Site #3 (AKA The Glamourousness of Field Research)

(wow, I'm all done with my travels but very far behind on updating this! Sorry to you my dozen or so of readers)

Site number three is in Western New York.  I left Site #2 and came home to do laundry, restock some stuff, and then left again. I got to the site on Day 2 of the event which left Wednesday through Saturday for survey things.

I think this was my favorite camp set-up.  I'm back to the smaller tent, since the big tent got broken at the previous event.  While harder to get in and out of, there was more space under the 10x10 outside, so I could leave things out and give me a tad more floor space.  There were two 10x10s and then a large tarp over them, so I was extremely dry.   It was warm during the day, but night times got down to the 50s.  Chilly, yes, but also a welcome relief from the prior week.

This one ran a little differently, because there was no central location like a lodge to just leave the surveys.  Also, the program for the event was already printed well before the event (which is mostly unheard of for festivals to be that organized that early, kudos to them!). So, the management suggested posting signs on their various information boards, which I did, and a few other places as well....

A little light reading.

So, yes I went on my merry way around the entire campground placing announcements in EVERY porto-pottie. I also did for the flushies, but that's not nearly as funny a picture.  So all you students who think that fieldwork is so cool and stuff....

What I ended up putting on the announcement was that I would be at one of the food vendors after they closed after dinner for three hours and people could stop by then. And some did, but not nearly the throngs I had hoped.  I think I got about 10 or 12 there the whole week.  I also allowed I think three people to take them and they SWORE they would bring them back that week or mail them to me. Thus far from that group, only one has been mailed (which was one more than I pessimistically predicted, and I still don't like that a method of collection).

There's also this thing that happened....

Yes, that is my supercool camp kitchen, knocked over when the tapestry I had put up for shade, and stupidly clamped to it, became quite the sail in the really strong winds that came about on I think Friday.  Miraculously nothing was broken and I just had to redo some things.  The winds didn't let up, but everything stayed put. Unfortunately, the back leg of the 10x10 bore most of the brunt of the pressure from the wind and bent, making it impossible for me to take it down that Sunday.  I'm going to continue to pretend it was not the brand new one I had for like three weeks. :/

On many of these festivals, the culmination is a big bonfire on the final night.  Here are some pictures of that:

Management also requested I come back next year to share results and maybe organize a panel on similar research!  Yay for public sociology!

Research Site II...er, I

Greetings...

I'm trying to get caught up before I leave in a few days for the next round.

This is only Research Site II in that it was at a different time, but still the same location as Research Site 1.  They are coded as different events in the data set.  Here's a picture of Field Office II:

Of note, you can maybe tell the tent is a larger 10-person style cabin tent.  It is nicer than the other one, in that I can stand up and there's room for all my things. I even put my big utility table inside to put my duffel bag on.  You also can maybe see on the left the super cool Cabela's Deluxe Kitchen that was a total splurge two years ago (and can be seen in photos from there).  Even though I was on the meal plan, it was so much easier to make coffee in the morning and store some stuff in the cabinets than in just a tote. 

That's my index finger. No I am not flipping off the kids!

Although I am not specifically doing ethnography or participant observation, I did allow myself to make note of times and places to accomodate children.  Both this event and the preceding one had fully developed child and teen programming, with much of the children's events taking place at the location above. There was plenty of unstructured time, as well.  The area was fenced off to keep especially younger children from free-ranging, had shade from both the canopy and a number of large trees towards the back, and was well supplied with a large cooler for water. (I took this picture technically before the event started, so as to not accidentally take pictures of the children.)

I did arrive before the official start of the event, during another event that backed right up to this one.  The prior event was not Neo-Pagan in origin, but instead consisted of people gathering to greet a flying saucer to rescue them.  I had hoped to get there for the expected landing time (because you never know, right?) but I missed it by about 12 hours.  Because the saucer didn't come, they burned their "prophet," Bob, in effigy.  Lest you think this is some sort of Heaven's Gate off-shoot, nothing could be further from the truth.  The whole thing is very much tongue-in-cheek, and I suspect developed out of the 1960s counter-culture as a reason to get together and, um, "tune in, turn on, and drop out."  Something to think of for that other research project on UFO believers I keep talking about...

