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Vital Signs: Paper Session 1b
Tuesday 9 September, 3.45-5.15pm, Room G32
1b: The Spatial and the Social
‘Doing research on a building site: The vitality of the visual’ – Dr Dawn Lyon (University of Kent)
This paper argues for the gain of the visual – as a technique of data collection, and as a form of dissemination – in exploring social complexity in ways which clarify but do not oversimplify that reality. It is based on ethnographic research, undertaken with Peter Hatton (University of Kent) in 2007, on the refurbishment of a building. The project involved weekly visits to the site over several months. Whilst photography was central, it was one of a bundle of related techniques, including informal observation on-site, participation in site meetings, and interviews with the project’s builders, architects and engineers.
This paper reflects on the gain of the visual for developing and communicating understanding of a complex reality such as a building project. It will critically discuss two strategies used in the production and presentation of visual material by the researchers. The first strategy was based on repeatedly taking photographs from the same selected spots, enabling the construction of a time series of the transformation of the building in the form of a slideshow. Viewing the building work from specific vantage points draws attention to subtle as well as dramatic changes and the different temporalities of the work involved. The second strategy was to follow whatever work activity was ongoing in the building at the time of the visit. Represented as a multi-dimensional assemblage of images, this form of production and presentation draws attention to the complexity and interconnectedness of the different types of work required to reshape the building.
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‘Researching housing: Building spatial narratives’ – Dr Iliana Ortega-Alcazar (London School of Economics)
This paper explores the challenge of researching housing from a cultural perspective. The first part of the paper argues against approaching housing as artefact. It discusses the problem of understanding housing as a finished object that mirrors the social practices of which it is the product. That is, taking the material ‘product’ as the object of study and then ‘reading’ culture from it. It then builds on Ingold’s (2000) critique of the ‘building perspective’ to analyse the problem of separating the materiality of built form from the cultural practices in which it is embedded. Based on this exploration, the paper suggests that rather than defining housing as an object of consumption that is endowed with cultural meaning, we ought to approach it as a building-dwelling process through which cultural meaning is produced. Grounded on my own ethnographic research on the connections between self-help housing and family practices in Mexico City, the second part of the paper proposes the use of ‘spatial narratives’ as a useful method for researching housing and the social practices in which it is embedded. It discusses the potential of combining visual methods such sketch mapping and photo elicitation with in-depth interviewing and participant observation for the elaboration of such spatial narratives.
‘This is where I live, this is how I live: Using mobile interviews to understand real life networks, neighbourhoods and communities’ – Dr Andrew Clark and Dr Nick Emmel (Real Life Methods , University of Leeds)
In this paper we reflect on walking interviews as part of a collection of methods we are using in research exploring the everyday, real-life experiences of individuals’ networks, neighbourhoods and communities. We draw on insights from walking interviews conducted with 29 participants from a range of social, economic and ethnic backgrounds who all live in one urban neighbourhood. We consider the significance of route, space and place in shaping networks and sociality, and reflect on the ways in which neighbourhood spaces act as both backdrop and enabler of everyday practices and extraordinary events.
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