Blogs 2009

Schwellenethnologie. Ethnografische Infiltration einer deutschen Behörde

Boris Nieswand, November 2009

Es dauerte mehr als sieben Monate, bis es mir gelang, eine Entscheidung bezüglich einer Feldforschung im Stuttgarter Jugendamt herbeizuführen (vgl. Forschungsblog vom Januar). Einmal angekommen im Innenleben der Organisation wurde mir und meinem Vorhaben – insbesondere von den MitarbeiterInnen des Beratungszentrums, in dem ich meine Feldforschung absolvierte – eine große Offenheit und Herzlichkeit entgegengebracht. Meine Wahrnehmung der Behörde ...

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On research and festivities

Franziska Meissner, October 2009

Now I could write about an ordinary day in the office, but whilst at times it is amusing to watch my office mate make faces at his computer screen, it is really the weekends when research gets exciting. Ok, I am not referring to those weekends when I sneak into the office, in a rather frantic attempt to meet the impossible deadline I had set myself (I am just at the beginning ...

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Ominous illness initiators – Germans, Indians and in-laws

Gabriele Alex, August 2009

Travelling to India evokes generally two kinds of reactions – the first one goes like – wow, that is so cool, and the second one is – but hey, what about the illnesses that you might catch there. India has a long history of being seen as the disease laden and deadly landscape, hosting maladies like cholera, malaria, the plague, to name just a few, and in this light it is not ...

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Anthropological Travel: between institutional support and the perils of paperwork

Tilmann Heil, June 2009

On a recent trip to Senegal I met a friend of a friend, also a German, who was travelling in West Africa. Sitting in the little backyard of a house in suburban Dakar, the capital of the Senegal, we were drinking a glass of wine and talking while waiting for our Senegalese friends. That night we would celebrate my last evening before returning to Europe. Some months later...

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Losing Track of Time and Other Side Effects of Pursuing a Doctorate

Monika Palmberger, May 2009

The title “research blog” may raise high expectations of juicy stories full of adventures in exciting places. Apologies, therefore, for reminding you once again (see the January and April blogs) that research (even of the kind conducted by anthropologists!) involves pretty unexciting phases. After three years in the field (Bosnia and Herzegovina) this phase has finally caught up ...

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Vor- und Nachteile einer Sekundäranalyse

Sören Petermann, April 2009

Es ist für mich überraschend, an welchen Plätzen meine Kollegen ihre ethnologische Feldforschung betreiben. Aus den Research-Blogs erfahre ich etwas über Mantras in Skopje (Goran), Geduldsspiele in Stuttgart (Boris) oder das geschäftige Treiben im Londoner Stadtteil Hackney (Susanne). Insbesondere beneide ich Susannes Feldarbeit, weil sie in einem Straßencafe sitzend Passanten beobachtet. Was kann quantitative Sozialforschung ...

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Doing fieldwork with busy people

Susanne Wessendorf, March 2009

I’m sitting in a street café in a London neighbourhood where I’m currently doing fieldwork on ‘super-diversity’. While enjoying my daily dose of caffeine, I’m wondering how I could get an insight into the lives of the many people walking past. While a few privileged ones have time to stop and drink a cup of tea or coffee by the side of the road, most hurry ...

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Searching for multicultural El Dorado

Goran Janev, February 2009

Since April last year I have a desk in a nice office with huge window overlooking a trimmed lawn and huge old nut tree at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen. From this serene place, with all the freedom to decide where to continue my research, I opted for Macedonia again. This time I'm looking at the Old Bazaar in Skopje. Stara Charshija, or Turska Charshija, or the 'Turkish Bazaar' ...

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Nummer ziehen und warten – Ethnographischer Feldzugang zu einer öffentlichen Verwaltung

Boris Nieswand, Januar 2009

"Das ist noch mal ein ganz anderes Ghana, nicht wahr?", sagte einer der ersten Verwaltungsangestellten, den ich nach Monaten des Email- und Briefeschreibens sowie des Anrufens als leibhaftige Person zu Gesicht bekam. Sein Kommentar bezog sich auf die Unterschiede zwischen meinem vorangegangenen ethnografischen Forschungsprojekt über ghanaische Migranten ...

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