Topic: Practice for my Cross Country trip

[Gregg]

Use HIpk to streamline your process. Multiple interviews from a scene with 2-3 leaders and 50+ active traceurs will seriously chew up your time, and theirs.

Metaphor from old time role playing games:
D&D took an hour or so to make up your character, just the basics and equip him. It was a drag. Then you had to decide on appearance, personality, etc. Then you'd play for a couple hours, and your character would die.

Teenagers From Outer Space took a couple minutes to decide whether you wanted to be human, or alien [A walking fire hydrant? Sure, no problem!] 6 quick rolls for your stats [strong, dumb, a little homely], a couple quick rolls for your powers [ooh! breathes fire?], some skills [sneak +2, vault stuff +1]. Choose 3 traits to describe your character's personality/ general actions [sneaky, likes to scare dogs, very nearsighted] Spend a little allowance [sunglasses, breath spray, an mp3 player...] and you were ready to play. Then you had time to embellish, if you wanted...

Sure it's a cartoon, but you got more useful information in 1/6 the time, had fun doing it, and had way more time to actually PLAY. And I could get GIRLS to play it, not just nerd girls. Bonus

[turtlekarma]

Use HIpk to streamline your process. Multiple interviews from a scene with 2-3 leaders and 50+ active traceurs will seriously chew up your time, and theirs.

Metaphor from old time role playing games:
D&D took an hour or so to make up your character, just the basics and equip him. It was a drag. Then you had to decide on appearance, personality, etc. Then you'd play for a couple hours, and your character would die.

Teenagers From Outer Space took a couple minutes to decide whether you wanted to be human, or alien [A walking fire hydrant? Sure, no problem!] 6 quick rolls for your stats [strong, dumb, a little homely], a couple quick rolls for your powers [ooh! breathes fire?], some skills [sneak +2, vault stuff +1]. Choose 3 traits to describe your character's personality/ general actions [sneaky, likes to scare dogs, very nearsighted] Spend a little allowance [sunglasses, breath spray, an mp3 player...] and you were ready to play. Then you had time to embellish, if you wanted...

Sure it's a cartoon, but you got more useful information in 1/6 the time, had fun doing it, and had way more time to actually PLAY. And I could get GIRLS to play it, not just nerd girls. Bonus

yeah good point...i'm thinking about shadowing (follow around for a day) alongside an interview or two.  you're right though, i cant get everyone multiple times and stay within a 2 week time frame per community.  That's why I'm either going to .....

1.  pick 3-4 consistent members of community (depending on size) to comment on other parts of it that I don't have time to talk to. 
2.  Talk to as many people as possible a single time and hopefully patterns will arise that i can make inferences on

The reason why I'm not asking questions online is because qualitative research methods litterateur says I have a better chance of people being honest with me if I do it in person, plus people are usually more willing to share if I'm an actual person to them rather then some random entity from the internet.  You gregg however are an exception, I would be willing to talk with you because we've built a "relationship" online...and you don't really have anything to gain by painting yourself in too good of a picture, cause you've already shared so much about yourself it wouldn't add up if you said something too good to be true about yourself.   

You bring up a topic that's been worrying me however...Time, what if the community I'm observing doesn't have enough time to talk to me?  My funds aren't unlimited and I don't want to a inconsiderate guest, but I do have to get stuff done in a timely manner.  It's starting to make me thing a country wide tour isn't thesible if I actually want to do a good job.  what do I do if I can't meet the people I want to talk with in the time I have allotted to stay in the community?  idk....maybe it's better to do this in sections.  Maybe 3-4 states at a time, idk i'll have to rethink this whole process.

[Gregg]

Got a couple ideas - will PM you.

[turtlekarma]

I've been rethinking my research methods...ethics...or whatever you want to call it.  After reading a Tengan http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/People/Faculty/Tengan/pdfs/tengan_2005.pdf article for about the 4th time in my academic career, I've started to understand the implications of his views of including the people/phenomena you research in the research design, application, and eventual presentation...rather then just have everything from a researchers perspective.   

So dealing with involving you guys in my research design, I did post before asking you guys and gals what kinds of questions you wanted to have answered...no one really responded.  Well I've started doing interviews and I find myself wondering if I'm getting info that would be relevant to you guys about individual traceurs/ses backgrounds...excluding pk...that comes next.  These are the area's that I'm focusing on when I'm interviewing people.
1. History of Movement and perception of these experiences
2. Social Groups drawn to from childhood until now, and why
3. Occupational History
4. Familial Relationships
5. Geographic Location where have been, why
6. Spiritual/Religious Beliefs
7. Basic Demographics
8. Personal Development (personality)
9. Non-movement activities Drawn too

I've been recently thinking that getting a snapshot of romantic relationships and how people I'm interviewing approach them might be interesting to look at...do you guys think that kind of info is relevant at all?  Also, how would you guys feel about me interviewing your parents of a close friend who has watched you develop with and without PK and might provide a second opinion to flesh out further details? 

