First, I am realizing that the questions in my research that I can ask are far less exciting than I originally hoped. This is mostly due to difficulties in obtaining good quality "data". While I wanted to delve into the healthcare system's failings and strengths via its effects on the lives and health of those who work under its auspices, I am realizing that I may not be able to make enough appropriate observations for this to constitute an individual ethnography. While I hoped to probe the minds of healthcare professionals about how they view their health, I wonder if that will fit in with the other information I will eventually compile into my paper. Thoughts of analyzing language may be problematic because I may not be exposed to the full range of language used in the clinic nor can I tape record conversations (for obvious reasons). I have also had issues being on site. When I tried to volunteer last week, the woman I usually work for was not there. I had to leave after only 5 minutes. Though I was able to make some cursory observations, I was generally pretty disappointed. Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that I would rather write a sturdy ethnography about a teeny-tiny topic with teeny-tiny implications than try to write an ethnography of epic proportions and utterly fail.
According to this philosophy, I have narrowed my topic to looking at identity construction and community establishment in community clinic employees. This will allow me to dally into the realms of language (e.g. diction, language, accent, etc), office hierarchies, gender, and even race. Also, I will be able to make observations pretty consistently. Furthermore, I have written two mini-ethnographies on identity/persona construction, so I feel this is familiar territory. I have not run this by anyone yet, though, so your thoughts would be much appreciated.
If all else fails, I can always revert to a Southwestern-based project. I even have a hare-brained idea. Project Haiti is trying to raise awareness about the health and socioeconomic situation but we have come to realize that we do not know how to determine when people have become "aware", when they have been induced to care. Other organizations have this problem as well, I figure. How do college students get swayed? Does campus activism actually reach people? How? When? Why? Is there a relationship between outgoing tabling and the success of a campaign? Of course, this topic would open a whole other can of worms. I think I will stick to my clinic topic but this was just on my mind.
Peace.
Hey, I'm not quite sure what you mean by your topic change. When I talked to you on Monday you said you were doing the health practices of workers @ Lonestar. Is that what you changed it to or what you changed it from? Also, I think the activism idea is interesting. I think it would be cool to do a study concerning the activism done on college campuses in contrast with the activism in a larger societal context or even the ways in which activism in college fuels individual activism outside of college.
ReplyDeleteAlexis, don't feel discouraged--this IS the process, and there is much to learn from these little "failures" and realizations. I already saw your abstract and IRB, so I think focusing (for now) on community building is a good idea. And, you will probably notice that you are taking notes on covering other "topics," as well. It is OK to slightly change your focus, following new observations.
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