Perspectives: Ethnographic Research Methods for Activists

10th-13th October,2024

Anthropology and its Peculiar Method

Sociocultural Anthropology was a key form of knowledge through which colonial rulers came to know about their native subjects in the colonies – especially people who were different from people in European countries. Anthropology, thus, has struggled through the twentieth century, to come to terms with its methodology ethnography. What does it mean for a bunch of researchers (usually trained in privileged parts of the world) to go and study in deep intimacy – the lives of Others – the lives of people who usually live in relative deprivation or disadvantage? The very practical choice of fieldsite and communities of ‘native’ subjects to be studied, was made possible by European imperial investment in societies of ‘difference’. Much of this travel into another’s life has changed in its pattern of execution and in its philosophy, across the twentieth century.

Ethnography is the method of talking, seeing, documenting to establish a sense of other people’s lives – used by anthropologists. The notion of ‘difference’ is fundamental to this technique, but one that simultaneously moves away from the Us/Them divide. Ethnography and anthropology go hand-in-hand, but there are possibilities of usage of ethnographic method outside of the disciplinary domain of anthropology. Who are we? Who are these people in whose lives we seek to intervene? These questions come to the forefront of many of our lives – as policymakers, journalists, activists and many other professions that operate outside of academia. The ethnographic lens can help in some of these endeavours.

Structure/Objectives

The workshop explains what ethnographic research is and what kinds of things it can be useful for. I will use the first two sessions to introduce ethnography as a research technique of anthropology. I will unpack what I like to call ‘a point of view about points of view’. This discussion will depend on unpacking some previously distributed reading material, that participants will have to come having read beforehand. The final session focuses on a small writing assignment where each participant will share their work with rest of the group. 

This workshop conducted over four days (see plan below) aims at:

Day 1 – Bringing ethnographic research techniques to people outside the anthropological universe, especially those who work at the intersection of law, policy and society. This requires engagement with some reading material on the first two days.

Keywords: seeing, feeling, narrating, listening, power, representation.

Day 2 – Tasting two ethnographic texts – one in narrative, one in poetry. Close-reading the texts, discussion, and applying their insights to our contexts.

Keywords: fieldwork, journey, intimacy, suffering, abandonment, loss, witnessing. 

Day 3 – Constructing research questions and visiting one’s ongoing, or currently planned research through the ethnographic lens. Bringing to the forefront, the elements of mutual dialogue, ethics, situational sensitivity and understanding in furthering the work of activists and practitioners.

Keywords: activism, change, intervention, politics, justice, research.

Day 4 – Writing workshop.

Detailed plan

Day 1– Reading: Paul Rabinow. Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco (2007). Ch. 8.

Morning: Lecture on ethnography and anthropology

Afternoon: Discussion on the following lines.

• Why do research? – discussion
• Are activist agendas and academic research complementary? – discussion
• Representative turn
• Anthropology and Fiction
• Anthropology and Journalism

Evening film screening: Akaler Shondhane by Mrinal Sen (1981)

Day 2-Readings:  Biehl João. Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. Excerpt.

Renato Rosaldo, The Day of Shelly’s Death: The Poetry and Ethnography of Grief (Duke UP, 2014)

• Why write about others’ lives?
• What is narrative? How is it constructed?
• Seeing is believing?
• Questions of genre.
• Limits of the method.
• Ethics/Politics of representation

Evening film screening: Ivan’s Childhood by Andrei Tarkovsky (1962).

Day 3

• Participants present their research questions
• Everyone comments on each question
• Redrafting of questions
• Individual identification of site, subjects, objects
• Discussion of feasibility

Afternoon -Participants take off on an hour-long walk and write about it.

Day 4-Participants submit writeups (1500 words or less) by 6 AM.

-Writing workshop for the rest of the day.

Facilitator Bio: Atreyee Majumder is an anthropologist. She earned her doctoral degree from Yale University (2014). She has been an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto (2016-18). Her doctoral work culminated in her first book Time, Space, and Capital in India: Longing and Belonging in an Urban-Industrial Hinterland (Routledge, 2018).  Her research examines questions related to urbanism, print cultures, and religion. This empirical canvas allows her to engage in historically grounded theoretical inquiries – a kind of ear-to-the-ground philosophical practice – into the relationship between time and space, and more recently, inquiries of self and personhood. Her current research agenda is located at the intersection of anthropology, theology, and the philosophy of religion, specifically concerned with the devotional practice of Bhakti. Ethnographic research for this project is being conducted in the sacred city of Vrindavan and its surround in northern India. The current phase of this research is funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She has published widely in academic and popular venues including the South Asian Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, Religions, Economic and Political Weekly, 3AM magazine, India Today, Article 14, Anthropology & Humanism, Philosophy in Review, Religions, and LSE Review of Books. She is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. She is a published poet. Her first book of poems, The Book of Blue, is now out from Red River (2024)

Who is this workshop for: Are you a professional in an area that tries to make changes (for the better) in other people’s lives? Does your work get broadly described as a change agent or development practitioner or activist? Your work of making change and having an improvement in the current state of someone else’s life may require understanding these people’s perspectives on who they are, what role you may play in their lives, what they think their own location in the community and the larger world. If these questions are relevant to the work you do, you would definitely benefit from a conversation with practitioners of sociocultural anthropology.

Dates: 10th-13th October, 2024

Venue: Sambhaavnaa Institute,VPO –Kandbari,Tehsil–Palampur,District –Kangra,PIN 176061,Himachal Pradesh

Contribution towards Program Costs: We hope that participants will contribute an amount of Rs.8000/- towards workshop expenses, including all on-site workshop costs: boarding, lodging, and all the materials used in the workshop. Need-based partial waivers are available; we have a very limited number of partial waivers, so, please apply for a waiver only if you really need it. Please do remember that there may be others who need it more than you.

Language: English (with Hindi translation)

How to reach: Please visit: Getting here

For any other info:  WhatsApp or call: 889 422 7954 (between 10 am to 5 pm), and e-mail: programs@sambhaavnaa.org

Please fill the embedded form below or go to this google forms link to apply: https://forms.gle/YvQvjN7op5mf9Apg7