Page 40 - Tallinn University

Tallinna Ülikooli üliõpilaste 2015/2016. õppeaasta PARIMAD TEADUSTÖÖD / Artiklite kogumik HARIDUSTEADUSED On methOd
Drawing on the researches pertaining to individual agency by Niger Rapport (1995; 1997; 2004), I am promoting the perspective of approaching ‘identity’ as a manifestation of individual agency: a per- son’s desire to gain authorship over his/ her respective life projects; a constant re-creation of ‘culture’. In addition, inspired by the notions of “ exible attachment” and “ uid belonging” (Vertovec, 2001), I am also proposing an alternative view of understanding the notion of “home” as the formation of a desired social relations within the domestic environment, instead of the conventional perception of viewing it as a xed, stable, physical location. I write this thesis and in doing so embrace the incom- pleteness of it; to honour the multitude and complexity of my main informant and his family’s lifeway; to discard an analytical conclusion while focusing on the process of story telling. A er all, this thesis is more of a project of invitation — an invitation to academic discussions regarding the immigrant’s ever-changing identity, sense of home and life projects at large.
Inspired by Paul Stoller and Douglas Hollan, I chose person-centered ethnography as the approach of looking into immigrant’s construction of sel ood and sense of home. I agree with Hollan (2001,52) that, compared to standard ethnography — producing a cultural description that is analogous to tak- ing a aerial shot of community, person-centered ethnography “tells us what it is like to live there and what features are salient to its inhabitants” — an e ort that is made to represent the human behavior and subjective experience from the point of view of the acting, intending, and attentive subjects to actively explore the emotional saliency, and motivational force of cultural beliefs and symbols, rather than to assume such salience and force, and to avoid unnecessary reliance on overly abstract, experi- ence distanced construct.
Secondly, I chose a story-telling approach over an analytical text in re ecting and presenting my empirical ndings and the experiences which are related to these ndings. I draw on Cli ord and Mar- cus’s (1986) argument on why ethnographers should not pursue a “out there, pre-existing and xed ethnographic knowledge”. Instead, we should embrace the incompleteness of ethnography. Incom- plete, yet completing. Just as those life stories we intend to narrate.
Last but not the least, I approached the experiential materials I acquired during the participant obser- vation with great emotional investment — as Michael Jackson (1996) once suggested — focusing on “lived complexity of experience”. I concur that with Jackson that a phenomenology-guided research protest against the uni ed, stable and all-encompassing knowledge. Hence I hope, by involving my feelings and sentiments in the story-telling, I could truly give voice to Mr. Cheng and his family.
the telling Of their StOrieS
In the rst chapter, I delimited the semantic scopes of the terminologies utilized in this ethnography. For instance, “authenticity”, “belonging”, “home” and “identity”. Furthermore, I exposed my personal dispositions and positioning as a researcher in the eldwork site. I re ected upon how I found my key informant and why I decide to have a person-centered ethnography instead of reaching out to a broader demographic; and on my own subjectivity when collecting and approaching the experience of living with the family for roughly two months.
In the second chapter, the utmost attention and analytical e ort was assigned to a portrait of Cheng
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