While I do not want to over-extend the use of this diagram, I have found it useful to develop my plan for the PhD using it. Each point on the diagram represents a different aspect in fieldwork as follows:
The process of fieldwork has people at its core where the ethnographic encounter seeks to understand social relations in how people engage with the world around them. This world I have separated into four key elements which the people related to and move through: The site or place where the fieldwork takes place, a commonality or shared interest that links the people together, the activities that the people do together and the fieldworker tried to participate in, and the objects or non-human agents that play an active role in the lives of the people.
The anthropologist, as they spend time in the field, move through and with these different elements, as part of the participative observation. They identify problems aspects about the group of people which they would like to understand better or learn how these problems are worked through among this particular group of people. The anthropologist also develops their own theories or develops an understanding of the group of people’s theories to understand how they engage with each other and deal with the various problems. These theories are likely to build on existing anthropological theory around kinship, exchange, gender, colonialism, spirituality, agency and so on. The problems and theories might relate to any aspect of the four key elements and are revealed through the reflections on how the group of people interact with each other and make sense of their world.
Let me know if you have any observations on this - it is V2 after a very useful discussion with fellow PhD students
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