January 15, 2010
New term, time to resume participatory geographies reading group. Our next reading group will be on 26.01.10 (at an undeciding location as yet) at 15:00. We will be reading Cook et al’s 2004 Follow the Thing: Papaya. I have enclosed the link below. It is the first article on this page and is an automatic PDF. http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=cook+et+al+papaya&hl=en&as_sdt=2001&as_sdtp=on
Hope to see you all for a term of engaging reading!
Rachel
December 16, 2009
Does anyone else do this? I’ve heard of free writing before, writing with plan or agenda, but I just realised, I sort of do this with reading… So I pick up a book and open it anywhere, start reading, get bored, flick some pages. I’m sure everyone does it, but is this still one of those everyday against the grain things that we do, that challenges the order we’re supposed to have? Cheers for now, Matt
November 28, 2009
Apologies for the delay in getting these up! Here are the links to the articles for Tuesday’s reading group (01/12), taking place at 15:00 in the Imperial pub.
http://qrj.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/3/1/79
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3800/is_200401/ai_n9466402/?tag=content;col1
Any questions etc please let me know
Rachel
November 27, 2009
Whilst having a pint in the Vic tonight with some PhDers, one of them turned around to me and said ‘where is the theory in participatory geographies’ or ‘is there theory in participatory geographies’. Relating to our previous post I think this is definately something to discuss. Comments please…….
Rachel
November 24, 2009
I was just thinking, having read something which I cant quite find yesterday (dammit!), but what is the relationship between theory and practice? I always seem to get confused when we talk about that binary, because I don’t understand the exact meaning of ‘theory’. Maybe this is my failing (in fact I’m sure it is), but if we bring things right back to basics, can we answer this question: What is (a) theory?
Cheers,
Matt
November 17, 2009
Meeting today at the Vic, although you may have received different emails saying either 3.15/4.15/ this is purely due to the magic of email! Some of us will definitely be there at 3.15, but if you have a class which doesnt finish until 4, we will still be around for at least an hour, probably more! We’re reading Cloke, P (2002) Deliver us from evil? Prospects for living ethically and acting politically in human geography, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 26, No. 5, 587-604
So thats The Victoria Inn, Union Road, Exeter, today, Tues 17th November at 3.15/4.15!
See you there!
November 10, 2009
Much of my time recently has been taken up my readings concerning place as it is a major part of my thesis. As everybody knows the concept of place is one of the basic but crucial complex geographical components geographers have invested time in. I only need to look at my long list of reading in my ‘to do’ list to acknowledge how much has indeed been written on the subject. Everyone has their own experiences of place and their favourite place, from a room to a city etc. Indeed one of my favourite places is an area of hall I live in. This seems bizarre but I love the feeling it gives me. On a dark night when Exeter has been sunk into darkness and all the night lights have been switch on you can see a very pretty landscape lit up. When the lights of the corridor go off there is a great glass fronting and I like to stand and just look. The view is awesome and very relaxing. It kind of gives you time to think and reflect and thats why I like it so much.
Ultimately place is a crucial element in participatory geographies. Place is indeed where participatory geographies is performed and comes alive. There are certain places you do your research in that evoke many different emotions. Indeed if you are working on a community project, that place can be a crucial cog in your network of research. It will be the space you spend much time in. This begs the question how comfortable do we feel in place. Some places you can associate with, feel attached to and get an understanding of. However can some places we do our participatory research make us feel anxious, cautious or uncomfortable. Sometimes you may find yourself in a place you feel unsettled within but it is important to tolerate this to get what you want from your research. Take an example of a drugs project. If you went to a rehabilitation centre to interact with drug users and find out about their experiences you might feel anxious. However the environment maybe important to see what is going on, and speak to people etc to get the most out of your research. However if we feel like this, surely does this hinder our research? When doing my undergraduate research I always made sure my participants felt comfortable, thus interviewing them in their home environment, where they could relax in their armchair and feel at ease, or at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. How important is it for us to feel comfortable and secondly the participant. I remember when I first started interviewing feeling quite uncomfortable going into the elderly peoples’ houses. It was which chair do I sit in, have I presented myself appropriately, do I accept/reject a cup of tea? It did get better when I got used to it and was in a routine of visiting elderly people’s dwellings. What happens if we feel uncomfortable but the participant feels comfortable? These are very important questions within our research and something that at some time or another we may all face. What are the thoughts on the issues raised? What is the best thing to do? Also post your own favourite places….it will be interesting to see where indeed people’s favourite places are and how they are all somewhat unique and differ!!!
Rachel
November 8, 2009
Last night, somebody was talking to me about ethics in literature. Whilst lying in bed this morning I thought about ethics and participatory geographies. When during participatory geographies are we being unethical? This could be linked to my last post when Blythe was unethical ignoring his participants. But when do we cross the boundaries? Emotions are almost weapons of mass destruction, in the fact that if they take over us too far they can ruin everything, especially in the case of research. If we let emotions cloud our judgement we no longer become the ethical research but swayed by our emotions. We over step the ethical line purely as a duty as pastoral care. Take this example. If you see somebody you are researching clearly has a problem how right is it to be to get too emotionally involve and break all ethical and moral codes. This is definately a tricky position and question as at what point is the boundary between ethical and unethical crossed? Also if you are involved in a community research project, like indeed I am how involved can you get in community life and the relationships with participants before you cross the ethical line? Thoughts?