Anyway, I was a bit more "out there," and went to several of the workshops, including one that was all about family issues in Neo-Paganism. Still, this garnered only 10 completed surveys.  I did get to complete two interviews however, so that will save my time on that, later.  Until the next adventure....

Field Research Again!

Recall, the reason I started this blog was because certain students were concerned I would be ax-murdered while camping.

Therefore, I've started it up again, and will continue to let students know that I am not a victim of Jason, even though I will be tent-living on Friday the (July) 13th!  Eek!

I have updated the survey to take into account some errors from before that made thing unclear for folks, and to update the language a bit.  When asked about use of religious media, the original survey talks about radio and television. I added "blogs and podcasts" to match changes in media consumption, and to perhaps better reflect what the study population would interact with.  I thought about adding "mythology" to the items that asked about reading of scripture or religious texts, but as I look at the survey, I seem to have changed my mind about that. I have no idea why. (Note for students: This is why I tell you to keep track of these decisions. Definitely a "Do as I say and not as I do moment.")

I was only able to be at this site for 3 days (not including set up and tear down), so I could be home for Comfest. That undoubtedly cut into my survey time, however it saved me from the MAJOR storm that flattened a couple of sites on Thursday.  I ended up getting six usable surveys. (I had to discount a seventh that was filled out by an eleven-year-old.  It went into the shredder.)  Partly that is because I had to leave early, and more people were arriving as I left.  But I think also it just need an extroverted minion to go around and ask people to participate. A friend of mine from Marshall University brings graduate students to events such as this for research, and I am always a little envious of that.

Anyway, here are the pictures! 

The field office!

This was actually a First Quarter moon, but it didn't show up that way on my phone.

The festival was in celebration of the Summer Solstice, and this was the view on Solstice morning.  I'm sure the sun is there somewhere....

This beauty took up residence on my pop up.  I hated to mess it up, but I made sure it was the last thing I tore down.

Berkeley at last!

Very delayed getting this all up....bear with me!

Right before the end of the semester, I had the opportunity to present the research I've been talking about at the International Religion and Spirituality in Society conference, being held at Berkeley, CA. Students and other will probably recognizes this as being Holy Ground for me.  I forgot that I had submitted my GRE scores to graduate school here, but they were apparently not up to snuff. 

I have not as many pictures as I would like, but here are some.

Berkeley was basically ground zero for the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s. We wandered around and did get to see People's Park, or what has become of it. It's overgrown and is "home" to the many homeless people around the area, so not exactly for all anymore.  Those who have taken up residence there are protective of that.  Still, it was cool to see. There was an iconic bookstore at THE corner near the People's Park which had changed names, and was re-closed again.  Still, as seen by the bike racks, Berkeley embraces the history:

I also was able to go to the OTHER Holy Ground, Haight-Ashbury:

I think these are the original street signs, outside a Ben and Jerry's. 

In a lot of ways, both Berkeley and Haight-Ashbury are kind of familiar.  Telegraph Road in Berkeley reminds me a lot of OSU's High Street before Campus Partners came in and ruined it gentrified.  Both of them have a lot of shops that look like Comfest if it were permanently in place. 

THE Corner.

Jim and I at The Corner.

Jim spent a lot of time here.

There were all these sayings on the sidewalk. I only took one picture, to avoid looking more like a tourist than I was already.

We did also hit China Town, but not for as long as we would have liked.  It takes forever to get anywhere, even on the BART,

Oh ... and yes there was the presentation. Here is my photo taken by the spouse on the way to said presentation. It's really fuzzy because of the bright light.  Yes, that is a tie-die long vest I was wearing. Did I mention I was in Berkeley?

