Methods@Plymouth Emily Beaumont [email protected] A519 Portland Square Building

Methods@Plymouth

Emily [email protected]

A519 Portland Square Building

Researcher Respondent relationships and ethical concerns in ethnographic research on the Surfing

Subculture


Subculture

• Background to Study

• Locating a Local Surfer Community

• Collecting Data

• Researcher Respondent Relationships

• Ethical Concerns


Subculture

Background to Study

• Liverpool

• Loughborough

• MSc Dissertation– The Wannabe– The Soul Surfer– The Professional Surfer– The Local Surfer


Subculture

Background to Study• The Local Surfer- a lack of care for fashion,- a dislike for big and bright brand logos or names, - they are taught and encouraged by a male friend

or family member, - they live in close proximity and have a relationship

with their local waters, - they have a dislike of outsiders, - there is a social element to surfing, - they are self employed or in a business which supports their surfing,- they are part of a network of mutually supportive local business relations, - they have a dislike of the Wannabe surfing type and commercialism; - and finally they see surfing as a pursuit.

• PhD Study Begins• My Surfing Experience


Subculture

Locating a Local Surfer Community

• Family


Subculture

Collecting Data

• Methods– Participant Observation– Field Note Taking– Interviews


Subculture

Researcher Respondent Relationship and the Ethical Concerns

• Rachel and Jacob Matthews

Rachel: “[I] knew Jacob would not be happy to give up surf to sit around a dinner table”

Thompson (1999) noted that there were gendered divisions of labour in the home and on reflection of Finch’s (1983 cited in Thompson, 1999) work on clergymen, doctor’s, policeman, academics, diplomats and railway signal operators which suggested that a man’s work both structured his wife’s life and elicited her contribution to it, concluded that this could be said of a man’s leisure pursuit. In her work on Tennis players, Thompson’s subject Anthea worked the same hours as her husband yet took on domestic work in their home in order to support her husband’s participation in tennis.

Ethical Issue: Uneasy Observer


Subculture


• Wes and Ruth Deacon

Wes: “especially at Hessiock in the winter you get a lot of students out there which generally creates a little bit of animosity…we don’t like it, the locals

Wes: Cause they turn up with about fifty people

Ruth: Yeah

Wes: And they all crash at the same spot and like, its ridiculous

Ruth: and the next day a hundred more of them turn up because they’ve obviously like, the words got out

Wes: The word gets out doesn’t it somehow

Ruth: everyone’s quite rude about the students, oh it’s that bloody surf course again”


Subculture


• Wes and Ruth DeaconYi Fu Tuan (1977) considers crowding and notes that a sense of crowding can appear under a high variety of conditions and on different scales mostly depending on the culture of the people in question. It has already been stated how strong the Local Surfers relationship is with their local waters and therefore how protective the Local Surfer becomes. This produces a very isolated inaccessible culture and therefore the conditions for crowding will be apparent and crowding can occur on the intrusion of one person from another culture. Tuan (1977) notes that “we appreciate the company of our own kind” which gives reason to why a Local Surfer is more than happy to surf among other Local Surfers but why the Local Surfer is not thankful for the increased presence of the Wannabe.

Ethical Issue: Messenger


Subculture


• Wes and Ruth Deacon


Subculture

Researcher Respondent Relationship• Reg Davies and Tanya and Martin Heel

“Emily: The only other thing I've heard about was the Surf Club that’s the only other one I've heard of

Reg: Where did you hear about them?

Emily: Oh, just from the events, like the film, they had a film night one night.

Reg: yeah well that’s the very first time its happened...

Emily: Oh right ok

Reg: ...and it happened in adversity. Umm, I'm getting a lot of bad press on it and its annoying me a bit”


Subculture

Researcher Respondent Relationship• Reg Davies and Tanya and Martin Heel

“Martin: ...and uh...and he’s played parish council games, parish politics games for the last fifty, sixty years at least”

“Tanya: We wanted to make an announcement at the carnival and say that the raft race would definitely be on and we'll try and do our best to give you a barbeque, and he rushed over and grabbed hold of my arm and told me to 'shut up', right in my face... “

In their work on the Women’s Institute and the Young Farmers Clubs, Neal and Walters (2008) found that these organizations can have a strong hold on rural communities defining, shaping, reproducing and organizing local ceremonies, events, occasions, activities and traditions.

Ethical Issue: Pawn


Subculture

Questions?


Subculture

References

Neal, S., & Walters, S. (2008). Rural Be/Longing and Rural Social Organisations- Conviviality and Community-Making in the English Countryside. Sociology, 42(2), 279-297.

Rojek, C. (1995). Decentring Leisure. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Thompson, S. (1999). Mother's Taxi- Sport and Women's Labor. New York: State University of New York Press.

Tuan, Y.-F. (1977). Space and Place- The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Documents

Methods@Plymouth Emily Beaumont [email protected] A519 Portland Square Building