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GTD- Anthropology style

28 Feb

In case you’re not savvy, GTD stands for getting things done and the concept is rather self-explanatory. I would go so far as to say it’s a popular trend and it seems to be based off of a book by David Allen. While I haven’t read the book, I am a big fan of productivity and efficiency.

I feel like one of my strengths is my ability to draw connections where others might not see them. That’s a rather bold statement for me, but I’ve been told by many others I have that trait, and let’s face it, that’s what social science trains you to do.

So, I’d like to share some of the GTD concepts I’ve gathered through my anthropological training.

Theory. Strong training in anthropological theory, or any theory for that matter, helps to make situations easier to approach and evaluate. While learning the theory isn’t easy for most, it helps later in life- trust me. As an example: I struggled with the dilemma “do you chose a client and then the focus OR the focus and then the client?” for about a year. I’m concerned about this because my practicum (thesis) is staring me in the face even though it’s at least a year away. Enter Singer’s Community-Centered Praxis (1994). Singer suggests that researchers should let the community chose their own focus in their research (there’s more to it than that). While I might not adopt his approach, it could answer my question if I want it to. Point is, others’ have come before you and made similar mistakes- do your literature review: follow their led or at least learn from their mistakes. Let theory guide your decisions because it may help to make them easier and thus quicker to make. Also, let it guide your analysis, there’s a million different ways to interpret things. My approach is a hodge-podge ranging from Nader to Singer to Bourdieu to Foucault at this point.. but that’s OK.

Literature reviews. While they just might be one of the dullest and most time consuming aspects of research- they’re vital. Unless you want to test for validity or reliability there really is not much sense in re-doing what was done correctly (emphasis on correctly!) the first time. And this saves you time in the end. It will also save you time by not having to defend your work to those more knowledgeable than you. At the AAA this past year, there was a session where it quickly became evident to a lot of the attendees that the group had not done their (literature) research. It may take that group a lot of time to repair their image now and I’m sure they’ve spent a fair amount of time (beyond that day) defending themselves.
Now of course, this is all subjective. In the vast field of medical anthro it might not be as easy to do a thorough lit review and/or there may not be over-arching agreed upon theories. But on this particular day the design anthropologists in the room showed the importance of lit reviews.

Organizing your files. After reading LeCompte and Schensul’s Analyzing & Interpreting Ethnographic Data last semester, I was inspired to organize the files on my computer. There’s a section in the book about organizing field data and while it’s helpful, I think you have to learn that by experience. What I got out of the book was the importance of organizing my own personal files on my computer. I do this for two reasons: it makes referencing things quicker and easier and it gives me practice for when I have to manage field data.

My personal files are organized by steps in the research process so that when I do a research project I can reference the materials I’ve collected and chosen as great along the way. I hope that this will save me the hassle of having to re-find the things I’ve read in school and I’ll probably have a pretty good database by the time I graduate. If an article assigned in class is good- I put it into my “research file” and I also try to tag it on del.icio.us if I can. I also have a benefit from my classes being online because all class discussions and lessons are electronic- if they’re good, I can save them and file them away.

My “research folder” consists of:
*Lit reviews= instructions on how to do an abstracts, etc
*Research HowTo- data collection methods, IRB examples, Informed consent examples, etc
*Analysis- tutorials in atlas.ti, spss, coding instructions, etc
*Transcription- linguist transcription keys, tutorials, software, etc
*Ethics- AAA guide, certifications, etc
*Writing- style guides, etc
*ToRead- articles that I’ve enjoyed, etc
*My Abstracts- I’ve written in courses that I think I’ll use again

I’m actually trying out yep software, it’s $34 (free trial) and is for OSX. It’s a document database that allows for tagging, or “coding” if you will, so I’m tagging sections of documents for easy future reference. I’ll post a review when I’ve had some more experience with it.

People skills. As anthropologists, we learn the art of establishing rapport. I see this as being helpful in “non-research settings” because we learn better people skills. But you can also use “real life” to strengthen your rapport building skills. You can also read a few (non-anthro) books about the subject strengthening your people skills and apply that to field work. It applies in research and life- two birds with one stone.