Rachel
November 6, 2009
I am currently reading a ‘modern classic’ as it has been deemed, by Ronald Blythe called ‘Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village’ (1969). I am reading the book as it draws parallels with my research which is indeed set in a rural village called Penllergaer in Swansea, South Wales. The book is essentially made up of a series of narratives concerning peoples experiences of the community and life within Akenfield. It is all recorded how the oral histories are spoken, which does make for an interesting read. However when reading this there is one over-riding question, that I discussed with two academics today, which indeed sparked off much debate and discussion. I feel the book is not Blythe’s book but Akenfield’s book. It’s simular to comparing to Cook et al and his work on the Papaya, as he believes it is not just his work but the work of others who helped with the research, hence adding the ‘et al’ when writing. This is a very noble thing to do, yet honest as he is not just accrediting himself but all those involved. Blythe does not directly acknowledge these people, but just uses a general term in his acknowledgements to thank the village. Quite, back in 1969, it might not have been the ‘thing to do’ as it were due to the positionality of geography of the discipline. This has made me think when does wide participation lead to it being the work of someone else and not yours. How far can the participation go? Maybe if Blythe had written the book in a completely different way this would not have happened and we would not be asking this question. My work is indeed a mix of autoethnography, participatory geographies and oral histories of others. So my question – how far can participation go before it does not become your own work? Is it almost you taking credit for the contribution of others to the research project? Do we as geographers have the right to do this? Thoughts……
Rachel
November 4, 2009
On Tuesday 3rd November some keen geographers braved the rain and all met at Exeter St David’s station to get the train to Topsham for our first reading group. ‘It’s like going on a teddy bears picnic but only more exciting’ (Powell 2009). So all five of us got on the train and decided to not start our reading on the train as first decided as the whole world were on the 16:20 train to Exmouth. When in Topsham we ended up in The Lighter Pub where we drunk pints of ale and ate crisps. The journal we had chosen to discuss was Pain R (2004), Social Geography: Participatory Research, Progress in Human Geography, Vol 28 No 5 pp652-663. We all had many valid points we wanted to talk about which proved a forum for wide debate and discussion. One of the points we recognised was our positionality. Where do we stand in the wider spectrum of things. We discussed Leyshon 2002’s role as a ‘researcher, youth worker and representative of a voluntary youth organisation’ (Pain 2004;654) all on the same project. We talked about crossing various boundaries, and when do you take one hat off and the other on. This is almost being confused over positionality and where he stands. At what point did the boundaries cross and could you effectively be all three without causing confusion. Participation means at some point you can become too involved and emotions take over thus posing ethical questions. Is your research being rational and from a neutral perspective, which indeed is very hard in the field of participatory geographies.
This also brought about positionality – where do you fit as a researcher? Additionally whose project is it. How far do you let your participants take over, before you take back the steering wheel? How far do you go before it becomes their project and research rather than yours.
Another point to come from Pain’s paper is the idea of being a ’superhero’. In her paper Pain mentions focusing on marginalised groups – these are groups who ultimately are misunderstood or who never get a voice. Sometimes you can be expected to do too much, or rather the group expects too much of you, and with your academic knowledge and power you can change the world. It is very important from the start to find your position and make it clear what you are going to do. This ultimately then does not lead to disappointment. Indeed I mentioned that whilst conducting interviews for her undergraduate dissertation, the elderly people being interviewed expected me to change the village dynamics and solve all their problems.
Indeed through this discussion we found that we could bring into account our own experiences as researchers which ultimately had bearing on how we deal with the participatory geographies method. We all have had a variety of experiences we could discuss with each other, especially Matt’s discussion about his recent fieldwork on Sumggling and the use of participatory geographies with people amongst his village.
Whilst this is a small glimpse of what we talked about, it harboured the point that there is a whole arena for debate manifested within participatory geographies. Indeed when I first heard about it last year I did explain ‘what the hell is that!’ We discussed that people do think of it as almost a short cut getting others to do the research for you, but we realised how crucial this practice is within the geographic field, and is very much a rapidly emerging discourse.
So the final question i want to leave you all with for discussion is what indeed do you think of participatory geographies? What are your thoughts on methods and practice? What can we learn from it?
This was our first pilot group – Thanks to Laure, Keri, Matt and Ruth for attending. It was indeed Matt who managed to organise the busy bunch of people we are and decided a date and meeting point (well done Matt)and asked me to write up our first blog. Our next meeting is on Tuesday 17th November in The Vic. Please keep your eyes peeled for details of the paper going to be read. All are welcome to join, as this is inclusive to all students.
Rachel
