Field Research Experience Research Articles

Стильно, модно, православно: опыт исследования кофейни «ANTIПА»

The article describes the experience of field research conducted during 2023–2024 on the territory of the church of the Holy Martyr Antipas of Pergamon in Kolymazhny Dvor (Moscow), where the “ANTIPA” coffee shop is located. The research addresses the issues of creation, organization, functioning and structure of the public space initiated and supervised by a religious community, as well as social agents who interact with it. The coffee shop “ANTIPA” is proposed to be examined through the lens of five aspects: 1) spatial, 2) social, 3) aesthetic, 4) organizational, 5) economic and labor. The church complex’s adjacent territory can be characterized as a secular space with religious elements, which performs the following functions: 1) a meeting place (as a point on the map where people can meet), 2) a place of communication (as a place where one can spend time socializing), 3) a mediator between the city and religion (as a place that allows residents and visitors of the capital to encounter the religious).

Fostering Inclusion in the Life Sciences through Course‐Based Field Research Experiences

Fostering Inclusion in the Life Sciences through Course‐Based Field Research Experiences

SOCIOLOGY AT A PROVINCIAL AGRARIAN UNIVERSITY (A CASE OF THE UDMURT STATE AGRARIAN UNIVERSITY)

This article is devoted to the activities of sociologists in a non-core university: the range of tasks usually performed, economic and contractual activities are analyzed, examples of completed contracts are given. Some of the contracts we have completed are related to sociological research conducted in the framework of court proceedings in the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The use of claims to elements of advertising and corporate identity, attempts at patent trolling as part of the fight against competitors, have become very common in the Russian Federation. Against this background, there is an endless field for the activities of sociologists. Such work requires field research experience and analytical skills, so it cannot be called simple. Each such case is unique and implies an individual approach to the problem. The article analyzes the general rules for the formation of technical specifications in the framework of contract preparation, some of its unacceptable and questionable elements, reputational risks.

The Conceptual Metaphor as an Ethical Kaleidoscope in Field Research

Attention to metaphor as a tool for cognition and action has already been called by the classic work by Georg Lakoff and Mark Johnson—Metaphors We Live By (1980). However, some four decades after this publication’s first edition, the role of metaphor as a useful instrument in empirical research seems to have been forgotten. Therefore, the first step taken in the text at hand is to highlight that codes of ethics neither resolve nor befit the dynamically shifting circumstances of research conducted in the field. Ethical codes are often insufficient. Hence, an objective here will be to critically assess the broad application of such codes in general. The second step will be to turn to metaphor as a tool in developing the sociological imagination as understood by C. Wright Mills. The metaphor can also assist in finding oneself when confronted with difficult, ambiguous circumstances that may arise during fieldwork. Metaphor as a tool, as an ethical kaleidoscope coherently links the field research experience precisely with the sociological imagination.

Experience in field research and collecting work in the Sinhalese environment in the 21st century

The Sinhalese people, the main population of Sri Lanka, have a rich and original culture, the study of which remains an interesting and urgent task. The author focuses on the experience of her field research in the Sinhalese milieu in the 1970s–80s and, in more detail, in the 21st century, when she made three expedition trips to Sri Lanka (in 2009, 2013 and 2014). Most interesting for her it seemed to uncover the possible innovations in everyday life, in material culture, in people’s mood. In addition, the author (partly in collaboration with colleagues from the Russian Ethnographic Museum and the State Hermitage) achieved some specific goals. In 2013, it was the search for the latest data on the status of the Veddas, the descendants of the island’s autochthons; in 2014 — a thorough acquaintance with the Sinhalese traditional handicraft production. This task was facilitated by the appearance in Sri Lanka of certain novelties interesting for the ethnographer — special original locations for studying and popularizing the Sinhalese folk culture and life, in particular, in the form of the “Ape Gama” Museum (Our village) and the ecological and ethnographic center “Gama Gedara” (Village House). The author also notes the significant assistance of her scholarly Sinhalese colleagues (historians, archaeologists, philologists) and some Buddhist monks. In the final part of the article, she shows how traditions and innovations coexist in the modern Sinhala craft (as visualized in the exhibits donated by her to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS).

