Feedback to Hope's Response

Hope's Challenge Question Response: http://hayforfour.blogspot.com/2008/11/response-to-challenge-question.html

Hi Hope,

Nice response, I enjoyed your thoughtfulness and depth of detail!

I was interested by what I perceived as your overall attitude that you had to be in “research mode” in order to get information that you could use for your project. This came out in comments such as the ones concerning your car rides to the sessions, where you noted that what was said was “conversation among friends and not research”, and the potlucks where you do not ask “research questions”. In some of Titon's articles, I got the idea that he had a very loose view of the boundary between friend and researcher. His friends knew that he was an ethnomusicologist, so in many respects he felt free to include any observations from his musical interactions with them (though I'm sure that he asked permission where relevant). Anyway, do you think that you've been approaching the field work as a dichotomy between the “fun” part and the “serious” part? You noted that in the beginning you didn't talk about your project all that much and that in the future you would like to keep playing with the group. There must be unique difficulties involved when you are starting to get involved in a group from two points of view at the same time: both as an academic observer and a future participant. This situation seems to be somewhat unique to you in this class; as far as I can remember no one else is intending to continue participating in their group after the project is over (though I may have forgotten someone, I apologize if I have). Do you think that your desire to continue playing with the group has caused you to act differently than if you felt that you would never see any of the people again after the completion of your project?

I like you comments about the difficulty of taking fieldnotes—I believe we've all been wrestling with this issue, and Barz's article on the different kinds of fieldnotes, headnotes, and the such was definitely helpful in thinking about it.

It sounds like you're learning a lot and that your subjects are also enjoying the project, which is awesome! Keep up the good work.

Best,
Joe