Fieldwork seminar: Doing a One-Ride Stand: Documenting practices of mobility and the transmission of memory in the urban context

Nikolaos Olma

Doing a One-Ride Stand: Documenting practices of mobility and the transmission of memory in the urban context

In my project, I work on urban memory in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. In particular, I try to understand how the city’s Soviet past is being contested in the light of the identity-building and modernising projects of the administration of president Islom Karimov and the new practices of consumption and mobility, spatial segregation, growing socio-economic disparities, and privatisation that came as a result of the transition to market economy. To that end, my dissertation is structured around three main axes – mobility practices, built environment, and belonging – all three of which enact and are formed by memory in completely different ways.

During my presentation I am going to focus on the first of these three axes, mobility. Despite the extensive bus and minibus networks and Central Asia’s oldest metro system, easy access and relatively low charges have turned informal taxis into the most popular means of transport among the inhabitants of Tashkent. Almost every car in the city qualifies as an informal taxi, as low salaries and a high unemployment rate have led many dwellers to take up driving as their main or secondary occupation.

Having spent a rather substantial part of my fieldwork riding in these taxis, I argue that riding in them in particular, and mobility practices in general, transmit Tashkent’s urban memory from one generation to the next. While writing these experiences down for my dissertation, however, I noticed the lack of a methodological and epistemological framework which would facilitate the documentation of this phenomenon and the analysis of this material.

Therefore, at this seminar I would like to present the concepts that I have been working on, discuss their limitations and implications, and explore the extent to which they can be applied to a context other than Central Asian urbanisms.

Fieldwork in the Humanities – a series of PhD seminars at ToRS

Fieldwork is at the core of many of the PhD projects at ToRS and a productive period ’in the field’ is crucial for a successful thesis. The time allowed for fieldwork is, however, limited and it is therefore of importance to have an opportunity to discuss plans and alternatives, to be able to share experiences after coming back from fieldwork and to have response on drafts of analysis when the thesis text is about to take shape.

We would therefore like to introduce a series of regular PhD seminars at ToRS on the uses of fieldwork in the humanities. During the seminars there will be an opportunity to present texts (plans, reports, drafts of analysis), discuss and scrutinize various methods for fieldwork – and report experiences as well as discuss theoretical reflections on fieldwork as a method. Fieldwork can be conducted in a number of ways and from very different analytical perspectives; many of them at work in various ToRS projects. The purpose of the seminars is not to streamline your projects, but to open up a forum for discussions about how to plan a fieldwork and still be flexible, choices of documentation, follow-up and where to draw the line. In short: share and learn from others; from tentative research questions to submission of a thesis based on fieldwork.

Some of the issues that will be discussed during the seminars:

  • designing a fieldwork plan and preparing for surprises and change of plans
  • the relation between research questions and choice of field method
  • documentation: technique, ethics and archiving
  • follow-up and processual analysis
  • combining fieldwork material(s) with other sources
  • combining fieldwork material(s) with historical studies
  • literature on fieldwork

It is strongly recommended that those of you who use fieldwork material in your thesis continuously take active part in these seminars. The seminars are intended to be a platform for discussions for every stage of fieldwork and for fieldwork in the broadest understanding of the concept. Archaeological, archival, literary and political angles are more than welcome.

Each seminar has a theme, and literature will be circulated beforehand as a preparation for the discussions. At each seminar will also one, or more PhD, candidate(s) present a piece from her/his on-going work.

ECTS: 1,8 for paper presentation and 0,3 for active participation.

 For information https://ccrs.ku.dk/phd/phdcoursesccrs/ or raudvere@hum.ku.dk