All read up with nowhere to go

April 16, 2008 5:41 PM

Help me find an ethnographic field site in Chicago.

I am starting on my first ethnography for a school project, but I have had bad luck so far with both of the field sites I’ve pursued. My project involves being around an already existing social group (broadly definied) for a few hours a week for about six weeks, during which I would take notes to write a final paper on the group I found. I emphasize “group”: it’s not enough to just interview a person or two, I need to a find a place where social interactions already happen.

This site can be almost anywhere in Chicago, from a soup kitchen to a corporate headquarters to a church to an artist commune – it’s just a matter of getting permission. Of course, I will be very mindful of privacy, consent, and respect issues, and will do everything in my power to protect anybody I may encounter.

If it’s interesting to you, it’s probably interesting to me.

Where would you go in my situation?

Some of the possibilities I’m looking into have involved:
• Russian immigrants (the particular ones I’ve talked to were unable to help)
• Sex, as business or subculture (go with what you’re interested in, right?)
• police officers (no luck there)

It should be a group whose members can give consent –- interracial porn companies or soup kitchens can be acceptable, interviewing children or arrested people is not.

Any site must be CTA-accessible/not in the suburbs.

If there's an exciting place you don't want all AskMefites to know about, e-mail me at [e-mail]

Thank you!

posted by trouserlouse to Society & Culture (9 answers total)

I did an ethnographic study in college, where I followed around a political party near my campus. It was great for my ethnography because I went to meetings of a bunch of different sizes, a few rallies and met a very wide group of people. That gave me a lot of time and data to find the common threads amongst the member group. The nicest thing was that a lot of the events I attended were organized, so I was able to plan around my school schedule pretty well. I also lucked out that a member of this group was a professor at my university and understood all my requirements for collecting data, recording meetings and doing interviews. All in all, I had a much better experience than a lot of my classmates who picked obscure things they were really interested in, or who chose groups with little diversity.
posted by Phoenix42 at 7:09 PM on April 16, 2008

The first thing that comes to mind for Chicago is open outcty traders (CBOT, Merc, etc) think Trading Places). They have their own (sign) language, their own culture and history and you should have little trouble finding ones downtown, especially around the exchanges and related bars (Cactus, Rivers, Stocks and Blondes, etc). I have no idea how easy/hard it will be to talk to them, but they are certainly a unique subculture.
posted by true at 8:03 PM on April 16, 2008

"open outcry", rather.
posted by true at 8:10 PM on April 16, 2008

Nursing home. You win, cause there's lots going on there (but you may have to deal with HIPPA). They win cause old people need people to talk to.
posted by rbs at 8:22 PM on April 16, 2008

A big one: softball leagues starting the summer. You could watch how they interact, play, watch how they drink and hookup.
posted by sandmanwv at 8:28 PM on April 16, 2008

St. Sabina is an interesting church with an unusual mix of catholic and African American protestant traditions. (Apparently they also just invited Jeremiah Wright to speak, though I didn't know that until I went looking for the link.)
posted by Hypocrite_Lecteur at 9:02 PM on April 16, 2008

Response by poster: Churches seem to be a really common choice for students in my position, it's interesting but I might avoid it if possible, with all due respect to an interesting place!

I'm afraid of nursing homes because of the bureaucracy involved -- I need to start taking field notes next week and I'm afraid that it'll take forever to get things cleared there.

I'm pursuing a lead I got in an e-mail, and if I get time and desperate I might also consider stalking open outcry traders downtown. I can't tell if they give tours of the trading pit, though, which might be a place to start meeting people.
posted by trouserlouse at 11:13 PM on April 16, 2008

I think we might be in the same class.

If you're as busy as I am, you might be hoping to stay in the neighborhood. Have you looked at studying any student clubs? I've always thought one of the genre of ethnicity-centered organizations might be interesting to look at... And on a less vanilla note, the University of Chicago has a small but active BDSM club that would make a really interesting study - I can put you in touch with a friend who's involved, if you're interested.
posted by bubukaba at 1:23 PM on April 17, 2008

Response by poster: bubukaba: We almost definitely are. I've been looking at one of the first kind of student clubs already. But I'd be interested in the second kind of club you mentioned too, if you want to e-mail me at the address in the question ([e-mail]).
posted by trouserlouse at 3:14 PM on April 17, 2008