Tom O'Dell, ethnography, Lund University
2009-2014

The objective of the project was to study what happens when a methodological concept and research strategy travels between different disciplines and fields. As part of this, we analyzed how the competencies of ethnography have become central skills in the cultural sciences as well as in this beyond the academy such as the worlds of business and art. And finally the project sought to use knowledge obtained from outside of the academy to help develop new methodological approaches to conducting (and understanding) ethnography within the academy, while simultaneously providing new theoretical insights into the significance played by such phenomena as cultural appropriation and translation. These were the original objectives of the project, and these remained the focus of the project throughout its existence.

The three most important results of the project:

1) The development of the concept or ethnography as a compositional practice.
2) The theoretical argumentation for the need to move from thinking in terms of ethnographic processes and outcomes as representations of culture and instead open for a multiplicity of modes for rending culture.
3) The expansion and development of a rich research network that includes artists and scholars working on applied cultural research spanning from Australia, England and the Nordic countries to the United States and Canada
By framing ethnography as a compositional process we are arguing against linear understandings of ethnography (ethnography as seen as a movement from a planning stage, leading to a stage of fieldwork ending in a write up). Ethnography as a compositional practice is also intended as a pedagogic move that emphasizes for students the need to move between methods, material, theory and analysis. It also emphasizes a larger appreciation of the role the senses and new digital technologies can play in gathering empirical materials. This moves us to the notion of rendering culture by which we argue for a need to better understand and theorize the manner in which ethnographic materials may be worked and rendered through a series of modalities and in ways that touch and inform different audiences in different ways. This includes an appreciation of text based ethnographies but even emphasizes the need to work with and explore other modalities of communication. Presentations and articles we have published have awoken a great interest in our work and rapidly drawn us into new research networks of people working with ethnography in applied contexts as well as researchers examining theoretical dimensions of ethnography. Contact with and involvement in these networks have been instrumental in facilitating the development of our theoretical thinking.

New research questions that have been generated through the project:

Our work with and efforts to theorize around processes of rendering culture as well as developing new methodological means to render culture, developed late in the project. An important question which has come out of this work is in what ways digital technologies and sensory methods can be used to create new experiences of culture that can speak to, engage, and produce new understandings of the cultural world around. In line with this we see a need to further problematize the outcome of ethnographies. Where George Marcus spoke of multi-sited ethnography he was primarily interested problematizing new modes of thinking about how materials might be brought into the research process. Our work in applied contexts has made us aware of a need to problematize the potential outputs of ethnographic works, framing this work in terms of new forms of "multi-targeted ethnography". This is a move that we mean should appreciate the different vernaculars of different audiences. Where texts may speak well to academic scholars, audio and visual renderings of culture might be used in ways to engage new publics beyond the academy, and the results of these engagements might be suitable as point of departure for new ethnographic renderings. In short, if ethnology is to expand on the manner in which it is understood to be "useful" in Swedish society today, we need to problematize and work with new means of presenting our results which include textual representations in some contexts, but other modal means communicating in other contexts to other audiences.

The project's international base:

The project has linked us into a wide network of applied cultural researchers working in North America. We have been asked to participate in publication projects as well as art exhibition as a result of our engagement in this expanding network. Parallel to our work in this RJ project we have written STINT applications and won funding for exchanges with colleagues at RMIT Melbourne, Australia. This work has led to a joint publication in the journal, Senses and Society which was published in the fall of 2013. We are currently working together with our Australian colleagues and a wider network of applied cultural researchers (based in the UK, Scandinavia, and USA) on a new anthology problematizing the manner in which Applied Research informs scholarly theory. 2012 we also initiated collaborations with scholars in Finland, particularly at Helsinki University, who are interested in methodological and theoretical development of the practices of ethnology. In short, an outcome of this project is reflected in the degree to which we have established many new contacts among leading applied and scholarly researchers in North America, Australia and Europe.

The spreading of research information beyond academia:

The project established a website and Facebook page entitled Ethnography North. These digital resources have been used to publish open access versions of work emanating from the project as well spreading information related to the project. The Facebook page functions as a node through which people interested in applied cultural analysis can communicate and share ideas. The Ethnography North homepage works in much the same way but is gearing up to help scholars from other universities spread their results on issues related to applied cultural analysis. A series of articles working in this direction was planned to start running during the fall of 2013. It will be online and running in early 2014. Information has also been spread in artistic circles by Willim's participation in a series of exhibitions including: Ethnographic Terminalia (Chicago 2013).

The project's two most important publications:
1) Irregular Ethnographies, thematic issue of Ethnologia Europaea
2) Transcription and the Senses: Cultural Analysis When It Entails More Than Words. In Senses and Society (8):3: 314-334.
The thematic, Irregular Ethnographies, volume pulled together innovative approaches to ethnography from leading scholars from Scandinavia, USA and the UK. The volume was edited by O'Dell and Willim and in addition to an introduction which they wrote included the text, "Composing Ethnography". The latter text, as well as the volume in general, has received a wide degree of attention and appreciation. Due to this volume both O'Dell and Willim have received numerous requests to present their works or act as keynote speakers at large international conferences. In a recent evaluation of the division of ethnology in Lund where O'Dell and Willim are employed, this volume was particularly lauded as a particularly important work pushing the field of European Ethnology forward. The Transcription and the Senses text was not published until November 2013, but earlier versions of the text have been used in methodological courses, and been much appreciated by students. Earlier versions and presentations of the text have also been praised as being innovative and thought provoking, by colleagues in the US, Australia, and Scandinavia.

The project's publication strategy:

The project has striven to publish results in highly regarded international journals and publication houses. A down side of this strategy is the very long time it can take to go from the submission of a text to its final publication. In the worst of cases this time frame has exceeded two years in length. The advantage is that it ensures that research emanating from the project reaches a large audience and has a much greater potential to be cited and recognized. In order to meet RJ's open access requirements we have in some cases published early versions of these works in Lund University's Digital Library Resources where they can be accessed by everyone through the internet. In some cases we have published, with the permission of the publisher in question, a PDF version of the article on Ethnography North, the homepage established by the project. Even though the project's funding ends as of December 31, 2013, there will be a series of new texts being published in the coming years that will acknowledge RJ as the research funder. These include conference papers and keynote speeches that are in the process of being written (or re-written into article form), and a final book that pulls together the ideas and empirical materials generated by the project.

Publications

http://ethnographynorth.net/