The conference was good, my presentation was okay. Note to students: There is a reason I tell you to triple check everything. There is nothing like noticing something is wrong when standing on front of 30 or so of your peers (even though they didn't likely notice).  I also got to meet Professor Dollahite, who's survey I'm adapting for my research. We didn't get to talk very much, as I had to leave on Wednesday.

As I was leaving my presentation this little guy was just sitting in his tree, watching all the people.  I had to take a picture for my dad.

Berkeley Squirrel!

 Finally, we were on our way back to the airport on Wednesday.  What you see in this picture is my failure to capture a SINGLE freeway sign that said 'SAN JOSE'

Now we'll never know the way.

Still relevant

Putting this here for later...UFO research is apparently NOT passe :)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-military-keeps-encountering-ufos-why-doesnt-the-pentagon-care/2018/03/09/242c125c-22ee-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?undefined=&utm_term=.1bde3811d9d3&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

Spring break plans!!

Let the good times roll!!!

Sampling

(Note for SOCL 3000 Spring 2018 members: I know I'm behind in posting these, and most of you will have the definitions posting already done for your next rough draft, so I'll skip that one I was planning to do, and get straight to sampling.)

The next task my students are going to have some experience working with is sampling, or how do we get people to participate, and how do we know that they isn't something unique about them?

In lots of cases, researchers can use what is called probability sampling, also known as random sampling, where everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected. While it's easy to do in theory, it is often not that easy on carrying it out. First you need to have a list of all eligible people in the population, so you can tell how many there are and how many to select.  This can be done, however for a lot of what sociologists study, it's not feasible.

Our students are (I think? We'll need to talk about it) studying Otterbein University students. We could get a list of all students, but then how are we defining students?  All enrolled students? Do we include part time and full time?  What about graduate and undergraduate?  Students who only enrolled this semester, or do we include those taking a semester off?  We could still do that, and we will see if students want to (past students will remember this and probably remember what their decision was, and why).   We typically start off with "Yes, let's do that!" but then once we start down that road, students change their mind to use one of the non-probability samples, usually some combination of convenience and quota sampling.

In my own research, there is no way to use probability sampling.  There is no way to get an appropriate sampling frame for either Neo-Pagans or UFO believers. So I will be using convenience and purposive sampling, which means having to go where one could find some Neo-Pagans and UFO believers. Hence, my sabbatical project going to Neo-Pagan festivals, and my eye on meeting times and dates for our local MUFON group (who takes their time updating their meeting dates on the web). In no way can either of these projects claim to be generalizable to all Neo-Pagans or all UFO believers; but that doesn't mean important information about religious socialization and impression management (the two sociological subjects of interest) can't be found.

Ethics, again

I previously posted ethical discussion about my projects here.  Sorry about the font color, I don't know what that's all about.

I don't really have much to add, for student-purposes.  The MUFON paper is looking more certain, as they moved their meetings to Westerville. It's like the universe is saying "Hey, research this! It's in your backyard!"  I will at some point have to think about how to do all that though.

With the Religion in Society paper, I do have an update.  It occurred to me that either at festivals or in the process of interviewing, I might have opportunity to observe parent/child interactions in terms of religiosity. So I contacted the chair of the IRB and we worked out an addendum to add to the original proposal for approval (which I received).  As my students know, children as subjects require extra special care.  To be honest, while I could have just included them later, ethics is not a situation of "beg forgiveness, not ask permission."   It is always better to have another set of eyes look at the situation and see if they see anything that you don't.  Remember the film Quiet Rage.  Dr. Zimbardo was blind to the ethical quagmire he was in.  Even though the IRB exists to protect the university from liability, it still serves that very important function of making sure we remain the ethical people we like to think we are.

(Although....I just did some nosing around, and he DID get approval from their Human Subjects Committee!) 

The Nexus of Theory and Research

Note: I don't know who all is following this, but lots of the next several posts are going to be those that are related to the prompts I am asking my students to journal.  '


We just ended the third week of classes and normally I'd feel pretty good about the pace of the semester, however, I was derailed by a fairly bad cold at the beginning of the week.  Next week should be better though, and hopefully I can get back on track for where I want to be with my classes then.

