The Last Stretch to the PhD during the COVID-19 Pandemic

26.10.202006.02.2023 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ Leave a comment

From November 23, Greater Manchester moved to the local COVID alert level 3 due to the increased infection rate. This information reached me via e-mail as part of the news feed from the University of Manchester, where I am doing my PhD in Sociology. What does it mean for students? We cannot socialise with people from other households in public places. We can neither accept guests at home and in private gardens nor visit other people at their home. But in fact, it means that if you are an international student, you are very likely to continue living in isolation. If you would like to meet friends in person, the only option for you is to walk with them in the park social distancing. Although the rainy Mancunian weather does not permit this much. If you do not want to break the rules, you can merely hang out remotely.

In such a context, I am entering the last stretch to the PhD, which is the most difficult one, as my local friend with a doctoral degree says. In this post, I reflect some challenges, which I face at the final stage of the thesis writing under the local lockdown in Manchester. I explain how I attempt to meet these challenges.

The lack of proper rest

One of the problems, which PhD students with funding face, is that the studentship will run out one day. In my view, it is better to complete your thesis by that moment or at least not shortly afterwards. I know some people will disagree with me saying that it is better to spend more time in the PhD to build a solid CV and improve a publication record.

Well, it depends on your life situation, personal goals and your programme. For example, anthropologists spend at least one year in the field, and it takes more time for them to complete a PhD. It also depends on what academic profile you already have and at what stage of your professional path you are. Bearing this in mind, I worked hard throughout the whole summer and autumn trying to improve the chapters, which I drafted during my third year.

Another problem at this stage is that you need to start applying for jobs or/and elaborate your postdoctoral project if your goal is to continue working in academia. Apart from this, you may need to write some other texts, for example, journal articles, and do a side job in teaching, research or somewhere else. As for me, I entirely focused on improving the thesis draft and preparing an application for the postdoctoral fellowship. I also applied for several jobs. The purpose of this activity was to understand what was happening with the academic labour market during the pandemic and gain experience in applying for positions of different types.

As a result, I did not have enough time for proper rest and sufficient breaks.

Possible solutions

Under the local lockdown, you do not have many opportunities to take proper rest. For me, sunbathing on the lawn with the neighbours in summer and regular walks in the park in autumn was the best solution to this problem. It helped me to keep my mind off the work and the laptop screen. I enjoyed walking, observing squirrels, greeting people accurately social distancing, and breathing in the smell of trees in the park. However, it will be more difficult to make in late autumn.

Sometimes, I visited a neighbourhood café with a garden, where I enjoyed chatting with a barista, drinking coffee or having lunch in the open air. I know that some students save money and prefer eating at home. I can do nothing with this habit. It cheers me up and increases my productivity. If you find it problematic to go out in the lockdown, you can make a proper meal for yourself and have it watching a good movie.© Photo by the author

Continue reading “The Last Stretch to the PhD during the COVID-19 Pandemic” →

Как собрать данные в полевом качественном исследовании / How to Collect Data in Qualitative Field Research

29.07.202025.11.2021 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ Leave a comment

Наше учебное пособие в соавторстве с Елизаветой Полухиной и Анной Стрельниковой “Как собрать данные в полевом качественном исследовании” вышло в Издательском доме Высшей школы экономики. Пособие содержит информацию о качественных методах сбора эмпирических данных, которые мы применяли в наших совместных проектах последних лет. Книга приглашает читателя к размышлению о методологическом инструментарии и вносит вклад в дискуссию о том, как исследователи могут решать методические проблемы, возникающие в ходе полевой работы.

Ссылка: А. В. Ваньке, Е. В. Полухина, А. В. Стрельникова. Как собрать данные в полевом качественном исследовании. М.: Изд. дом Высшей школы экономики, 2020.

Our handbook in co-authorship with Elizaveta Polukhina and Anna Strelnikova ‘How to collect data in qualitative field research’ has been published by The Higher School of Economics Publishing House. The handbook provides information about qualitative methods of data collection that we applied in our team projects in recent years. The book invites the reader to reflect on methodological tools and contributes to the debate on how researchers can solve some methods issues emerging during fieldwork.

