Transnational ethnography on youth political engagement

in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Algeria – and beyond

Sofia Laine – Finnish Youth Research Network

Political sociology and transnational ethnographySosiologipäivät 5.-6.3.2015

Structure of Presentation

1. Short presentation of enormous project- partners- locations- themes- expected outcomes

2. Transnational multi-sited ethnography- teams & locations & themes- expected outcomes a) nationally, b)

transnationally3. Challenges and benefits of transnational multi-

sited ethnography + discussion

• 15 partners• 5 research countries• 3,1 million € budget• 1st Jan 2014 – 31st Dec

2016

Transnational multi-sited ethnography

1. Three locations in each of the five countries: rural, urban and semi urban

2. National Ethnographic Research Plans (one/each country): describing precise locations and sub-cultures/themes of the fieldwork

Documentary film maker and 3 partner researchers from Europe visiting the locations, video recording interviews + documentary workshop w/ youth

3. Different deliverables from the field (see chart): synthesis in English (i.e. language of the project)

Clusters

Cluster 1: Youth Employment and EconomicsCluster 2: Youth Education and Social InstitutionsCluster 3: Youth Political EngagementCluster 4: Youth Cultures and ValuesCluster 5: Youth Leisure

• One local partner responsible for one of the clusters together with work package coordinators

E.g. From the cluster Youth Political Engagement three policy reports are made:

1. Social dialogue2. Identifying structural factors hampering social movements3. Prospects for political participation

• At this level also the survey results should be taken into account in the analysis and reports.

Some of the challenges of multi-sited team ethnographyHow to support the common ground of the team and

the individual voices at the same time.

Reflexivity, Cooperation and Complementarity

Planning and conducting data collection in a team generates rich and diverse data but also rich and diverse initial reflections – and methodological and substantial learning from each other VS. social and personal challenges

Living with the uncertainty (ref. the everyday-lives of the informants)

To balance the need of individual freedom and sharing.

How to guarantee security of informants AND researchers

Some of the benefits of multi-sited team ethnography

Being able to identify one’s own way to conduct embodied field research may not be even possible without noting the other researchers’ different styles of presence.

The multiple ways of conducting research (and learning different techniques, ethics and politics from each other), multiple forms of simultaneous data gathering and the possibility to share and reflect our different ways to orientate and grasp the fieldwork moments.

The ideal of a team work is not harmony but respect for different ways of thinking and conducting ethnography.

Discussion• What politics?

A. Arab-Mediterranean youth political engagement- what knowledge- for what purpose

B. Politics of team ethnography and EU-funded projects- how decisions are made on local, national and

transnational level

• What ethnography? A. Methodological and conceptual challenges

- language: local meanings and concepts- familiarity of different methods and analysis tools

• Conditions of dialogue?