I'm also still fairly irked the the FBI has decided that keeping track of how many arrested individuals are male and how many are female is somehow not important after 86 years of record keeping...but whatever.

In research methods, we're discussing and thinking about the relationship between theory and research.  (Well, I am, anyway).  So, in applying that to my own projects right now, I'm seeing that talking about it in the abstract is not like doing it in the "real world" (which, likely, many of my students have already realized as well).

For "further along" project, I do not know what theory will best explain the results.  I am not well-versed on the types of theories that are prevalent in the sociology of religion, although thinking of the three major paradigms, I would imagine some type of either structural-functionalism or symbolic interactionism could be useful. Although, that may be premature; the research is almost strictly exploratory and descriptive.  It may be that I can use that to suggest future research of a more explanatory nature though.  Right now, the focus is developing what I call "theory-with-a-small-T." Are some denominations more actively religious than are others? Are families with children more or less religiously active than are families without children?  There may be other questions I decided to explore as well.  Perhaps from that, then, I can come up with my own "theory-with-a-capital-T," as in grounded theory, or the patterns are observed would follow what is predicted in an already developed theory.  For students, this is an example if inductive research.

For "new" project, I think this would best be classified as deductive research. Even though I started with a topic, my co-research and I immediately though of Goffman's theories of impression management and stigma (falling under the umbrella of the symbolic interactionist paradigm).  That has the benefits of providing readily available concepts to look for; however it can be somewhat restrictive. What if some things are discovered in the course of the research that don't fit neatly into that theory? Do we ignore them? Slightly revision the theory itself? Toss the theory away? All can and do happen in research. It just depends upon the best way to answer the research question.

New year, new class, new progress...new project?

The new school year started with a 2-hour delay due to weather.  That first week ended approximately 2-hours early, also due to weather.

I have a new batch of SOCL 3000 students (*waves hi*) to follow along, and hopefully the alumni who inspired me to start this are still hanging in there. Because I have new students that I'm practicing the art of research with, this will be a bit more regular in the postings.

First, an update on the neo-paganism and family religiosity paper.  It was accepted for presentation at the Religion in Society conference at UC Berkeley in San Francisco.  I'm going to try to not wear tie-dye the whole time, but cannot promise to go without flowers in my hair and be a complete hippy geek at the corner of Haight and Ashbury.

On that front, I will be finished entering the surveys I have so I can do some preliminary analysis.  I have started doing interviews and I will likely not have as many of those done, but that is okay. I am presenting it as a "working paper," so it doesn't have to be as final as most papers.

***********

For the new students, as always, I am trying to work along with them, so I've chosen to resurrect the research on something related to belief in UFOs.  I am not sure whether the alien abduction angle (which is where this idea started) is broad enough, so at this point, the planning stage, I'm going to broaden it out.  I find it interesting that this still is something that people do believe in, but I'm not sure why they do, and if they do, do they share that information with others, especially if they think they've seen a UFO or an alien, or even been abducted.

In thinking about this, it seems that some people may be more likely to have these beliefs than others.  I know women are more likely to believe in alternative spiritualities (from my other research) so may be they are more likely to believe in aliens too. I also know the stereotype of the 'drunk redneck' who sees the UFO, so I wonder if social class matters. There was also an article I found that suggested that political affiliation and religion matter too (Swami, Furnham, Haubner, Stieger, and Voracek 2009).  So those might all be variables I would want to look at.

If I had to make a prediction right now, I would probably guess that women, members of lower socioeconomic classes, politically liberal, and people who not religious would all be more likely to believe in aliens than would those who are not in these group.

REFERENCES

Swami, Viren, Adrian Furnham, Tanja Haubner, Stefan Stieger, and Martin Voracek.  2009.  "The Truth Is Out There: The Structure of Beliefs About Extraterrestrial Life Among Austrian and British Respondents." Journal of Social Psychology 149:29-43.