You can download Chapter 1 (in Russian) by following the link: Designing Qualitative Field Research.

Reference: Vanke, A., Polukhina, E., Strelnikova, A. (2020). Kak sobrat’ dannye v polevom kachestvennom issledovanii [How To Collect Data in Qualitative Field Research]. Moscow: The Higher School of Economics Publishing House. (In Russian).

Surviving the 3rd Year of the PhD: Or, How to Become a ‘Structure of Feeling’ Part 2

16.06.202007.07.2021 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ 2 Comments

This is Part 2 of the post about my experience of writing PhD at the University of Manchester. You can read Part 1 here.

In the mid of January 2020, when I was coming back from Moscow to Manchester, some people in Europe already knew about the coronavirus from the news. However, most of them neither worried about it nor took it seriously. As for me, I was in reading research literature for my next empirical chapter.

Spring Semester: Stay Safe, Take Care and Write Thesis

Got back from winter break, I started writing chapter 5 on living life in two industrial neighbourhoods, where I undertook ethnography. In the chapter, I tried to explain the peculiarities of the spatial imaginary of Russian workers and other neighbourhoods’ residents with the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘a sense of place’ and Raymond Williams’ concept of ‘structure of feeling’. It took me three weeks to draft that chapter. Later, I spent three weeks more to improve it for the annual review 2020.

In February, most people from my network still did not worry about COVID-19, apart from my friend, a PhD student from China, who told me the news about the coronavirus, when I came back to the office. In the mid of February, I received feedback from my supervisory team. And then a new UCU strike began at 74 Universities across the UK. The strike lasted until March. Needless to say that striking was a very emotional (and emotionally tiring) experience. I presented my PhD research at the Sociology teach-outs. At the same time, I was mainly focused on writing the thesis. However, even a brief experience of taking part in collective actions was intellectually insightful for me and helped me to formulate my critical arguments.

Sociology teach-outs during the UCU strike, the University of Manchester Students’ Union, February 2020 © Photo by the author

In chapter 4 on my research approach and methodology, I criticized those scholars who studied a working-class movement in Russia in the 1990s and argued that Russian workers were ‘patient’ (for example, see: Ashwin, 1999), capable only for survival and not for proactive actions. After the UCU strikes, it became clear for me that those scholars looked at Russian workers from the ‘Western’ perspective of strong trade unions with a long-standing history. While in Russia, independent trade unions began to emerge at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. However, in Russia workers were involved in everyday struggle of different forms ranging from everyday resistance to open protests (and it also happened in the Soviet era (for example, see: Piskunov, 2017)). Probably, I will move this critique to chapter 3 about the Russian context which was written as a literature review for the annual review 2018. I spent three weeks for drafting chapter 4 and sent it to my supervisors in the mid of March. In a week, a lockdown happened in the UK.

Life under Lockdown: Stay Home, Save Lives

It is really hard to describe my experience of living life under lockdown. Talking to friends and colleagues from the academic community via Zoom, Skype, Facebook and other messengers, I realized that University people employed three strategies of coping with lockdowns in different parts of the globe. Some academics said that they ‘just ignore it’ meaning that they did not worry about the news and death toll and continued working as usual. Some others tried dealing with their worries work-wise. The rest (and it was my case) could not be focused on work at all.

My window view, March 2020 © Photo by the author

In the first weeks of lockdown, I was very stressed and could not write the next chapter supposed to be about the theoretical framework. I tried making myself to read books on theory, which I found at home. Fortunately, I borrowed some of them from the University library before its closure due to COVID-19. However, it was hard to be focused even on reading. I worried about my family and beloved ones in Russia. Also, all flights between countries were stopped. And there were some delays in delivering food at the beginning of the UK lockdown if you buy it online. These altogether added more stress. I had a feeling that I had to survive, even though it was not true. I am aware that there are a lot of people who suffered much more than me. In my case, it was more about emotional survival.