Do desastre ambiental à formação de uma rede migratória: o caso de Longarone e Urussanga

The article brings experience and report of field research, which sought to understand the genesis of the constitution of a migratory network since an environmental disaster occurred in Italy, 1963. This configuration forged connections between Longarone in Northern Italy and Urussanga, in Southern Brazil, causing consequences that permeate the search for cultural ties, family rescue and propagation of Italian tradition aspects transposed by the economic dynamics engendered. The methodology used was Multi Sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995) and participant observation. The aim is to expose the repercussions of the establishment of such a network, which culminate in the displacement of Italian-Brazilians to work in Germany, changing the political, spatial and socioeconomic configuration of their hometown.

The concept of the academic course curriculum ‘Ethnic cultures of Russia

The academic program of the course is based on the author’s many years of experience in theoretical and field research on ethnic cultures of Russia and in teaching the course “Cultures of the peoples of Russia” to students of the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies of Moscow State University. The interdisciplinary and comparative approaches served as the theoretical foundation of this course. Thematically, the material is grouped according to the types of cultures of the peoples of Russia: semi-nomadic hunters and fishermen of the north; nomads of the steppes and mountains; settled mountaineers of the Caucasus; settled inhabitants of the plains; diasporas of the peoples of the near abroad, far from their ancestral homelands. To create a comprehensive picture of the studied peoples, the main attention is focused on the continuity of culture in the following way: from autochthonous traditions to modern professional art (ethnic literature, music, painting, and cinema). Different types of ethnic art and literature are regarded in the context of the processes of cultural identification of peoples in the context of globalization.

Interviewing Female Teachers as a Male Researcher: A Field Reflection from a Patriarchal Society Perspective

This article examines the role of gender difference in a qualitative interview from the theoretical lenses of the sociocultural perspective of teachers' identity in a localized context of Ph.D. field research. The study blends the researcher's critical reflections during interviewing female teachers in exploring their teacher identity and existing literature on gender differences in a qualitative interview. In addition, a research diary is used as the data source to unpack the complexity of gender dynamics in a qualitative interview. To add to the discussion of gender difference in a qualitative interview, we argued that gender difference between the interviewer and the interviewee mediates and shapes the data collection in a qualitative interview. Thus, to understand the role of gender difference in a qualitative interview, it is necessary to do a comprehensive analysis of the complex dynamics of gender matching, the cultural background of the interviewee, and possible power relations between the researcher and participants. This study contributes to the dynamics in interviewing women by a man outside the Western cultural setting, particularly during a field research experience by a Ph.D. scholar.

(Not)New Questions in New Contexts (Methodological and Ethical Problems in the Studies of Refugees From Ukraine)

The article is devoted to reflection on the experience of field research of refugees from Ukraine. It examines methodological and ethical issues and problems. The article aims to identify problematic points and to demonstrate how methodological sensitivity and reflexivity can help to find relevant research focuses and interpretative frameworks. The first section of the article is devoted to research strategies, in particular the problems of “fast” and “slow” research, as well as issues of observations and specifics of interviewing of refugees. The use of mosaic methodology, research strategies of “fast” and “slow” sociology, different sources, etc. allows researchers to find non-trivial research focuses.The second section of the article is devoted to the relationship between the researcher and the research subject. On the one hand, the humanitarian perspective universalizes suffering, on the other hand, it allows establishing trusting and personalized relationships and working with the sensitive topics. The section also raises the questions of the interviewer’s emotional empathy and trust issues.

