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On the last day of March we had another Walking Seminar edition, this time on the topic When is good good enough? Although the weather was not as perfect as expected it was good enough to facilitate a good walk-talk. We walked through the beautiful dunes of Overveen. Rain and wind made this walk into a four-hour exercise of academic exchange, methodological thinking-along and body-mind stamina. We talked about finished texts, enough work and different goods we encounter when writing; throwing out good pieces in order to better the text in general, focusing on one topic and (for now) letting go of other interesting ones and how to decide when we have done enough (fieldwork or writing). Sometimes we also talked about different goods that emerge in our field or different goods as a strategy to look at our field. This was the topic that triggered are talks: When is good good enough? One of the many enemies of a researcher/author is perfectionism. Obviously, we want to give good presentat...

The next walking seminar will be on Friday March 31st from 12.15 until early evening. This walking seminar will be devoted to the question " when is good good enough ". One of the many enemies of a researcher/author is perfectionism. Obviously, we want to give good presentations, write good texts, make good films and otherwise be and do good. However, at some point striving after doing better, better and better still, turns itself against us. It may block the fluid writing of an outline and/or a first rough draft – as what comes out of your hands isn’t, you feel, good enough. It may lead to endlessly postponing the moment you invite others in to comment – as what there is to comment on is not yet good enough. It may fuel insecurity, give stress, what have you. In secondary school you mostly got assignments with questions and these all had a right answer. You may have learned to like to feel intellectually in command. However, in doing research and engaging in original writin...

On the most beautiful day of the week and in stunning autumn weather, we took a walk in Weesp last Friday, 21 October, for the Walking Seminar. The theme was   how to think about translations in our research?   [1] We started off with the following questions:  Doing research involves translating. Or, put differently, many activities that we engage in as ethnographic researchers may be glossed as translating. Events in the field you translate into (mould into? cook up as?) field notes. Notes you translate into (mobilise in the telling of? digest so that they become?) stories. Stories you juxtapose – contrast, compare, link – in a process called analysis (and what is translated there into what?). In the process, sounds become words, tastes dissolve in sentences, questions into assertions or vice versa. Here is the question: what is involved in these translations; what in attending to them as translations (rather than using other metaphors/models such as moulding or cooking)...

Guest blog post by Anna Kaijser and Martin Hultman, Department of Thematic Studies, Linköping University On  October 3-4, a group of eleven artists and researchers within the humanities or social sciences gathered at Vårdnäs, a village south of Linköping, Sweden. Each participant had brought a question, incited by their own work and related to understanding, acting upon and living with environmental crisis. These questions, we brought with us on a hike through the countryside, intended to accentuate embodiment and movement and evoke a sense of the own body’s place in nature. In pairs, we walked through forests and meadows, and along the Stora Rängen Lake. The sun was shining and the landscape sparkled with magnificent autumn colours. Most of us had never met before, and thus were introduced to each other’s work through the questions. Every 40 minutes we stopped to change conversation partners. This is slow intellectual speed dating, somebody joked. At  the end of the walk, the...

The next walking seminar will be on  Friday   October 21st   from  13:00 o’clock  until early evening. This walking seminar will be devoted to the question how to think about   translations  in our research. Doing research involves translating. Or, put differently, many activities that we engage in as ethnographic researchers may be glossed   as   translating. Events in the field you translate into (mould into? cook up as?) field notes. Notes you translate into (mobilise in the telling of? digest so that they become?) stories. Stories you juxtapose – contrast, compare, link – in a process called analysis (and what is translated there into what?). In the process, sounds become words, tastes dissolve in sentences, questions into assertions or vice versa. Here is the question: what is involved in these translations; what in attending to them   as   translations (rather than using other metaphors/models such as ...

Come to our next edition of the walking seminar,  with the theme 'Negative appraisals' The next walking seminar will be on Friday July 22 nd from 12:00 o’clock (Note: this is an hour earlier than ususal – we are hoping to take a long walk through the dunes) until early evening. This walking seminar will be devoted to the question how to handle our own negative appraisals of situations we encounter in the field. You may think that some people in your field of research find themselves in dire situations. There are structural problems. You may also think that some people in your field research mean well but do things that are bad (ill considered, nasty, counterproductive, what have you). You may think that some people in your field of research are abusive in one way or another. You encounter practices that, in one way or another, you consider to be/go wrong. What to do? Articulate criticism; suggest improvements; file complaints? Step back and refrain from judgements? Seek oth...

Thank you to all those who walked and talked with us in Breukelen on Friday. With beatiful weather and in 27 °C we walked through the Dutch 'polderlandschap' and past cows and windmills.  Meanwhile, w e addressed the following questions: Who do you write for?   What is the audience you hope for; what is the audience you may expect? How does that all that relate to writing in English; to the venues where you publish; to the style you adopt?  And how does it affect what you tell or leave untold?  How does it emerge in questions and your argument, plot, story line (or how would you call the line in your writing)?  What are you doing, technically, practically, to include The Reader in your work? How do you seduce, appeal to, convince, or otherwise reach out to the audience that you imagine? This resulted in fruitful conversations about how audiences differ, which different styles of writing and varying degrees of explanations they require, how combining a...