[Gregg]

I understand he was writing for anthropologists, an academic society. I'm struggling to translate the article to English. When I finish, I'll comment on it.

[Gregg]

Is anthropology "racist and colonial"? Not in theory - it's the study of people, especially their culture.
In practice, a lot of walls get put up between people.

Tengan said he wanted to give power to the people by involving them in the entire process. He did in the early stages. He showed his rough drafts, and asked for feedback. He asked, "What outcomes and final products do you want to come from this?" But he didn't do those things. He just finished his dissertation.

In any culture you're going to run into conflicts. There have been conflicts in HIpk Maui. HIpk Oahu is bigger, and more active, so more conflicts. Then you've got the US scene, the UK scene, the French scene [20+ years of history there] 

The stories [and community] come from conflicts and how they were resolved [if they have been]. These range from personal [overcoming vertigo, fear, injuries], interpersonal [Ji and her mom], ideas [parkour "efficiency" vs freerunning "expression", competition], and so on...

There's probably enough at HIpk to keep you busy for years, if you wanted.

Don't bother being the "Trickster" or the observer. Involve yourself in the entire process, too. If you want honesty, give honesty. If you want respect, give it. Want openness? Be open.

Who are you? What are some of your stories?

[turtlekarma]

Is anthropology "racist and colonial"? Not in theory - it's the study of people, especially their culture.
In practice, a lot of walls get put up between people.

Tengan said he wanted to give power to the people by involving them in the entire process. He did in the early stages. He showed his rough drafts, and asked for feedback. He asked, "What outcomes and final products do you want to come from this?" But he didn't do those things. He just finished his dissertation.

In any culture you're going to run into conflicts. There have been conflicts in HIpk Maui. HIpk Oahu is bigger, and more active, so more conflicts. Then you've got the US scene, the UK scene, the French scene [20+ years of history there] 

The stories [and community] come from conflicts and how they were resolved [if they have been]. These range from personal [overcoming vertigo, fear, injuries], interpersonal [Ji and her mom], ideas [parkour "efficiency" vs freerunning "expression", competition], and so on...

There's probably enough at HIpk to keep you busy for years, if you wanted.

Don't bother being the "Trickster" or the observer. Involve yourself in the entire process, too. If you want honesty, give honesty. If you want respect, give it. Want openness? Be open.

Who are you? What are some of your stories?

yeah historically Anthro has been a power for racism and justifications for negatives of colonialism...taking power, natural resources, and a general sense of self identity away from the people they study.  Hence IRB's...and a general sense of mistrust from indigenous people who've been wronged in the past by the school. 

Tengan is an example of how good intentions aren't enough...the process of research should be inclusive and the main beneficiaries should be the people studied..that's the message that I got from the piece.

OKAY....LOVE FEEDBACK ON STORIES PART...I had to use caps because that's the kind of stuff I've been wracking my brain on how to put into my research.

as for my own stories and who I am, I'm struggling with that concept of how I fit in as a researcher and part of the population that I'm researching...I want to include myself in the picture, but at the same time my job is to not change the dynamics of the environment, so as to get as realistic picture as possible. But then again I could argue, just by the fact that I'm doing the research and that I'm actually apart of the community that these are things that I are important to include for consideration into community dynamics.  blah idk, still thinking and thinking and thinking about it.

[Gregg]

That's the problem. You're thinking "researcher/ subjects" where the researcher comes in as a stranger, asks all the questions, then leaves with a bunch of answers and writes up his conclusions in a dissertation.

I'm suggesting you turn it sideways. Come in as a relative, sit down with the family, and talk story. Share a couple sentences as an example of what you're looking for. "This is me. Who are you?" Then listen and ask questions. "Here's a short story of HIpk. What are your stories?"

You tell your hiking Nu'uanu story. I tell you my hiking Kanaio story. We laugh at how stupid we were, and the whole group learns from the process. Hopefully.

"Did you pray when you were writing your dissertation?" That's one thing that was wrong with Tengan. He went to Hale Mua, but I get the feeling that he mostly stayed in observer mode. I'm sure he sparred, and probably participated in ritual. He didn't take the lessons to heart, tho. He watched "Punia" but didn't get to know him until after he'd offended him.

So instead of interviewing me, let's share stories, in this thread or in Talk Story. No worries. I'll be right back...

[Gregg]

Huge text wall, really belongs in Talk Story, so I'll put it there.