If I think of more tips- I’ll post a part II. If you have some tips- please share!

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A few reasons why attending anthro conferences is important for undergrads

30 Jan

Earlier today I was writing a paper for my Thought & Praxis course. I had to use Metta Baba’s The Fifth Subdiscipline: Anthropological Practice and the Future of Anthropology (1994 Human Organization 53(2)). The article is about the relationship, or lack thereof, between “practicing” anthropologists and “applied” & academic anthropologists. She presents some reasons why this relationship is the way it is and some of the affects of it on the entire discipline. While reading this article it reminded me of a presentation that Baba did in Sante Fe at the 2005 meeting of the SFAA. There she spoke about “hybrid” anthropologists and the pro’s and con’s of identifying as an anthropologist and as a member of another discipline.

I went to the SFAA meeting in Sante Fe because Linda Whiteford was encouraging all of her students to make the trip. In 2005 Dr. Whiteford was the president of the society and USF’s very own Gil Kushner was being honored with the Sol Tax award. I made the trip because it seemed like an excellent excuse to go to Sante Fe.

When I arrived at the conference, I wasn’t really sure what to attend. I had only been a student in anthropology for a year and my interests had not really developed. The only thing I knew at that point was that I did NOT want to go into academia and that I liked business anthropology, well I thought I liked business anthropology- I hadn’t really learned too much about it at that point because no one in my department was interested in it. I picked the first session I attended because Dr. Whiteford was presenting- I didn’t know who the “celebrity” anthropologists were and who I should see. This happens to be the very first time I got to see Metta Baba speak. More importantly- the focus of the session was practicing anthropologists. It just so happened that most of the speakers at the session either were working in the private sector or had experience in it at some point. The session really had an impact on me, obviously if I can still recall it, because it was the first time I had heard or seen anthropologists that were not academic and some had a focus in business. Because I loved that session so much, I was enthusiastic to attend another session later that day where some other “business” anthropologists spoke. That day I saw four of the six (or so) anthropologists that I still follow, look up to, inspired by, speak and I didn’t even realize who they were. They all influenced my decision to set my goals as becoming a “practicing” anthropologist in the private sector- and it was all because of their presentations. I’ve since had the great pleasure of meeting all four of the women face-to-face at other conferences and chit-chatting with them for a few minutes. Each time I see them, I think to myself, “you have no idea how much you’ve influenced me”.

So what does this have to do with undergraduates attending conferences?
*Conferences are a very easy way to get exposure to topics that are outside of your department’s focus.
*If you take good notes, you can reference them in future papers, discussions
*You may get a chance to see someone you really admire- on the way back to the airport after the conference, I shared a taxi with Gil Kushner. He was with a few other USF people and I got the chance to talk to him.
*You’ll have a chance to network (post on this in the works)

Do Mavens Hang Out on Del.icio.us?

11 Jun

While I was reading The Tipping Point, I began to wonder where we may find Connectors, Mavens & Salemen on the Internet.

Almost instantly I thought of del.icio.us. This is a social bookmarking site that allows users to tag links under what ever they see fit, i.e. prgramming, anthropology, books, etc. You can than view your own tags or you can search what others have tagged under that catergory or what others have tagged the same link as. It really is a neat site.

The Mavens on del.icio.us are the people that tag a lot of different sites and tag a lot of sites under the same tags. Kerim over at Keywords and Savage Minds served as my Maven of choice when I first found del.icio.us over a year ago. He tagged a lot f things I was interested in and tagged often, so I subscribed to his account through RSS and followed him around until I learned my own way around. In fact, I emailed Kerim to ask him if he would mind that I use his account as an example and in true Maven fashion, he replied with an of course not and included a link to an article about Folksonomy and del.icio.us that he had written awhile ago. Mavens are here to help and want to help.

Why do Mavens hang out on Del.icio.us? I believe for some it’s accidental. Del.icio.us is a wonderful tool for keeping track of articles, sites, blogs that you are interested in. If you tag a lot for yourself in order to keep track of things, you may become a Maven. People tag links that they find interesting or useful. If your profile is public, than you are sharing all of the links you like with others.

