with other processes such as ‘assetisation’, ‘marketisation’ and privatisation; extending the geographical and comparative reach of current studies; elaborating the spaces of regulation in negotiating and accommodating infrastructure financialisation; and, scrutinising the roles of decentralised powers and resources in financialising urban infrastructure and exploring its alternatives.

Conceptualization of the acidification theory in Swedish environmental research

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-132
Author(s):  
Gunilla Ôberg ◽  
Karin Bäckstrand
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Review System ◽  
The Core ◽  
System A ◽  
Chain Of Evidence ◽  
Hidden Patterns ◽  
Empirical Material

The aim of the present study was to describe and analyse the process of formulating the acidification theory in the Swedish research community. The empirical material was limited to articles written by Swedish researchers during the period 1950–1989 and published in international scientific journals utilizing a peer-review system. A model was developed to represent what Swedish researchers have regarded as the core of the acidification theory. Guided by the developed model, a qualitative content analysis of the scientific articles was conducted; i.e., we examined how central components and causal relationships of the theory have been explained and discussed. It should be emphasized that the present article describes an investigation of science itself (i.e., science in action) and is not an up-to-date review of acidification research. Our analysis revealed that some parts of the chain of evidence underlying the acidification theory were accepted before they were scrutinized by the scientific community and that the acidification complex was not conceptualized in accordance with the conceptualization of its various components. Actually, the acidification problem as a whole (i.e., the sum of all of its components) was not treated as a scientific theory that needed to be evaluated. This strongly indicates that the conceptualization was guided by factors that are generally, within the scientific community, considered to be external to the research process. There is no evidence that Swedish acidification research has adhered less stringently to scientific norms than environmental research in general has. Indeed, it is likely that such hidden patterns normally influence the conceptualization of science and we, therefore, conclude that the influence of factors that are not strictly a part of the research process must be further elucidated if the prerequisites and implications of research are to be clarified.Key words: scientific conceptualization, research process, acidification.

Philosophies of Qualitative Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svend Brinkmann
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Separate Section ◽  
Research Theme ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
Do So

This book is about the different philosophical paradigms and ideas that influence qualitative research. Its aim is to discuss and evaluate the ways that philosophical positions inform qualitative research as currently practiced. Unlike other contributions to the field, this book takes a historical perspective and shows how the philosophical ideas have evolved and influenced qualitative research in previous times and today. Today, qualitative researchers often report on their philosophical commitments (if they do so at all) in a separate section of their papers, but this book is written from the perspective that philosophical ideas influence everything in the research process from the first formulation of a research theme to the final reporting of the results. Therefore, it is preferable to highlight how this happens. Philosophy should thus not be thought of as a purely abstract discipline, disconnected from the practicalities of research, but rather as a concrete and pervasive aspect of all qualitative research practices. This book does not provide in-depth treatments of qualitative methods and techniques such as interviewing, document analysis, or participant observation, but rather aims to introduce and discuss the philosophical issues that are relevant regardless of the specific methods employed by qualitative researchers.

scholarly journals Global norms and heterogeneous development organizations

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde ◽  
Lars Engberg-Pedersen ◽  
Adam Moe Fejerskov
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Organizational History ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Global Norms ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Do So

Contemporary development cooperation is characterized by an increasing tension between a growing diversity of actors and significant attempts at homogenizing development practices through global norms prescribing ‘good development’. This special issue shows empirically how diverse development organizations engage with global norms on gender equality. To understand this diversity of norm-engagement conceptually, this introductory article proposes four explanatory dimensions: (i) organizational history, culture and structures; (ii) actor strategies, emotions and relationships; (iii) organizational pressures and priorities; and (iv) the normativeenvironment and stakeholders. We argue that, while development organizations cannot avoid addressing global norms regarding gender equality, they do so in considerably divergent ways. However, the differences are explained less by whether these organizations constitute ‘new’ or ‘old’ donors than by the four identified dimensions.

scholarly journals Embodying Gender, Age, Ethnicity and Power in ‘the Field’: Reflections on Dress and the Presentation of the Self in Research with Older Pakistani Muslims

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Zubair ◽  
Wendy Martin ◽  
Christina Victor
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Research Relationships ◽  
Embodied Self ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Do So

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in researching people growing older in the South Asian ethnic minority communities in the UK. However, these populations have received comparatively little attention in wide-ranging discussions on culturally and socially appropriate research methodologies. In this paper, we draw on the experiences of a young female Pakistani Muslim researcher researching older Pakistani Muslim women and men, to explore the significance of gender, age and ethnicity to fieldwork processes and ‘field’ relationships. In particular, we highlight the significance of dress and specific presentations of the embodied self within the research process. We do so by focusing upon three key issues: (1) Insider/Outsider boundaries and how these boundaries are continuously and actively negotiated in the field through the use of dress and specific presentations of the embodied ‘self’; (2) The links between gender, age and space - more specifically, how the researcher's use of traditional Pakistani dress, and her differing research relationships, are influenced by the older Pakistani Muslim participants’ gendered use of public and private space; and (3) The opportunities and vulnerabilities experienced by the researcher in the field, reinforced by her use (or otherwise) of the traditional and feminine Pakistani Muslim dress. Our research therefore highlights the role of different presentations of the embodied ‘self’ to fieldwork processes and relationships, and illustrates how age, gender and status intersect to produce fluctuating insider/outsider boundaries as well as different opportunities and experiences of power and vulnerability within research relationships.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document