Portland Research Assignments
DUE BY LATE OCTOBER via a series of three blog posts — see actual due dates on handout.
The City of Portland Maine, like all cities, has large sets of data about the city while other information is lacking. In the moment when big data is (sometimes) better data and while we can look to other major cities like New York City for inspiration, we need to draw on the specific place of Portland, Maine in order to make smart city recommendations that fit the place of the city. You will do this through three research assignments: a café ethnography, mental mapping, and transect walk.
- Café Ethnography
An ethnography is the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures, usually involving participant observations, field notes, and/or interviews. This method is considered scientific in that the data is carefully recorded and organized. For example, someone may set a timer to take detailed notes of everything they see for three minutes at intervals of ten minutes and then spend the other seven minutes continuing to walk the city, sit on a bench, etc.
The aim of the café ethnography for the class is to catch a glimpse into the everyday life of Portland, Maine from inside a local business with a view of the city’s streets. What does life in Portland, Maine feel and look like? What can be gleaned from the experience of the everyday in order to inform your recommendations for further developing the city?
In your ethnography, you will perform participant observations (you will be in a local space looking at and listening to people) and field notes (you will write down what you see). You will select a café from http://bit.ly/bowdoin-diotc-cafelist. Up to three people can sign up for the same location. You can go on your own or with the other folks who sign up for that café.
As in the example above, your participant observations should develop from what Hiss calls the simultaneous perception of the space. Choosing a place to sit with a view of the street, what do you see, smell, hear, feel, taste? Also, who is around you and what are they doing? If you look out the window from the café, what do you see on the street nearby? Keep detailed notes, recording time as you go, and getting down as much as you can on a set routine of around two minutes of notes for every ten minutes. Your ethnography should take place over a total of 2.5 hours. If you get up from your seat during that time, gather your notes and ideas while you walk or run your errand. You may wish to type your notes as you will share them in a blog post later in the semester.
- Mental Mapping
Mental mapping is the representation of an individual or group’s cognitive map; cognitive maps are the maps we carry inside our brains based on the maps we see and our experiences. This method helps to reveal someone’s personal version of a space or place. As Milgram and Jodelet demonstrate in their work on Parisians mental maps of their city, the maps are never accurate but they do reveal how residents see their city. In Lynch’s work, the imageability of a city is key to developing a thriving city.
The aim of the mental mapping exercises is to gain a glimpse into residents’ images of their city. You are tasked with gathering a total of four mental maps from four Portland residents. We will decide in class what sort of sample (length of time as resident, neighborhood of residence, variation in identifiers, etc.) you may want to include but all participants must be adults, i.e., over the age of 18. I have outlined an interview script for you. Be clear that their map will be part of a set of 100 mental maps that we will likely share on the internet—with identifying information and names removed—at the end of our study. We will also use these maps in the production of data for GIS maps.
Using 8.5”x11” pieces of white paper and then a pen or pencil, each map will likely take 10-20 minutes to draft, but watch out for those folks who get really into it and want to keep drawing and labeling—it’s up to you when to stop the interview. After they finish the map, you will need to gather their name and some background information as listed on the interview script. If they do not feel like sharing, they do not have to do so. Make sure to bring your Bowdoin ID so that you can introduce yourself as a student with identification. If they would like to know more or you run into issues or questions, you or they can reach me as the Principal Investigator at 347.742.3408 or [email protected].
It may be easiest to gather the maps while doing your café ethnography. If you decide to ask folks in a café to take part in our research, you will need to ask the owner or manager on duty if they approve of you conducting research in their place of business. Otherwise, you can always find people hanging out on the street, at another café or hangout, in a public space, or in other businesses (likely the managers and owners themselves) who want to take part.
Once you have a set of four maps, scan them in at 300dpi and keep them ready for when you will blog about them later this semester. Leave the originals in a folder marked DIOTC MENTAL MAPS in Prof. Gieseking’s box on the 2nd floor of the VAC in Martie Janeway’s office.
- Transect Walk
A less used but equally powerful method is the transect walk, the last of your three methods of data collection. Similar to Debord’s dérive, the aim is to take in the experience of the city. However, unlike a dérive, you plan out the course of your walk and you keep to one element or focus throughout the walk. For examples, someone interested in housing could look at the state of building foundations while someone interested in ICT could keep an eye for any evidence of information, communications, or telecomm.
The aim of the transect walk is to take a larger and longer walk through neighborhoods you have not yet seen to get a fuller view of the city. To that end, your transect walk must include significant time in East Bayside, the West End, or the East End. Like the ethnography, you should spend 2.5 hours on your walk with breaks as you wish. If you would like to split up the city by your research group, I encourage you to do so, and you can take a walk with another person(s) from the class, a friend, or a small group of up to four people. Your focus—locations of benches, access to good views, housing condition whether public or private—is up to you!
As you walk, take detailed notes not only of what you see in regards to your topic of interest but your experience and sense of walking the city. What do you see? Get into the details. Be sure to take photos of key sites. Record in extreme detail—hopefully by address or lon-lat via GPS if necessary—where you see these elements. These detailed accounts will inform the maps we make of the city for which you need exact locations.