I felt that my emotional resource was close to run out and I sought professional assistance from the therapist who helped me to cope with anxiety. I was in contact with my relatives and friends, and my supervisory team was very supportive at that time. In the mid of April, I came back to writing and managed to draft theoretical chapter 2, which of course still needs to be improved. While I stayed at home, I tried to pay attention to my body, soul and health. It may sound very Foucauldian. Anyway, I established a daily routine: waking up at 6.30 am and going to bed at 10 pm, doing yoga, cooking healthy food and going out to the courtyard to breath fresh air. I aired out the rooms regularly and kept them clean. Having one walk a day near the house building I got to know my neighbours better.

A neighbour’s cat in their one walk a day, April 2020 © Photo by the author

At the same time, staying at home was a cultural experience for me. Here, I do not romanticize lockdown at all. In March, I subscribed to webpages of the museums, art galleries, theatres, and philharmonics opened online access to their cultural resources. Their wonderful streams helped me to cope with anxiety. I am very thankful to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Belvedere Museum Vienna, and many others for broadcasting their cultural events.

During lockdown, I finished reading The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante, the final book of the Neapolitan quartet, a series of novels telling the story of a friendship between two women who grew up in a working-class neighbourhood on the edge of Naples and had absolutely different life trajectories. The Neapolitan quartet gets the reader involved in a complicated relationship between two women and their relationships with other people of different backgrounds from their neighbourhood and other parts of Italy. It has your attention from the beginning to the end. I thought that I might borrow some literary forms from Ferrante’s novel and use them in my thesis. But then I realized that I need my ethnographic style.

Returning to the question about a ‘structure of feeling’

In the 3^rd year, I was too focused on my doctoral research. To take my mind off it, I bought water-mixable oil paints and started painting whatever I saw around in Manchester and its surroundings. I never painted before and viewed this activity only as a hobby. Staying at home for a long time I painted my window view representing structures of feeling of Northern England. That’s how I tried to reflect in visual arts what structure of feeling was. One of my friends said that structure of feeling was ‘that historical atmosphere of being that can’t fully be explored retroactively’. In this piece of text, I tried to grasp that historical atmosphere, in which I have been writing my PhD.

Surviving the 3rd Year of the PhD: Or, How to Become a ‘Structure of Feeling’ Part 1

15.06.202016.06.2020 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ 1 Comment

After two months of the coronavirus lockdown, Britain is slowly coming back to ‘normal’ life. In Manchester, cafés and non-essential shops reopen their doors to customers. People go out and gather together though social distancing, taking sanitary measures, and wearing facemasks. Meanwhile, I submitted my documents for the annual review 2020. It is time to look back over the 3^rd year of my PhD at the University of Manchester, full of intellectual insights but also of diverse feelings and experiences against the background of big events, which will go into history.

Autumn Semester: Eat, Pray, Love Write, Teach, Strike

The autumn semester started well and did not show any sign of trouble.

On the 1^st of September 2019, I was ready to begin writing the first, actually the final, empirical chapter of my thesis. I know it might sound strange but my supervisory team advised me to begin with that final chapter 7 looking at different forms of everyday struggle of workers and subordinate classes in Russia. I established a writing routine and spent two months for drafting the text. I was mainly struggling with how to formulate the arguments out of ethnographic data. For me, it turned out to be easy to write but hard to put rich ethnography in one chapter still waiting for a good summary.

Writing the first page of my thesis, September 2019 © Photo by the author

After that, I decided to follow a logical sequence in telling the story and spent the following two months for drafting the next, actually the previous, empirical chapter dedicated to everyday inequalities, which workers experienced daily in Russian industrial neighbourhoods. Chapter 6 on everyday inequalities and social imaginary was more consistent. I tried to inscribe theoretical concepts into the empirical analysis. However, building bridges between Russian data and ‘Western’ theories was not an easy task for me. Alongside this, I assisted my supervisor in her course on the everyday understanding of inequalities which broadened my knowledge in inequality studies.

The University Place, October 2019 © Photo by the author

The final lectures of the course were planned to be on how people protest inequalities and make sense of them. Due to the UCU* eight-day strike supported by 60 Universities across the UK, those lectures were cancelled. Instead, together with the University staff and students, we were protesting against unfair pensions in academia, gender and race pay gap, short-term contracts, underpayment and workload of early career researchers and graduate teaching assistants. In parallel to the strike, I was finishing chapter 6, while some of my peers were canvassing for the Labour Party before the General Elections.

