Research Methods and Ethnography
Open Collaborative Research with IBM, India Research Labs
Open Collaborative Research with IBM, India Research Labs
Introduction
This design project is about research methods and ethnography. This was in collaboration with IBM India Research Labs (IRL) under their Open Collaborative Research (OCR) program. Students from the disciplines of New Media Design and Strategic Design Management were grouped into teams of four and sent to various parts of the country for the project’s primary purpose of conducting an ethnographic field study.
The Research Brief
Studying the communication processes in rural India with respect to cell phones.
The Context
Most research is Positivist in nature. However, the Positivist stream of research has its limitations especially when the objective of the research is to understand meanings that human beings actively construct of the world through and in their interaction with it. These meanings and or “truths” influence human behaviour and interaction. The Phenomenological approach and its associated methods could be seen as a more relevant and useful way of discovering and conceptualizing group and or individual meanings.
The Location and the Community
My team and I were sent to the town of Mandvi, Kutch, Gujarat. We focused on the community of auto rickshaw drivers there.
The Methodology
Long Interviews and Participant Observations were the fundamental instruments used in this research. The team had two native speakers who could interact with the locals and two outsiders who could give a third-party perspective. I was one of the native speakers. The language of communication used to communicate was Gujarati.
Long Interviews
These consisted of using an interview guide that was drafted keeping in mind the research brief. The interview was taken with the local person who represented the community after a thorough rapport was developed between the community and us. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed. Following which these were coded for the categories and supporting evidence that emerged in course of the interview.
Participant Observations
Participant observations were detailed descriptions of the setting being observed. This included a narrative of the setting, the characters, the front-stage and back-stage activities and the inferences of the researcher.
Finally, all the data was collated and synthesized to get a wholesome understanding of the community with respect to the research brief. An excerpt from my report is given below:
“The respondent is a work oriented individual who respects his elders and shows a pride in his ancestral and familial businesses or work. Carrying out of rituals is deeply rooted in their community. The respondent has basic education and is adept at the native languages in the form of reading, writing and speaking. He is well acquainted with the cell phone and prefers texting more than talking over the phone. He has an exposure to a varied number of models of the cell phones he uses. He enjoys performing in social gatherings, specifically marriages as mentioned in the transcript.”
The main aim of such an exercise is to gain a larger picture of the user, aka the community we design for in context of the research question/brief.
The Team
Siddharth Mankad
Shubhra Bhatt
Nivedita Ganjoo
Shruti Poddar
Acknowledgements
Dr. Anand Sukumaran
Dr. Jignesh Khakhar
IBM India Research Labs
This design project is about research methods and ethnography. This was in collaboration with IBM India Research Labs (IRL) under their Open Collaborative Research (OCR) program. Students from the disciplines of New Media Design and Strategic Design Management were grouped into teams of four and sent to various parts of the country for the project’s primary purpose of conducting an ethnographic field study.
The Research Brief
Studying the communication processes in rural India with respect to cell phones.
The Context
Most research is Positivist in nature. However, the Positivist stream of research has its limitations especially when the objective of the research is to understand meanings that human beings actively construct of the world through and in their interaction with it. These meanings and or “truths” influence human behaviour and interaction. The Phenomenological approach and its associated methods could be seen as a more relevant and useful way of discovering and conceptualizing group and or individual meanings.
The Location and the Community
My team and I were sent to the town of Mandvi, Kutch, Gujarat. We focused on the community of auto rickshaw drivers there.
The Methodology
Long Interviews and Participant Observations were the fundamental instruments used in this research. The team had two native speakers who could interact with the locals and two outsiders who could give a third-party perspective. I was one of the native speakers. The language of communication used to communicate was Gujarati.
Long Interviews
These consisted of using an interview guide that was drafted keeping in mind the research brief. The interview was taken with the local person who represented the community after a thorough rapport was developed between the community and us. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed. Following which these were coded for the categories and supporting evidence that emerged in course of the interview.
Participant Observations
Participant observations were detailed descriptions of the setting being observed. This included a narrative of the setting, the characters, the front-stage and back-stage activities and the inferences of the researcher.
Finally, all the data was collated and synthesized to get a wholesome understanding of the community with respect to the research brief. An excerpt from my report is given below:
“The respondent is a work oriented individual who respects his elders and shows a pride in his ancestral and familial businesses or work. Carrying out of rituals is deeply rooted in their community. The respondent has basic education and is adept at the native languages in the form of reading, writing and speaking. He is well acquainted with the cell phone and prefers texting more than talking over the phone. He has an exposure to a varied number of models of the cell phones he uses. He enjoys performing in social gatherings, specifically marriages as mentioned in the transcript.”
The main aim of such an exercise is to gain a larger picture of the user, aka the community we design for in context of the research question/brief.
The Team
Siddharth Mankad
Shubhra Bhatt
Nivedita Ganjoo
Shruti Poddar
Acknowledgements
Dr. Anand Sukumaran
Dr. Jignesh Khakhar
IBM India Research Labs