Teaching and practising gestures: An investigation of the work of Accademia sull’Arte del Gesto

The article investigates the work of Accademia sull’Arte del Gesto, created in 2007 by Italian choreographer Virgilio Sieni, by examining the relationship within teaching and practising gestures with Delfina Stella, his artistic collaborator. Accademia sull’Arte del Gesto is a research project devoted to the study of the gestures, the meaning of body movement and the transmission of dance. This work on the art of the gesture aims to positively intervene on liveability and a possible sense of belonging, tending towards a renewal of the relationship between the body and the territory. The practice of gesture is transmitted both from the choreographer to the movers and vice versa. How are these practices of gestures open to a variety of people? To what extent is a somatic approach supportive in transmitting this practice? In what ways has Sieni, together with his collaborators, developed these pedagogies for gestures? The enquiry combines my own field research experience and narration around the creation , a project by Sieni.

Тайваньский даосизм: вариативность форм и неизменность социальной миссии

This article is devoted to the analysis of the social structure of Taiwanese Dao­ism and its role in the everyday life of Taiwanese society. The emergence of Tao­ism in Taiwan dates back to the middle of the 17th century, when the first settlers arrived here from the areas of Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Chaozhou, located in the southern coastal regions of mainland China. Until the 20th century, only Taoists of the Orthodox One school (Zhengyipai) were represented in Taiwanese society. The peculiarity of the ritualists of the Zhengyi school is their close con­nection with the local community, whose spiritual needs they serve. The author, based on the work of Taiwanese researchers and his own humble experience of field research in Taiwan, examines the social history of Taiwanese Daoism and characterizes its main currents. The article discusses the features of the Daoist tradition of Dao-fa er-men, the Lingbao lineage and the Chanhe lineage, as well as the social role of ritual masters fashi belonging to the “vernacular level” of the Taoist tradition, and grassroots spirit mediums tong-ki. As the results of modern research indicate, Taiwanese Daoism has many forms and historical variations, but it retains its social mission unchanged. The modern Taoist ritual­ists of Taiwan, first of all, ensure the normal functioning of the local social or­ganism, its unity and ethnocultural self-identification.

Engaging Undergraduate Students in Collaborative Field Research with the U.S. National Weather Service: The SCORCHER Study

Abstract While numerous collaborations exist between the atmospheric sciences research community and the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), collaborative research field studies between undergraduate (UG) students at universities and the NWS are less common. The Summertime Canyon Observations and Research to Characterize Heat Extreme Regimes (SCORCHER) study was an UG student-driven research field campaign conducted in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, United States, during the summer of 2021. The SCORCHER campaign was mainly aimed at improving our basic scientific understanding of extreme heat, public safety, and forecasting applications, and creating an empowering UG educational field research experience. This “In Box” article highlights the collaborative study design, execution, and lessons learned.

Ułuda wspólnotowości. Polski badacz na Syberii

Based on the author’s experience in long-term field research among the Sakha (Yakuts) and Buryats, the indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia, the article deals with the complications of the field anthropologist’s thinking that they should not only understand but also share the mental structures of their subjects. When these subjects were or still are the object of someone else’s colonial superpower policy, the researcher feels absolutely obliged to be an advocate, a defender of their subjects. However, along with the sense of understanding and empathy, doubt arises when the researcher is openly criticised and the oppressors are presented in a positive light. In Siberia such is the case with the sympathising attitude to the myth of the “Great Patriotic War”.

Проблема возникновения кочевого скотоводства в работах М.П. Грязнова

Mikhail Petrovich Gryaznov is one of the scientists whose range of scientific interests has never been limited to one topic. His work in the early 1930s as part of the History of nomadic pastoralism group to a large extent determined the direction of his activities in the future. It is important that by the beginning of the 1930s M.P. Gryaznov accumulated significant and diverse experience in field and office research, which allowed him to outline a solution to the problem of the emergence and development of nomadic pastoralism based on a synthesis of archaeological and written sources and to propose one of the first programs in Soviet archaeology to study the history of early nomads. This article is devoted to the contribution of M.P. Gryaznov in the study of the problem of the emergence and development of nomadic pastoralism. The work also used information from unpublished or poorly studied sources.