The UCU strike at the University of Manchester, November 2019 © Photo by the author

I remember the day before the elections we were drinking in a pub with PhD students and somebody said that tomorrow we would wake up in socialism. The semester finished with the loss of Jeremy Corbin. Boris Johnson became the Prime Minister. For Britain, leaving the EU became an inevitable future. Many people in academia felt disappointed and thought that Brexit was the worst thing could happen. At that time, no one had ever heard about COVID-19.

Winter Break: Be Happy and Read Novels

Packing my suitcase with Christmas presents, I managed to squeeze a novel, which I borrowed from the university library and went to Russia. I was happy to spend a winter break in Moscow with my family, meet up with friends and colleagues, and visit a couple of art exhibitions.

During the Christmas holidays, I had more time for reading for pleasure. That’s how I turned to Border Country, the novel I brought with me in the suitcase. The novel opens with the return of Matthew Price, a university lecturer in London, to the Welsh village of Glynmawr, when his father, a signalman at the railway station, has a stroke. The book impressed me deeply by the imaginative depiction of the country, its landscapes and sceneries combining rural and industrial elements in the local infrastructure. After finishing it, I began to understand better what ‘structure of feeling’ meant.

The book from the University of Manchester Library © Photo by the author

Amazingly, the book from the library, the third impression of the novel published in 1978, contained the signature on its title page. I am still thinking whether it could be that I was holding in my hands the copy of the book signed by its author, Raymond Williams.

In the mid of January, when I was leaving Moscow for Manchester, some people in Europe already knew about the coronavirus from the news. However, most of them neither worried about it nor took it seriously. As for me, I was in reading research literature for my next empirical chapter.

To be continued…

*UCU is an abbreviation for the University and College Union, the official trade union supporting University workers across the UK.

2nd year of the PhD: facing new challenges

30.06.201901.07.2019 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ Leave a comment

Some people say that the 2^nd year is the most exciting and easiest stage of the full PhD process. On the one hand, I agree with this, because at this point you know what you should do exactly and it is still far to write the whole thesis. On the other hand, each PGR student has its own path depending on her/his research project, so you never know what challenges may arise at this stage. During my 2^nd year of the PhD in Sociology at the University of Manchester, I completed fieldwork, analyzed most of the empirical data, and gained teaching experience. I decided not to make these things all together and spent several months for each of these activities separately.

Teaching

In September 2018, I came back to Manchester from the 2^nd field trip to Russia and as a teaching assistant joined two courses, Media, Culture & Society and Researching Culture & Society, given at the University of Manchester. Before the PhD I had already taught in Moscow Universities. However, as far as British and Russian systems of higher education differ, there was something new for me to learn. New teaching assistants have to take introductory courses explaining, for example, how to protect confidential information about students, how to solve a problem of cultural diversity in the classroom, how to assess students’ records and give feedback, etc. Only after the completion of these introductory courses you are allowed to start teaching.

The Whitworth Building of the University of Manchester. Photo by Alexandrina Vanke

From October to December 2018, I gave seminars (called tutorials at the University of Manchester) in four groups, in two for each of the course. There were approx. 10 students in each group. It took me two-three days of preparation, and one day of teaching. Normally teaching assistants should read the required and additional literature for tutorials (up to 10 positions for one tutorial) and facilitate a discussion in the classroom. Lecturers prepare questions for the discussion beforehand. You may be creative and add something else but a seminar has already a structure though. The things you are required to do is to help students to get answers to the questions based on the reading and support them in critical debating the issues formulated by the lecturer.

By the mid-autumn, each student had to submit a written work on one of the topics proposed by the lecturer and based on the recommended reading. For me, the assessment of students’ essays was the most time-consuming part of teaching. It was absolutely different from the assessment process I used to do in Russian Unis. At the University of Manchester, you should estimate an essay on a 100-point scale and explain in detail (i.e. to write feedback), why you gave a particular mark to a student. In addition, you should assess different elements of each essay on a 10-point scale, e.g. creativity, methodology, originality, critical reflection, arguments, etc.

