One of the things that I’ve thought over and questioned through my own research process is the discipline’s tendency towards not sharing any research data (speaking in the context of situations with the research participants have given permissions to the researcher to share data more widely and publically than academic publications). I’m curious in how that as a default practice developed in anthropology. In my own research, I’ve been challenged and compelled by my research participants to share and withhold certain information in ways that I sometimes did not expect (for example, certain topics to be much more contentious than others), and also in the way that photographs, videos, etc have served as helpful and at times, exciting, joy-inspiring, elicitation tools. In thinking of the future of anthropology, I am interested in how more broadly data sharing can have a similar effect on our research and data sharing practices as well as the role anthropologists can play beyond the avenues of academic publishing for a primarily academic, anthropology/social sciences audience.
One of the experiences that has stayed with me is coming across an example of a grant application where in the “data sharing and ethics” section the author described not sharing their data as a result of (something along the lines of) norms/standard practices in anthropology. That shaped my early interest in data sharing and questioning how that might look in my own project.
As I’ve gone through the IRB process as well as fieldwork & gathering/uploading archival materials, I’ve been concerned and questioning how to balance research participants/ willingness to share data, their priorities when it comes to privacy, with the institutional frameworks that exist for how that data can be shared, with who, through what bureaucratic processes, etc. In many ways, I think these processes don’t account for or are not designed to accommodate researchers for whom research sharing is a key practice and part of their research plan, and I’m not sure how that can be changed moving forward.
Most of my experience archiving has come from my dissertation project and gathering materials for the Urequio Infrastructure Archive. However, in answering this question I noticed that I’ve created informal archives for other aspects of my life and creative practices - such as creating private blogs for collecting found artifacts for writing, sewing, knitting, etc.
As an undergraduate student, I did some short term ethnographic research (over the course of about a month) in the form of interviews and participant observation. As a PhD student, I conducted preliminary ethnographic research in both Urequio and in Southern California before beginning my digital fieldwork in July 2021 which is currently ongoing.
At the moment, the archive doesn’t support collaboration as I’m still collecting artifacts for upload. Thus far, my research activities have been limited by the COVID-19 pandemic and I have not been conducting research in person; I do plan, however, on traveling to my fieldsites late this summer. I think that will enable me to take many original photos and videos and to collect more artifacts from research participants (many of whom have archives in their Urequio homes, including individuals who live in Southern California). I imagine it being a space for collaboration with other researchers and scholars working on issues related to water and infrastructure, as well as community members although of late, I’ve been thinking more of creating some sort of hard-copy object inspired by the archives to share with research participants who cannot access PECE.
Currently, the archive is public to view. However, there are some questions that need to be resolved around sharing photographs or videos of individuals who cannot consent to have their faces visible/public (for example, deceased individuals or individuals who appear in the background of photos/videos of public events who cannot be identified and/or it would not be possible to gain individual permissions as there are too many). One of the solutions that has been posed in consultation with UCI librarian is placing these images/photos in a separate area that’s password protected, and provide instructions for gaining access. It’s something that may perhaps be instituted down the road; for now, I have not uploaded the images/photos in question.
I have documented permissions using an IRB-approved form, although I am thinking through how that permission process might have to be modified to accommodate research participants with various levels of written literacy.
Release form: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11puy13aKLRLFx-fm0HcUwZDOnAOQMf3a/view?usp=sharing (also translated into Spanish)
Currently, it’s articulated in the following way on the archive PECE essay: “What are the ways to tell a community's infrastructural history? This section contains experimentations with the features of the PECE platform to communicate the histories of public goods infrastructure in Urequío.”
At the moment, the lead curator is myself, Gina Hakim ([email protected]). In the future, as I gather more materials, I can imagine this expanding as it connects to the work of other people working on infrastructure archives and community members.
I previously used analytics for the literature review in my documents to advance to candidacy; although I didn’t upload a large part of my notes to PECE, I can see the utility in the practice and I think I would do it differently next time. I also currently have the following analytic for analyzing my fieldnotes - https://disaster-sts-network.org/structured-analytics-questions-set/urequ%C3%ADola-fieldnotes