Unit METHODOLOGY OF ETHNOGRAFIC RESEARCH

Course

Socioanthropological studies for integration and social security

Study-unit Code

40A00059

Curriculum

In all curricula

Teacher

Massimiliano Minelli

Teachers

Massimiliano Minelli

Hours

36 ore - Massimiliano Minelli

CFU

Course Regulation

Coorte 2023

Offered

2023/24

Academic discipline

M-DEA/01

Type of study-unit

Obbligatorio (Required)

Type of learning activities

Attività formativa monodisciplinare

Language of instruction

Italian

Contents

Reference texts

(1) Cappelletto F. (a cura di) Vivere l'etnografia, Seid Editori, Firenze, 2009.

(2) Palumbo, B. Lo sguardo inquieto. Etnografia tra scienza e narrazione. Bologna, Mariett, 2021i.

(3) Ingold T. Making. Antropologia, archeologia, arte e architettura, Raffaello Cortina, Milano, 2019.

Texts in English as suggested alternatives:
Atkinson P. - Coffey A. - Delamont S. - Lofland J. - Lofland L. (Eds.) Handbook of ethnography, Sage Publications, Los Angeles - London - New Delhi - Singapore, 2007.

And a text chosen from the following:
Biehl J., Vita: a life in a Zone of social abandonment, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005.
Bourgois P. - Schonberg J., Righteous dopefiend. Homelessness, addiction, and poverty in urban America, University of California Press, Berkeley - Los Angeles, 2009.
Fassin D., Enforcing Order: An Ethnography of Urban Policing, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2013.

During the course, more bibliographic information will be provided.

Educational objectives

The course provides the basic knowledge on qualitative research, and promotes the acquisition of epistemological and methodological skills in the area of ethnography. Teaching is aimed at the development of research projects, with a high degree of autonomy and competence.

The main knowledge (Dublin Descriptor 1) acquired will be:
- knowledge of the qualitative methods;
- knowledge of the relationship between anthropology, sociology and ethnographic research;
- knowledge of the tools and techniques for the interpretation of the socio-cultural processes.
- knowledge of the tools, techniques and methods for the ethnographic description and anthropological interpretation of the creative processes implemented in the encounter between atelier activities and "collaborative ethnography".

The main skills acquired (ability to apply the knowledge acquired, Dublin Descriptor 2, and to adopt the appropriate approach with autonomy of judgment, Dublin Descriptor 3) will be:
- ability to define the research problem and to adopt effective and innovative methodological choices;
- ability in data analysis and reporting research results;
- ability to formulate the research problem and to adopt effective and innovative methodological choices to follow the participatory process of ideation and realization;
- ability to choose, use and combine methods, techniques and tools of ideation, socio-cultural analysis and communication in assessments of sustainability, impact and social use of ideated artifacts.

Prerequisites

None.

Teaching methods

The course is organized as follows:
- lecturers on all subjects of the course;
- laboratory activities and discussion groups;
- ethnographic video-materials that will complement the lectures; - ethnography in urban area and discussion of the problems tackled during different phases of investigation: to this end, it will be created a research team composed by the course participants.

Other information

During the course, in addition to research materials and to the projection of ethnographic audiovisuals, will be provided more bibliographic information. Not attending students are warmly recommended to contact the teacher in office hours, to speak about the exam program.

Learning verification modality

The exam consists of an individual oral test. It begins, usually, with a question concerning the fieldwork-experiences acquired by the student during the course. The discussion-interview focus on the topics covered during the lectures and the issues present in recommended texts. Attending students will integrate the oral examination with a discussion of a written paper, in which the candidates will present and interpret the ethnographic data produced during the course. The acquired skill in ethnographic writing, essential for training in qualitative research methodology, is evaluated as exemption from part of the overall teaching load.
The oral exam consists of an interview, of about 30 minutes, and is aimed at assessing:
- the level of knowledge of the theoretical contents of the course (Dublin descriptor 1);
- the level of competence in presenting their knowledge (Dublin descriptor 2);
- autonomy of judgment (Dublin descriptor 3).
- the student's language skills in answering the Commission’s questions, to sustain a dialectical relationship during the interview and to demonstrate logical-deductive and summary abilities in the exhibition of one's thought (Dublin 4 descriptor).
The grade will be express by the Commission in thirtieths.

Note: In case a student intends to anticipate his/her exam in a year preceding the one it is scheduled in his/her curriculum, it is recommended to anticipate as well the attendance of the lessons and to schedule the exam in the first useful session after the lessons have been concluded.

Extended program

The course will examine the main strategies of qualitative social research, promoting the development of specific skills concerning methods and techniques of ethnography. Ethnography, considered as a "theoretical practice", is examined in its main methodological steps: design, observation, field notes and diary, interviews, data analysis and narratives in the construction of the monographic text, Grounded Theory, case studies and extended case method.
Furthermore, the course aims to provide students with the anthropological skills necessary to operate with an interdisciplinary approach in the ideation process and in participatory design and planning. The anthropological perspective and ethnographic practice allow students to follow the design activity as the conception, creation and realization of artifacts sensitive to social contexts and cultural exchange. Reflexive, dialogical and critical approaches are experimented, in order to support the participatory social process of "thinking together" and "giving shape” in concrete situations, through a workshop activity.
The second part of the course consists of ethnographic exercises focused on the "practice of inhabiting" a place, a home, a neighborhood. In its processual feature, “inhabiting” is a collective practice of world transformation and embodiment of the social space. Place-living practices are not only linked to the culturally organized occupation of a territory, but they are also developed as structured embodied forms and acting dispositions, modus operandi and habitus, aimed at redefining the social space. Inhabiting can be considered as a combination of creative and experimental actions: the recognition and appropriation of a space, occurring in the use of resources and in the shaping of daily lives; the “arrangement” which is expressed in positioning objects through different forms of agency; the customary relationship to the environment of the inhabitants, continually reorganized in their bodily schemas.

Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile

4,5, 10,11,12