The campus of the University of Manchester. Photo by Alexandrina Vanke

At the time of teaching, I spent one-two days in the working week for my PhD research and sometimes weekends. In spite of new challenges, it was really great for me to change the activity: to switch from fieldwork to teaching. In addition, I got to know some new approaches from the course Media, Culture & Society, which I may use in PhD, and broadened knowledge in qualitative research methods thanks to the course Researching Culture & Society. At the beginning of December 2018, I went to Boston to present PhD research at the Annual Conference of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. After coming back to Manchester I gave the final class and in the next couple of days headed to Moscow to undertake the final phase of fieldwork.

Fieldwork

The research design of my PhD project ‘Working-class life and struggle in post-Soviet Russia’ is based on the approach of multi-sited ethnography and involved collecting ethnographic data in two localities. Fieldwork took place in two field sites and was split into three phases. By the end of the 1^st year of the PhD (read more: here), I had two field trips to Yekaterinburg and Moscow and collected most of the empirical data in two industrial neighbourhoods located in these two cities. After the 2^nd field trip, I formulated some new suggestions, which needed to be supported by additional empirical data.

To check the provisional arguments, I decided to undertake the 3^rd phase of fieldwork in Moscow between December 2018 and January 2019. During this final field trip, I came back to the examined Moscow neighbourhood and conducted some more interviews with its residents. However, this phase aimed at researching the experiences of workers who took part in trade union activity. As far as this winter field trip coincided with long New Year celebrations in Russia, it was quite problematic to arrange meetings with potential participants. If people agreed for the interviews, our talks were long and occurred in a warm and relaxing atmosphere, sometimes over tea at the participant’s place.

An announcement of my presentation at the colloquium. Made by Francisca Ortiz Ruiz

In February 2019, I finished collecting data and came back to Manchester being ready to move onto the next stage of data analysis. Finally, my database consisted of 53 ethnographic interviews, 155 pages of field notes, more than 550 photographs and other visual data. I was invited to present the PhD project at the PGR colloquium organized by my peers from Sociology. The process of preparation for the colloquium allowed me to build a more or less coherent visual narrative with sociological ethnography and to see that I had enough empirics for putting a puzzle together.

Data analysis

The spring semester of the 2^nd year was fully dedicated to work with empirical data. First of all, interview transcripts needed anonymization and creation of an anonymization log with records about places data, which was removed or replaced by pseudonyms. I changed the names of research participants, and the names of their relatives and friends mentioned in interviews, the names of neighbourhoods, streets, and other recognizable spots, numbers of schools and house buildings, etc.

My desk in the office of the Department of Sociology. Photo by Alexandrina Vanke

At the next stage, from March to July 2019, I coded all anonymized interview transcripts in NVivo 12 software. Before coding my supervisors advised me to choose three absolutely different interviews from the data set – I chose one interview from each of three fieldwork phases – and to create the initial codes, which changed slightly in the following process of coding. At the beginning, the codes looked a bit unstructured, but later I restructured them and generated child codes related to the key categories. On the one hand, the process of coding was routine and monotonous. On the other hand, coding in NVivo helped me to structure ethnographic data and create a detailed hierarchy of codes, which consists of more than 670 items now.

I generated some codes ‘bottom-up’ from empirical data and some codes ‘top-down’ by keeping in mind theory. Now it is clear that coding in NVivo was the first step toward bridging empirical data with theory, theory with empirical data in my PhD research. Emotions were also there. While rereading interviews, I was sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing. Well, the everyday life of workers in Russia is really hard, but there is also a place for humour and resilience.

Presenting PhD research at the BSA conference. Photo by Francisca Ortiz Ruiz

In April I presented the intermediated results of data analysis at the Annual Conference of the British Sociological Association which took place in Glasgow. May and June were fully spent on preparing a field report and other research documents for the annual review. In the field report, I tried to write a sociological ethnography – which was not easy for me – and figured out how the empirical chapters of the thesis may look like. At the end of the 2^nd year of the PhD I presented the field report at the annual review. The reviewer gave me insightful feedback on empirical research and helpful advice on the theoretical framework. Inspired by the stimulating discussion at the annual review, I am looking forward to moving onto the next stage and starting writing the thesis.

Первый год PhD. Как это было?

