Rivkin-Fish’s Recommended Strategies: for Participating, Observing, Engaging Presented to the GMTW: focus on Russia Indiana University, 14-Sept, 2018

Formal Bureaucratic Hurdles: the IRB PLAN AHEAD! Get a copy of the form & questions necessary to address. Is there a local IRB in Russia relevant for you? If not, get a letter explaining. Consult with your local university colleagues about your IRB. Consider contacting your local IRB before preparing your application.

IRB: Bureaucratic Surveillance of Ethics What Ethical Dilemmas WILL --- MAY ---- COULD my project pose? Acknowledge these in your IRB application & describe your strategies for preventing them. Demonstrate your overriding commitment to upholding your professional ethics & the interests of your research subjects.

IRB- Informed Consent Process Informed Consent is always required WRITTEN Consent May be WAIVED Provide a justification for why written consent is not appropriate in your case An explanation of how you will alternatively ascertain consent or reluctance to participate is necessary A Written description of your study, given to your subjects, is useful

Receiving IRB Approval does not Guarantee Your Research or your Behavior is Ethical Anthropological Fieldwork = an iterative process, not bounded by the research; Ethical dilemmas that arise can be Unpredictable Power inequalities surpass the research framework Fieldwork relationships that become life-long relationships have ethical dimensions similar to all other relationships in our lives

Fieldwork: A Whole Life Immersion Do the Work of Building Relationships… ….With Continual Introspection Reflect carefully on your judgments about what you observe Try to learn how others evaluate the given situation & why their judgments differ from yours

Interviews are a Specific & Unusual Genre of Conversation Briggs, Charles, 1986. Learning How to Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research, Cambridge University Press Reflect on how this atypical mode of communication shapes the material produced, communicated, and learned

Jotting- Describing- Writing- Coding- Memoing- Producing an Ethnography Emerson, Fretz & Shaw 1995, 2011 How-To’s of Pursuing Community Members’ Meanings & Reflecting on Your Own Capturing Categories of Knowledge in Use

Fieldwork Encounters are Precious Gems in Soap Bubbles Events Accumulate & Details Get Forgotten Quickly; Capture Each Encounter in Detailed Descriptions ASAP

Strategic Use of “Passive & Assertive” Purposefulness Assertiveness: Seek out opportunities to meet, connect, listen Offer to help, volunteer, invite Passiveness: After explaining your goals, allow interlocutors who are inspired to recommend, take you, introduce you

Be Prepared for Delays, Rejection, Loneliness Undertaking Fieldwork can involve slow starts, facing closed doors, enduring loneliness, lack of routine, self-doubt Remember: Hurdles Can Often Become Important Data

Expect to be a Topic of Conversation! Being an American / Foreigner in Russia Will Arouse Responses Your Identity & Behavior will be Examined, Questioned, Judged; Use this Knowledge Purposefully, from Developing Rapport to Being True to Yourself Observe Your Observers: Their Responses Can Provide key Insights! Expect to be a Topic of Conversation!

Keep in Mind the Long History Preceding You July 1959: American Expo in Moscow

Seek Out Multiple Viewpoints to Understand Disturbing Situations Be Reflexive about Your Own Judgments Explore Justifications, Silences, Multiple Layers of Inequalities, Misrecognitions Take Time Before Coming to Final Conclusions

Participant-Observation-Engagement Seek out Voices & Perspectives that Often Go Unheard Maintain a Critical Perspective about the Partiality of All Perspectives Join together a Sense of Humility with your Personal, Political, & Ethical Commitments