Project 5: Mapping Madison’s Discourse Spaces

For our fifth project, we’ll use ethnographic research methods to study “naturally-occurring” language use in our local community.  From the point of view of most cultural anthropologists, “true” ethnography requires a depth and duration of study unavailable to us; we won’t claim that we’re doing such work.  Rather, we’ll be practicing research methods (qualitative, naturalistic, observational?) developed by ethnographers and anthropologists but put to our own purposes, namely, to take some snapshots, figurative and literal, of Madison-area literacy environments.

Our focus will be space; and, even with our limited time, we can learn a lot about how the different environments around us function as sites for reading, writing, talking, arguing, storytelling, listening – and learning to read, write, talk, argue, tell stories, and listen.  Your first task, then, will be to choose a site.  It can be anywhere in or around Madison.  It can be as small as a single room or as large as a neighborhood or a part of town.  It can be rural or urban, on campus or off.  It can be a private or a public place, open or closed, commercial or “free.”  It can be a coffee shop, a soccer field, a nightclub, a bowling alley, a park, a street corner, a community center, a church, a parking lot, an insurance office, a hospital waiting room, a shopping mall, an apartment complex, a block, a housing development, a public library.  It can even be virtual (a website, chat room), though if you look at a space on the internet, please choose one that has a local connection, that requires you to get out into the world around us at least for a bit.

After you choose a site, you will need to spend time there, at least 4-6 hours total over the next 3 weeks, in at least 2 separate visits.  Here are some questions to consider once you’re at your site: who is here? what kinds of people are they? what do they do here? what kinds of language do they use? who talks? what do they talk about? who is not here? what kinds of “literature” are available? are there smaller spaces within the larger space where different kinds of language occur? what kinds of contact occur here? are there rules, implicit or explicit, for language use? do they work? who polices them? what do people call this place? what kinds of language do they associate with it? what would you need to be a competent language user in this place? beliefs, clothes, dialects? finally, what lessons about language might one learn in this place? what lessons about language might one learn from this place?

Your primary methods will be participant observation, interviewing, and document collection.  You will be surprised how much you can learn from exhaustive description and observation.  I would also like for you to acquire or create at least one kind of visual representing your site: a photograph, map, drawing, floor plan.  And consider interviewing at least one person from and/or about this site (you need not record the interview).  Be sensitive, respectful, and careful – some spaces are public and crowded, and your “gaze” will not be noticed.  Other spaces are less public, less crowded, and you will attract attention and even suspicion.

You may do this project collaboratively if you wish – in pairs or small groups.  I’m not requiring a written report from this study, only an oral presentation of about 15-20 minutes, with your visual(s) and any (optional) handouts.  Those presentations will take place May 5 and at least one additional day/time to be announced.