30.08.201831.08.2018 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ 1 Comment

Первый год моего обучения на программе PhD по социологии в Манчестерском университете подошел к концу. Каким он был для меня? И как проходит обучение в английской аспирантуре? Постараюсь рассказать об этом.

Первое, с чем сталкивается PhD студент, приезжающий на учебу из другой страны, – это поиск жилья, улаживание бытовых проблем и знакомство с локальной инфраструктурой. На решение этих вопросов может потребоваться немало времени. Одним словом, первые месяцы уходят на адаптацию к жизни в новой среде. Лично у меня этот процесс занял два месяца. Параллельно с этим начинается посещение обязательных занятий в университете и взаимодействие с научными руководителями.

В первые два месяца мои научные руководители давали мне задания на написание коротких текстов, которые мы вместе разбирали на консультациях. Они заключались в том, чтобы прописать возможные стратегии исследования, сформулировать проблему, наметить теоретическую рамку. Однажды я получила задание нарисовать план-карту моего проекта с темой, ключевыми понятиями, исследовательскими вопросами, возможными вариантами мест сбора данных.

Whitworth Hall Манчестерского университета

Наряду с выполнением заданий моих научных руководителей, я посещала занятия по академическому письму, развивая навыки написания научных текстов на английском. На первый взгляд может показаться, что писать по-английски просто, но когда сталкиваешься с созданием научного текста, то понимаешь, что это определенный жанр, требующий специфических навыков. Эти навыки заключаются в умении четко обосновывать свою позицию, распознавать аргументы других авторов и полемизировать с ними. Английское академическое письмо строится на силе аргумента.

Приобретению навыков строить аргументы способствует и обязательное для PhD студентов чтение научной литературы, которую условно можно разделить на три вида: классическая, новейшая, методологическая. При работе с научной литературой мне помогло составление конспекта и выписывание основных тезисов разных авторов, работающих в моей области.

Кампус Манчестерского университета

После того, как мне удалось изучить необходимую литературу, я приступила к написанию литературного обзора, разработке исследовательского инструментария и составлению заявки на этическую комиссию. Этический комитет факультета или университета дает разрешение на проведение полевых работ. Последующие месяцы были посвящены более плотной работе над обзором литературы, обсуждению исследовательского дизайна с научными руководителями, созданию плана полевых работ, доработке текста обзора и укреплению аргументов.

В последних числах апреля у меня состоялась защита проекта, после чего начался этап полевых работ. 1-я фаза сбора данных проходила в Екатеринбурге, а 2-я фаза – в Москве. За год мне удалось развить навыки академического письма, расширить знания по современной литературе, познакомиться с рядом исследовательских методик, узнать, как устроен университет в Англии, и составить представление о ландшафте британской социологии. В целом, мой опыт прохождения первого года аспирантуры убедил меня в том, что PhD – это сложно, но в то же время интересно. Второй год обещает быть не менее насыщенным.

Образы и пространства: весенняя школа по Public History

21.05.201522.05.2015 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ Leave a comment

16-17 мая в Московской высшей школе социальных и экономических наук, попросту именуемой Шанинкой, прошла весенняя школа по публичной истории, вольной слушательницей которой мне посчастливилось стать совершенно случайно. Следует отметить, что география участников школы была весьма широка и протянулась от Новосибирска до Кишинева, что можно считать большим успехом.

И, несмотря на свою профессиональную идентификацию с социологией, я, как и другие участники, принадлежащие к различным дисциплинам, начиная с истории и заканчивая культурологией, чувствовала себя приятно в компании начинающих и опытных исследователей разных взглядов и возрастов, которые занимаются изучением публичной сферы и осмыслением донесения гуманитарного знания до широкой общественности.

Теперь подробнее о структуре и подходах. Программа включала в себя лекционную часть, проектную и дискуссионную, что позволило совместить разные способы говорения об истории в обществе и взять за основу диалогичность. Режим вопрос-ответ в рамках лекций, коллективные обсуждения в ходе проектной работы и диалоги во время дискуссий, которые разворачивались подобно перекидыванию теннисного мячика, позволили создать широкую и свободную для входа дискуссионную площадку, на которой собралось порядка пятидесяти человек.

