FIELDWORK
WHAT IS THE MEANING AND USE OF THE QUAD IN CONTEMPORARY OXFORD COLLEGES?
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To begin by operationalizing the question at hand we created a diagram suggesting various terms, conditions, specific areas, cultural implications and historical meanings. By doing this we are able to assess a more focused understanding of the boundaries within the question. Form our preliminary research we are able to define various methods of collecting ethnographic data that is suitable to the task at hand. Our approach was
one of a geographically semiotic understanding across varying cultures and perspectives with reference to what people feel and think about the oxford college quad. We intend to not just focus on the modern context but compare this with the historical nature of the quad to see how the ‘meaning’ of the quad has changes over the decades and where it will possibly go in the future.
Staff
Fellows
Business/ Conference use
Tourist Visitors
Students
Locals who don’t study at Oxford University
Exclusive/Elitist
Alumni People
Tradition
Right of Passage Monastery Heritage/ Origin
Intensive to Study
Religious
“Use”
“Meaning”
Pride
Sacred
Journey
Sentiment Right of Passage
Status Symbolize
What is the meaning and the use of the Oxford College Quad in contemporary Oxford
Daylight in Buildings
Architectural
Compare Arne Jacobsen’s St Catherine College with older colleges
Or other small spaces “Contemporary”
“Quad” Still in use
Compare current use to historical use Permission Strict in Various Colleges...Only some?
Are any Oxford Quads now in Private hands?
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Look into old institutions in America that are similar to Oxford University, e.g. Yale, Harvard and analyse if phenomenal are not geographical.
Specify on colleges where you are not allowed to walk on grass? Or a percentage of both?
OPERATIONALIZING ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH Data Collection Methods: Methods being used
Purpose
Target
Procedures for data collection
Data Content
Observation
Record situations as the happen. Record the meanings. of these events at the time for study group partisipation
Activities Events and sequences Settings, participation structures Behaviours of people and groups Conversations Interactions
Written or taped field notes. Written or taped records of informal interviews and conversations. Video records. Photographs. Maps. Observational checklist’s.
Depiction of: - Physical settings - Acts - Activities - Interaction patterns - Meanings - beliefs - Emotions
Population/Sample Survey
Determine variations in attitudes, knowledge, perceptions, demographic informations, and behaviour of study population. Obtain limited information from many people
A large group A representative sample drawn from a large group
Self-administrated questionnaires. Structured interviews.
Quantifiable or qualitative measure of change from time 1 to time 2 (and beyond)
Ethnographic Interviews
In-depth information on the selected topics. Personal histories. Cultural knowledge and beliefs. Descriptions of practices.
Representative individuals. Key informants or topic experts
In-depth interviews: - Unstructured. - Semi-structured. - Elicitation techniques. (including vignettes or dilemmas)
Answer to open0ended questions. Responses to elicitation materials.
Spatial Mapping
Obtain data on the ways in which cultural data varies across spatial units
Representative samples of target groups, institutions, or material culture.
Individual and group interviews on cultural variables and their local in space. Observation of the location of events, institutions, and material culture.
Geocoded responses to surveys. Counts of use. Spatiality located qualitative or quantitative units for mapping.
(Table extracted from “Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research” by LeCompte, M., & Schensul, J pp. 128,129)
By using these varying techniques of research the data listed in the table above we should have a sufficient amount of data collected from multiple sources and varying perspectives to create an acceptably triangulated judgment on what the meaning of the college quad is. By triangulating we are able to overcome the various misunderstandings or misinterpretations when
dealing with other cultural perspectives and historical evidence. There is also the possibility to further extend our triangulating method by comparing and contrasting our collected data with different data that analyses college squares around the world such as in Yale and Harvard University in the United States.
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