Ethnographic and Narrative Ways of Knowing

"The Open Youth Research Seminar Ethnographic and Narrative Ways of Knowing focuses on the use of ethnographic and narrative approaches in youth studies. By reconsidering, challenging and remixing these approaches the seminar seeks to find new ethnographic and narrative ways of knowing. The seminar consists of two key note lectures held by two leading scholars in the field: Ann Phoenix (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies / UCL University College London) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow Pierluca Birindelli (University of Helsinki)". Read more about the seminar here. The title of my lecture was Cultural Experiences Abroad: An Ethnography.  I presented the key points of ethnography as a practice: “If you want to understand what a science is, you should look in the first instance not at its theories or its findings, and certainly not at what its apologists say about it; you should look at what the practitioners of it do …. In anthropology, or anyway social anthropology, what the practioners do is ethnography” (Clifford Geertz, The Interpretations of Culture, 1973, 5). Therefore “doing” ethnography is not a matter of methods but, still with Geertz, it’s the kind of intellectual effort: “thick description”.

The Annual Conference of Youth Studies 2016: Global Responsibility in Youth Research

In the XV Annual Conference of Finnish Youth Studies "Global Responsibility in Youth Research", global migration and movement will be addressed from the perspective of young people and youth studies. The conference aims at critical discussion about the global responsibility of youth research. The focus of youth studies will be challenged by questioning the geographical emphasis and methodological premises of Western youth studies. Read more about the conference here. I’ve presented the research methodology and approach in the session “Education and Youth Transitions” and pointed out the lack of qualitative studies. Beyond quantitative socio-demographic data, there is little qualitative empirical material for a deeper understanding of students’ overall experience from an authentically narrative and comparative slant. Furthermore, existing studies tend to suffer from separation into distinct disciplines (sociology, social anthropology, communication, education, psychology, cultural studies, ethnography) and thematic fields (youth, human development, mobility studies, cultural globalization, education).

TCuPS: Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology

TCuPS (Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology) is a multidisciplinary research group within the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tampere. You can read more about the research group here. I presented and discussed the paper Cultural Experiences Abroad: Narratives and Self-Identity within the TCuPS fall 2016 research seminar programme. The multidisciplinary seminar is a weekly gathering forum for researchers and PhD students working on or interested in themes and processes related to e.g. institutionalism, domestication, governance, globalization and transnational change.The main objective of my paper was to reconstruct a leading narrative for cultural experiences abroad. My hypothesis is that the Grand Tour narrative guides the experience of travellers, tourists, sojourners who are visiting Florence (Italy, South Europe). I will test my interpretations with more fieldwork in Italy in the next future. I am now engaged in the attempt to search for a narrative (out of subjective scripts) supporting the cultural experience of international students in Helsinki (Finland, North Europe). I have received many, many interesting and constructive feedbacks from every participant.

The Cultural Experience of International Students: Narratives from North and South Europe

These days, young people are travelling more than ever before. Studying abroad is a growing and institutionalized practice, (e.g. Erasmus program). But to find out what they’re really getting out of this travelling, we have to get them to tell their stories and explore the meanings of their experience within the broader context of their lives. The results of this study can usefully orient EU policymakers in sustaining young people in their transitional challenges – becoming adults, Europeans and citizens of a globalized world – as well as fostering ongoing education in cultural diversity. Using a mixed-method and interdisciplinary approach, this study investigates the meanings given by a group of international students to their educational, cultural and overall life experience abroad in Helsinki and Florence. 

Helsinki-Florence

Through analysis of in-depth interviews, autobiographical-autoethnographical essays, ethnographical observations and focus groups I will address topics connected with self-construction processes in another culture: family of origin and its economic, social and cultural capital; perception of European social and cultural identity and sense of belonging to a “Cosmopolitan Generation”; fundamental cultural objects shaping the idea of Finland (North Europe) / Italy (South Europe) and Europe in general; interaction with locals and involvement in the host culture; key life passages during students’ stay abroad. The narrative approach yields a clear, in-depth and comprehensive vision of what students abroad are actually doing and what they think about it. 

UH International Master Students

The aim of the research project is to select a group of international students in Helsinki and in Florence who are willing to: (1) be interviewed following a template divided into three sections addressing the basic phases of travel: departure–transition–arrival. The full transcription of the interview will be given to the participant and becomes the draft of the (2) autobiography-autoethnography where one can revise, change, add, edit and delete at will. The participant is also free to develop other topics and/or to decide to develop certain themes of the template in greater or lesser depth, since it is his/her story. It will be made clear that it is entirely up to the participant to decide what to write and what not to write. Afterword (3) I will organize a focus group session where we can discuss together themes emerged from your narratives.  
That’s all!

All international students who are interested in taking part in the research project study, or having more info, can contact me by email (pierluca.birindelli@helsinki.fi) and find out more about me by visiting this blog. All the participants will be provided with an informed consent form as well as a detailed information sheet.
Best
Pierluca Birindelli

European Researchers’ Night

The European Researchers’ Night is held at the same time in around 300 cities across Europe on the last Friday of September. European Researchers’ Night is financed by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme (Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions). Over 12000 people visited the European Researchers´ Night in Finland. I gave a poster presentation at the Finnish Science Centre Heureka, organized by VTT (the leading research and technology company in the Nordic countries) and the University of Helsinki.

Heureka