Colleagues from the Business School have organised a series of seminars on Visual Methods and Ethnography in Interdisciplinary Research, running from March to June, with prominent external speakers and internal colleagues invited to talk.
The aim of the series is to bring together various research projects and approaches with the objective of discussing the role and potential of visual and ethnographic methods in academic research across academic disciplines.
The third seminar in the series takes place at Craiglockhart on 8 May, with the following speakers:
Dr John Harvey, University of Nottingham
Network analysis and visualisation techniques to inform ethnographic and longitudinal research
Human interactions are increasingly mediated through technologies such as mobile phones and computers. The data trails these interactions leave behind are a rich source of potential information for the budding ethnographer. When human interactions can be observed en masse, a corresponding network of social relation data can be visualised. Though network analysis is typically associated with graph theory, an area of discrete mathematics, recent advances in network visualisation can help support interrogation of data through visual methods. This presentation will draw on empirical evidence taken from recent research into a food redistribution system (international), a prosocial exchange system (UK), and peer-to-peer mobile money system (Tanzania) to help illustrate the scope of network analysis to supplement traditional ethnographic methods.
Dr Andrew Kincaid, Edinburgh Napier University
Behind the Mask: Offering e-projectives as a methodological alternative
The need for innovation in marketing research is well recognised within the field. Recent calls have been made for fresh approaches to marketing research with some success as methodologies are adopted and adapted from other fields. This paper forwards the e-projectives methodology. Operating pre-consciously, rather than the cognitive level, the methodology has the potential to provide further insights into the ‘black box’.
We test this methodology in the notoriously difficult context of online betting; a sensitive activity where bettors have a propensity to be guarded and secretive. Gambling researchers identify the need for innovation as current techniques present acute limitations and/or ethical conundrums. Further, betting is an intently irrational activity which cannot be fully explained through enquiry at a conscious, cognitive level.
Within this paper, a detailed methodological account is presented; such guidance is currently lacking in marketing literature, especially with online distribution. Through empirical illustrations, we demonstrate validity with results comparable to analogous methods, and show the ability of e-projectives in delivering deeper insights.
Dr. Diane Maclean, Edinburgh Napier University
Murder in Paradise: Mediating Memory and Oral History of Historical Crime through Documentary Film
This paper uses two drama-documentaries made for the BBC that detailed two 19th century Highland murders, to investigate the role of film in mediating and ‘fixing’ memory of historical crime. The paper interrogates the aesthetic use of ruins, graveyards and places of isolation in the two drama-documentaries to illustrate memory testimony, and argues that their inclusion, often with a music soundtrack, heightens emotions and imposes an imagined reality on these memories that forever changes them.
By interrogating how drama-documentary film illustrates oral memories visually, and how the intervention and authorship of the filmmaker imposes a subjective ‘truth’ on the event, the paper considers the process by which narrative is constructed in films to the potential detriment of community memory. It does so by looking at commissioning restraints, production decisions around dramatising events, use of location, and editing choices.
The paper acknowledges the need for film to make use of memory sites for aesthetic and dramatic purposes, but considers how the act of using these sites in dramatic reconstruction mediates memory and therefore further considers how film and television have replaced the role that social groups had in constructing memory.
When: Wednesday 8 May, 2pm to 5 pm
Where: Room 2/17, Craiglockhart Campus
Cost: Free
For more information, and to book your slot at this event, click here. For catering purposes, register here by 1 May.
The next seminar in the series takes place on 5 June:
- Dr Terence Heng, University of Liverpool – Creating Visual Narratives in Social Science Research
- Dr Julia Fotheringham, Edinburgh Napier University – Talking with Students: Mr Potato head and Poker Chips