Лекционная программа сплошь и рядом пестрела учеными, активистами и журналистами, одним словом, людьми, которые выполняют в обществе функцию культурных посредников, осуществляя перевод исторического знания в популярную форму – перенося его из мира академии в мир широких аудиторий и обратно. Поэтому неудивительно, что в ходе выступлений можно было услышать такие словосочетания, как «нарративизация прошлого в медиа», «история в СМИ», «настоящее прошлого в документалистике» и другие.

Наряду с маститыми и известными лекторами участники школы смогли познакомиться с работами выпускников магистерской программы по публичной истории, занимающихся разными темами от нарративов советских пионерских журналов до истории в музейном пространстве. И таким образом была показана публичная история в действии.

Если задаться вопросом о том, что же удалось вынести из весенней школы, то я бы на него ответила так. Во-первых, множественность определений публичной истории, которые предложили участники. Если свести их воедино, то публичную историю можно понимать, с одной стороны, как нарративы о прошлом, ориентированные на массовое потребление, с другой стороны, как область гуманитарной науки, изучающей то, как нарративы о прошлом становятся частью массового потребления. И, наконец, Public History можно воспринимать как выстраивание диалогического моста между профессиональными историками, находящимися, по словам Артема Кравченко, в башне из слоновой кости, и обществом, состоящим из разнообразных публик.

Во-вторых, школа предоставила возможность еще раз увидеться и обменяться мыслями с коллегами из других городов, с которыми мы ведем совместные проекты, и познакомиться с исследователями, с которыми нас связывают общие интересы, жизненные установки и отношение к критическому знанию. И, в-третьих, атмосфера весенней школы, созданная организаторами и участниками, доставила радость от продуктивного общения, обмена знаниями и эмоциями, которые порождают низовые связи между людьми и образуют сообщества.

Летняя Школа 2015. Центр полевых исследований

24.04.201524.04.2015 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ Leave a comment

В 2015 году Центр полевых исследований (ЦПИ) работает с 27 июля по 9 августа. Успейте подать заявку на участие. Число мест ограничено.

Центр полевых исследований – это мастерская, организованная при поддержке Высшей Школы Урбанистики им. А.А. Высоковского НИУ ВШЭ на базе Лаборатории полевых исследований города.

Научные руководители мастерской:

Александрина Ваньке – кандидат социологических наук, научный сотрудник Института социологии Российской академии наук, заместитель декана по научной работе социологического факультета ГАУГН;

Петр Иванов – научный сотрудник Высшей школы урбанистики им. А.А. Высоковского, преподаватель факультета гуманитарных наук НИУ ВШЭ, куратор Лаборатории полевых исследований города ВШУ им. А.А. Высоковского, приглашенный преподаватель РАНХиГС.

Центр полевых исследований в этом году будет разделен на три части, сосредоточенных на разных задачах:

Аналитический центр. Аналитический центр работает с пространственной статистикой, большими данными и геоинформационными системами. Задача аналитического центра в 2015 году – создание неравномерно-районированной модели г. Кимры на основе вторичного анализа данных и новых эмпирических материалов. Здесь нам потребуются люди, имеющиеся опыт анализа количественных данных при помощи таких статистических программ как, например, SPSS, STATA. Приветствуется интерес к “big data” и микс-методам: комбинированию количественной и качественной стратегий в междисциплинарном социальном исследовании.
Полевая лаборатория. Полевая лаборатория занимается социальной этнографией, антропологией и качественными социологическими исследованиями. Задача полевой лаборатории в 2015 году – сбор полевых данных и создание на основе их анализа рекомендаций в проект стратегии социально-экономического развития г. Кимры. Здесь мы ждем людей, интересующихся полевыми исследованиями города и качества городской среды, городских исследователей, студентов и магистрантов, обучающихся на факультетах социологии, культурологии, антропологии, архитектуры, политологии, журналистики и так далее.
Students Urban Summit. Students Urban Summit проводит летний интеграционный интенсив для студентов магистерских программ по урбанистике. В рамках интенсива 12 магистрантов проектируют и осуществляют городское исследование, имеющее практическое применение. Задача Students Urban Summit в 2015 году – проведение самостоятельного исследования и написание рекомендаций в проект стратегии социально-экономического развития г. Кимры.