Training Teachers Using Action Research for Innovation in Early Childhood Education Literacy

Action research is a crucial authentic training tool in teacher education programmes. The visual arts in early childhood education (ECE) are important to release children’s creativity and help their engagement skills. This case study examines the experiences of two preservice teachers in the UAE who completed action research projects during their final year of teacher training. Their participants consisted of four groups of children aged between four to six years. The preservice teachers were required to conduct interviews, do classroom observations, and do journalling, while their progress was monitored by a supervising instructor. The NVivo 12 software was used in the analysis of final reflections and interview responses. Three main themes and several important observations emerged from the experiment. The findings suggest that preservice teachers value action research as an authentic practical field research experience. Action research can positively impact literacy teaching using visual arts and 21st-century skills in early childhood despite challenges such as limited space and resources. These should be addressed to enhance implementation.

Expanding boundaries: Unmaking and remaking secrecy in field research

Abstract This paper empirically retraces and conceptualizes secrecy in the study of security. Building on 27 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with social scientists about their field research experiences, we use Gieryn’s concept of “boundary work” to rethink secrecy not as a self-evident separator between clearly demarcated spheres but as something that is negotiated, suspended, or circumvented in social situations. A boundary perspective allows us to highlight how contextualized social interactions draw and redraw lines between what can be known and what remains classified. Our analysis identifies three ways in which boundaries around secrecy can be expanded: fallibility, co-optation, and ambiguity. Explicating and empirically substantiating these forms of boundary work portrays secrecy as continuously performed and reconfigured. The paper contributes to current debates about field research by providing a different conceptual angle: one that favours performativity rather than individual capacity to reflect how access to security sites and actors comes into being.

Disappointment

In recent years, disappointment has emerged as a prominent topic of anthropological inquiry and theorization. We explore this disciplinary interest in order to probe the conditions that have made it possible, the lines of inquiry it opens up, and the self-reflexive critiques it underscores. Running throughout the anthropological literature on disappointment is a pressing concern with the messy, unpredictable, and friction-laden dimensions of social life, dimensions that eschew easy categorization in terms of the heroic/abject, agentive/passive, macro/micro, righteous/wrong-headed, or progressive/reactionary. After exploring the conditions that underlie disappointment, we discuss comparison, poetics, and slog as three domains of its anthropological analysis, highlighting key methodological innovations, ethnographic genres, and research questions within each area. We close with reflections on disappointment within the discipline, focusing on the experience of field research, the moral optimism of the discipline, and the institutional conditions that shape knowledge production and professional life.

THE CURRENT STATE OF THE STUDY OF VOLYNTSEVO CULTURE SITES

The presented publication of the manuscript of Oleg Sukhobokov (1937—2008), a famous Ukrainian archaeologist-Slavist, Doctor of historical sciences, Chief Research Fellow of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is an important contribution to the historiography of Volyntsevo sites. Relying on his own extensive experience in scientific and field research of Slavic sites of the Left Bank of Ukraine, the author presents his vision of the most important and debatable problems of the study of Volyntsevo sites: the origin and ethnic attribution, dating and chronology, their place in the cultural-stratigraphic column of a sites of the Dnieper Left Bank of the middle to the late 1st millennium. During the more than 40-year period of field archaeological work, the scholar discovered and studied a number of important archaeological sires of the Dnieper Left Bank, in particular, the unique early Siveryans settlement Bytytsia on the Psel River (1984—1991, 1993).
 The Bytytsia hill-fort takes a special place among the Volyntsevo settlements: its topography (on a cape), considerable size (ca. 11 ha), wood and earth fortifications, a large number (up to 60 %) of pottery, together with an unprecedented number for early Slavic sites of agricultural implements, craft tools and weapons, two hoards, etc. All of this allowed Dr. Sukhobokov to raise issues on the social and ethnocultural content of this site, which is different from that of most Volyntsevo sites, to consider the Bytytsia hill-fort the administrative, trade and craft center of the Siverians tribal union.
 In the presented material the considerable attention is paid to the substantiated, based on a wide source base refutation of the hypothesis by V. V. Sedov that the population of the Imenkovo culture of the Middle Volga region became the substratum of the Volyntsevo culture of the Middle Dnieper region. At the same time, the author emphasizes the influence of the «alien cultural impulse» from the Turkic or Iranian-speaking peoples who were the part of the Khazar Khaganate and were quickly assimilated by the Slavic (Severians) environment, which manifested itself in the originality of the ceramic complex of the Volyntsevo people, who considered by Dr. Sukhobokov as early stage of the chronicled Siverians.

