Towards an inventory of data, materials, and field devices in qualitative and ethnographic research
While peer-reviewed journal articles and monographs are the primary means through which we communicate our research findings with the world, there is a lot that happens in the knowledge production process that often does not ultimately find its way into such formal publication formats. Indeed, much of this may never be shared – or even documented – at all. In such a situation, we risk losing valuable insights that, in another context or at some future moment, may have significant impact on our own work, on the work of our collaborators and fellow researchers, on societal decision-making, on the students we teach and advise, and of course on the lives of the individuals and communities who contribute to our research and whose stand to be impacted by its outcomes.
- Target group
-
Researcher
Postdoctoral researcher
PhD candidate - Teachers
- Andrew Hoffman (Service Scientist - Research Data Management) Adolfo Estalella Tomás Sanchez Criado
- Method
-
Workshop
This hybrid workshop introduces two interventions into this space, each with its own distinct approach to ‘inventorying’ the practices, processes, data, and other materials we generate in the course of carrying out qualitative and ethnographic research.
First, drawing on a recent co-authored publication for which he and his collaborators conducted a series of interviews with three groups of social/cultural anthropologists about their engagements with open research practices, Andrew S. Hoffman (CADS/CWTS, Leiden University) will share his experiences with preparing and submitting the collection of full-text interview transcripts from the project to the CADS data repository (hosted on DataverseNL), enabling both their open sharing and their long-term preservation.
Following this, we welcome anthropologists Tomás Sánchez Criado (CareNet, Open University of Catalunya) and Adolfo Estalella (Department of Anthropology, Spanish National Research Council, ES) for a presentation about their ongoing initiative called xcol - An Ethnographic Inventory. In their own words: ‘The xcol inventory takes as its departing point the idea that ethnography is an act of invention: by that we mean that anthropologists invent the relations allowing them to inquire with others. Sadly, these forms of inventiveness are rarely accounted for and shared. xcol inventory seeks to document and inventory the acts of invention that are integral to the practices of ethnography. Anthropologists and close companions are invited to join this inventorying endeavour.’
To conclude the workshop, we invite a collective reflection with attendees on the affordances of the ‘inventory’ as both concept and sociotechnical infrastructure, and what such an inventory might look like for the qualitative and ethnographic research carried out within FSW going forward.
Target group
Researchers from CADS, CWTS, POWE, and anyone who is working with qualitative and ethnographic methods.
No registration needed.