But who are the Mavens on this site? Top Taggers makes it very easy to seek them out. This site tracks who is tagging the most under different tags. My boyfriend’s del.icio.us is in the top 25 taggers almost consistently on this site. He started tagging to keep track of the interesting things he came across on his 300+ blogs he reads everyday. He has quite a few people in his network that have linked to him as one of thier favorites. He didn’t know he was in the top taggers until a year after he was using his account. My account is ranked in the 6000s. Interestingly enough, Joshua, the creator of del.icio.us is listed as the 500th (or so) top tagger on this site.

The Big Butt-Out

13 May

Quebec is following suit in passing anti-smoking laws in public places. This is a relatively new phenomenon that is sweeping the globe. At the SFAA conference, a lot of the smokers I spoke with were from all over America and Europe, and they all told me of these cessation laws that were affecting them either recently or currently.

I was contacted by Marion Scott of the Montreal Gazette last week for an interview she was doing for the Big Butt-Out series in the paper. She was focusing on the social aspects of smokers. The article ran in today’s Gazette and can be found here .

The paper I wrote about the subculture of smokers can be found here.

Justification of Smokers as a Subculture

26 Mar

Well, I’ve decided to change things up a bit from my original “plan of attack” with my blog.
I want to start with some research that I did as an undergraduate at USF for Dr. Messing’s Language and Culture course last Spring.
My reasoning for presenting my research earlier than expected is that I will be attending the Anthropological Contributions to International Smoking Cessation: Project Quit Tobacco International, on Friday and I believe that I will have a lot to say about it.

I’d like to start off with a two disclaimers: First, I am not an advocate of smoking- I think it is a horrible habit and would love to see everyone successfully quit (including myself). Second, I am a smoker, so this could be seen as emic research. It also could be seen as critics as subjective research. This idea could be another post in itself, and most likely will be. I’m a post-modernist, in that I believe most (I won’t be so bold as to say all) social science research is subjective. I’ve done my best to be as objective as I can be, however, this was my first serious research project and I am young and inexperienced.

The title of my article as it was posted in the USF Journal of Undergraduate Research, Conjure Volume 1 Issue 2 Fall 2005 is Justification of Smokers as a Subculture Established through Linguistic Analysis and Participant Observation.

Here is a brief synopsis of my research thus far (the entire article will be posted in the “extended entry” section below).

Obviously, I believe that smokers make up a subculture (in America) and here is some of my reasoning:

Smokers have non-verbal ques of communication, i.e. when the last smoker of a group finishes the group will tend to disperse from the spot and this is a cue that non-smokers in the group will not pick up on.

Smokers have a focal vocabulary, which can be understood or known by non-smokers, but almost all smokers I have spoken to will understand. i.e. “bumming” a cigarette or cigarette karma.

Another aspect of the subculture: Smoking as a social tool:

Smokers can use “smoke breaks” as ways of breaking off (or away from) a larger group or task to talk alone.

Smokers use smoking as a way to occupy themselves when alone.

Smokers can use smoking as a segue into other’s conversation.

Smokers appear to not like to smoke alone and will congregate with other smokers that are strangers, thereby, having “safety in numbers” and people to talk to.

Smokers are a stigmatized group in America. It appears to be acceptable to walk up to someone and tell them that smoking will kill them, whereas it would be completely unacceptable to walk up to an obese person who is eating a bag of Doritos and tell them that junk food will kill them (I know that may seem harsh- but it is the quintessential example). I believe that smokers tend to feel safety in numbers and comfortable around non-smokers because they are with others that are not judging them for it.

AND my last comment and my favorite aspect of this research (perhaps a potential thesis?) is that constraints enforced by society, i.e. no smoking laws, appear to enforce smokers being a subculture. The no smoking laws passed in Florida made it unlawful to smoke in most buildings, and as a result ashtrays were placed outside and near most entrances of buildings. Smokers tend to smoke around these ashtrays, perhaps because of the convenience of it. It is in this confined and created space that smokers will interact with each other, maybe eventually plan to meet. If it was not for this confined space, smokers may not be encouraged to be in the same place and may not create a bond with another.

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