Building Global Leaders through Field Research and Extension Experiences in Belize

One of the most complex agricultural and natural resources challenges of our time is reconciling sustainable global food security and biodiversity conservation. Providing undergraduate students effective, learning experiences to develop technical and cultural competency prepares them to address this challenge and become global leaders in their disciplines. A three-year experiential research and extension project brought together 14 students and 10 faculty mentors to investigate smallholder farmers practicing conservation-compatible adjacent to the Vaca Forest Reserve in Belize. We used an agroecological approach to foster systems-level thinking and develop transdisciplinary skills of undergraduate students. Students completed applied individual research projects that explored the challenge of food security and biodiversity conservation in the tropics, and worked collaboratively with local stakeholders, design and implement extension projects based on research results. Student and faculty teams assessed cropping and soil management practices; social and economic systems; and wildlife, forestry, and ecosystem services. We assessed student learning outcomes with a tool commonly used for evaluating undergraduate research. Students reported learning gains in attitudes and behaviors toward research, mindset towards research, ability to think and work like a scientist, and research skills. Students also reported positive working relationships with mentors and peers, and a high level of publication and presentation outputs. Students reported that their Belize experience helped develop their agroecological and cross-cultural knowledge and skills, and prepared them for their next career steps. We conclude with recommendations for higher education institutions wishing to develop meaningful global undergraduate research experiences that can build the next generation of leaders.

Беджа Этбая: итоги первых лет этнографических исследований в рамках Нубийской археолого-антропологической экспедиции

Introduction. The Atbay region, which we refer to in this article, has been the periphery of large state formations since the time of the Egyptian civilization. The question of the genetic continuity of the ancient population of Atbay and the modern ethnic groups living in this territory – the Beja, still causes debate in the scientific community. In the article we propose to turn to the cultural continuity of the population of the re-gion, mediated by unique geographical and political factors, which, in the case of Atbay, have remained virtually unchanged for centuries. Materials and methods. Different works on history and social anthropology relating to the Atbay re-gion and the ethnic group considered in the article (the Beja) became the main sources for the article. The information available in the research literature is compared with the data that we managed to collect during the first experience of field research among the Beja Bisharin as part of the Nubian archaeological and an-thropological expedition of Moscow State University. Results and discussion. The article provides an overview of the main works and scientific concepts related to Bedja of the Atbay region. In historical monographs, focused mainly on the most ancient and me-dieval periods, the Bedja are perceived as the Proto-Egyptians or the descendants of the Medajs of the era of the Middle Kingdom. During ethnographic research undertaken as part of the archaeological and anthro-pological expedition of Moscow State University, it was found that the Atbay region is very different from the regions of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea coast. Based on the studies of 2018-2019 seasons the idea was put forward that the special landscape and climate of the region prevent its incorporation into the exist-ing state formations (Ancient Egypt, Arab Caliphate), and reinforce a local peripheral culture that exists and reproduces itself for several millennia while remaining distinct (in part opposed to) the dominant historical culture. Conclusion. As a result of studying various written sources and comparing them to the field materials, we developed a hypothesis of cultural continuity of the population of the Beja in the region, mediated pri-marily by its special climatic and historical conditions. This hypothesis, in our opinion, provides a promising theoretical framework for further research on the cultural characteristics of Beja Bisharin of Atbay. The first field experience also confirmed the idea of the closeness of Beja communities given in literature. We intend to use these findings to develop strategies for further research.