5 reasons why I'm doing collaborative research

From the start of my digital anthropology fieldwork, I wanted to take a collaborative approach. It was partly about immersing myself in the fieldsite. Most importantly, I wanted to give something back to the community I was writing about.

My dissertation is on the campaign to end raw sewage pollution, and in particular the layer of digital data that’s being created. Although I can see a lot of stuff online, I needed to get a deeper sense of what was happening on the ground. The first thing I did was organise a paddle-out for Surfers Against Sewage, but I also got involved with other organisations, including local campaign groups. 

When I first arrived in Hastings I met an old friend from the London tech community, Alfie Dennen. I told him about the paddle-out and he asked me why I was putting myself at the centre of my own ethnography. We discussed the challenges of fieldwork and the shift from traditional, objective anthropology to a more involved and reflective approach.

Here is Alfie’s interview with me:

Putting myself at the centre is one way of looking at it! Actually, I found it hard to write up the paddle-out ethnographically as I was so involved in making it happen. That’s me in the main photo (front centre right). I owe massive thanks to my good friend Barney Green (front centre left), as well as Amanda Jobson and Sue from Blue Response UK for stepping in as local co-organisers. I honestly could not have done it without them.  

Through the paddle-out I was able to build relationships with many amazing people who then invited me along to other events that they were involved with, and showed me aspects of the campaign and the situation through their eyes. 

Here are 5 things I wanted to do:

1. Connect people

I’m passionate about collaborative approaches. I got into the digital world relatively early because it was all about interactive and “two-way” communications and that seemed exciting. I’m part of the late nineties generation of tech utopians who still believed the internet was going to bring us together in hugely positive ways. When I started contracting in government it felt great to be working with ex GDS team members on user-centred projects because GDS always had a culture of making things open and encouraging collaborative behaviours. With Design Club, the focus again was collaborative – what does the user really want?

2. Learn from others

Now I’m doing a digital anthropology masters everything feels acutely political. And decolonising the syllabus and ethnography in general is a big thing. We’re unpicking culture back to the bare bones, questioning everything at a time when misinformation, disinformation, fake news and deep fakes have become part of everyday life. No-one can “know” everything. And people construct their own truth. When everyone is being served up their own algorithmic version of reality, we have to collaborate to stay sane. We have to build trust. And we have to accept that many historical “facts” are just one way of seeing the world. Anthropologist no longer go on fieldwork to cooly observe, it’s about learning from and engaging with others. 

3. Be more reflective

There’s no such thing as objectivity. We all have our own way of seeing things that comes from the culture we were born into and have experienced during our lives. Anthropologists call this positionality. But we should be aware of our position and be prepared to question and even challenge our views when confronted with a different perspective. Luckily, I don’t need to travel half way round the world to observe a group of people who are “different”. We’re all different. We’re all humanity. Discovery starts in our own backyard. 

4. Be less extractive

As soon as I heard about participatory action research, I knew that it was the type of approach I wanted to take. Participatory action research (PAR) is a collaborative research approach that involves communities in the research process. It’s about giving something back. It feels like a good thing. It’s less extractive. We’re all seeking to be less extractive, right? As well as organising the paddle-out I was keen to run a creative workshop with my good friend Karen McCarthy Woolf, exploring the poetics of water and thinking reflectively (ha!) about our relationship with water. Sadly we ran out of time. But at least I got copies of Seasonal Disturbances for my main interviewees.

5. Access support

This is a purely practical point! After I’d chosen my dissertation topic, I found out that UCL offers some great additional support for students working collaboratively with community organisations. I’ve been having regular chats with Molly and Clarissa from the Collaborative Research Initiative. I was even short-listed for a “commitment to co-produced research” award.  Dissertation research and writing can be an incredibly lonely process and it’s invaluable to have feedback and support from other students and former students who share similar experiences.

These five points are from the notes I made before my chat with Alfie. Have a listen to the interview to find out more!

Collaborative behaviour in organisations: key enablers and barriers