Type of course

Course content

Recommended prerequisites

Objectives of the course

Students who successfully complete this course should have achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

• know the main methodological challenges of qualitative research
• know how to analyse the outputs of the team fieldwork.

Skills

• be able to reflect on their own situatedness as researchers, e.g. through the notions of insider/outsider (the concepts of emic and etic)
• be able to analyse own field experiences and relate them to literature on methods and methodology presented in this and previous courses
• be able to reflect critically on the use of audio-visual tools as part of a methodological approach.

General competence

• be able to critically evaluate their findings and demonstrate how methods form part of research
• be able to demonstrate how methods are aspects of analytical approaches
• be able to demonstrate how research methods (the acquisition of the conceptualizations of `the other¿) are also methods of dissemination.

Language of instruction and examination

Teaching methods

The course consists of approximately 20 hours of lectures according to a detailed plan. The course will run for 6 weeks.

Individual supervision is given in the process of writing the paper.

Assessment

Course attendance is compulsory, i.e. only valid absences will be approved. A minimum participation of 80 % is required.

The final exam consists of a paper discussing questions of methodological interest based on experiences from the "mini-fieldwork" and the editing of the films conducted as part of SVF-3102. Approximate length: 10 pages (3500 words).

Marking is made according to a grading scale from A to F, where F is fail. A re-sit exam will be arranged for this course.
 

Recommended reading/syllabus

SVF-3108 Processing Field Experiences - Reading List - Spring 2015

@Agar, M. (2011) Making sense of one other for another: Ethnography as translation. Language and Communication, 31: 38-47. 10 p. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02715309/31/1

*Alvesson M. and Sköldberg K. (2009), Reflexive Methodology. New Vistas for Qualitative Research. 2nd edition. SAGE Publications Inc., London. (pp.1-109) ISBN 978-1-84860-112-3 145 p.

@ Assad, T. (1986) The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology. In Clifford J. and Marcus, G.E. (eds.) Writing Culture. University of California Press, Berkeley. 24 p. http://lcst3789.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/clifford-writing-culture.pdf

http://lcst3789.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/clifford-writing-culture.pdf

*Geertz, C. (1973, 2006) Thick Description: Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture. In Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (pp.236-243) ISBN : 978-0-631-22915-5 8 p

Geertz, C. (1973) Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese cockfight. In The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, New York. ISBN: 0-465-09719-7 41 p

*Grimshaw, A. and Ravetz, A. (2009), Observational Cinema. Anthropology, Film and the Exploration of Social Life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington (pp. ix-23,113-162). ISBN: 978-0-253-22158-2 84 p.

Holtedahl, L. (1993) Communication problems in social research. In Crawford, P. (ed.) The Nordic Eye. Proceedings from NAFA 1. Intervention Press, Højbjerg, Denmark. ISBN: 17 p.

*MacDougall, D. (1998) Whose story is it. In Transcultural Cinema. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN: 0-691-01234-2 16 p

Postma, M. (2006) `From description to narrative: what¿s left of ethnography¿, In Postma, M. and P.I. Crawford (eds.) Reflecting Visual Ethnography ¿ using the camera in anthropological research, Højbjerg: Intervention Press (pp. 319-358). ISBN: 87-89825-14-4 30 p.

Suhr, C. and Willerslev, R. (2012) Can Film Show the Invisible? The Work of Montage in Ethnographic Filmmaking. Current Anthropology. Vol 53(3) 24 p.

399 p