Все структурные подразделения Центра полевых исследований, кроме Students Urban Summit, имеют свою образовательную программу, соответствующую направлению деятельности структурного подразделения.

Более подробная информация по ссылке.

Стратегия и методы партисипаторных исследований

30.09.201430.09.2014 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ Leave a comment

2 октября 19:00

Высшая школа урбанистики НИУ ВШЭ

Москва, Покровский бул., 8, стр. 1

Что такое партисипаторное исследование и с чем его едят?

Кандидат социологических наук, участница Независимой исследовательской инициативы (НИИ митингов) Александрина Ваньке проведет мастер-класс, в ходе которого она расскажет о том, что такое партисипаторные исследования, и покажет на примерах с привлечением обширного эмпирического материала, как их проводить.

Участникам мастер-класса в интерактивном режиме предлагается обсудить методы и модели, используемые при осуществлении партисипаторных проектов.

В рамках мастер-класса также предполагается обсуждение вопросов роли публичного социолога при работе с социальными движениями, городскими инициативами и различными группами активных граждан, для которых знание об окружающей действительности, полученное ими в процессе самостоятельного изучения общественных проблем, позволит повысить степень осознанности, выработать наилучшие решения и тем самым улучшить реальность вокруг себя.

Приглашаются все желающие! Аудитория 209. С собой обязательно иметь паспорт.

Смотри анонс на сайте Exchanges по ссылке.

Летняя школа 2014. Центр полевых исследований

22.05.201422.05.2014 ~ Alexandrina Vanke ~ Leave a comment

Приглашаем принять участие в образовательном проекте Центра полевых исследований, который будет действовать с 21 июля по 3 августа 2014 года в рамках Летней школы, проводящейся при поддержке журнала “Русский Репортер”, Объединенного института ядерных исследований и других организаций.

Объединённый институт ядерных исследований и многие другие уважаемые организации – See more at: http://letnyayashkola.org/news/2014/05/07/vopros-chej-eto-proekt/#sthash.AoLxmlEE.dpuf

Центр полевых исследований (ЦПИ)

В этом сезоне мы продолжим намеченный в прошлом году курс на междисциплинарные полевые исследования, сконцентрировавшись, в первую очередь, на качественных методах в социологии и общественной географии. Предлагаем вместе с нами совершить погружение в мир полевых исследований, столкнуться с различными аспектами небольшого города в качестве пришельца-исследователя.

Главная цель – попытаться выяснить, существует ли связь между документацией, регламентирующей пространственное развитие и актуальными социальными процессами в городе Кимры. В ходе решения этой задачи будут осуществлены групповые или индивидуальные исследования самых различных сфер жизни г. Кимры: от наркополитики до градостроительства в рамках методологии “длинного стола” Теодора Шанина.

Работа нашей мастерской делится на три блока:

• Первый блок – теоретический. На этом этапе мы изучаем основные социологические концепты, инструменты для проведения качественных исследований в городе. Лекции будут проводить приглашенные преподаватели, практикующие исследователи и аналитики, аспиранты, а также сами участники мастерской. В этом блоке вы сможете получить теоретические знания, которые можно будет проверить путем практики.

• Второй блок – практический. Проводим полевые исследования, собираем данные, выбор метода остается за вами. Каждый полевой день заканчивается общим семинаром с разбором возникших трудностей, обсуждением удачных и неудачных решений в стратегии исследования и полевой работы.

• Третий блок – итоговый. В конце работы нашей мастерской мы пишем статьи по каждому исследованию и выступаем с докладами на площадке Летней Школы. Успешным итогом работы будем считать написание научной или журналистской (или и той, и другой) статьи по теме исследования.

Научное руководство

Александрина Ваньке – кандидат социологических наук, преподаватель Российского государственного гуманитарного университета (РГГУ) и Государственного академического университета гуманитарных наук при Институте социологии РАН (ГАУГН при ИС РАН)

Петр Иванов – социальный исследователь, консультант, научный сотрудник Высшей Школы Урбанистики, приглашенный преподаватель РАНХиГС и научный редактор портала UrbanUrban.ru

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