The Materiality of Method: The Case of the Mass Observation Archive
The Materiality of Method: The Case of the Mass Observation Archive
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方法的重要性：大规模观察档案馆的案例
DOI：
10.5153/sro.3379
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发表时间：
2014
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
E. Uprichard
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Liz Moor;E. Uprichard
大众观察档案馆为社会研究人员提出了许多方法论问题。数据具有特殊性，难以分析，样本设计不成体系。这些问题严重挑战了传统的社会研究协议。这篇文章突出了档案的另一个特点：其笨重的实质性。文章聚焦于档案的感官体验及其特殊类型的数据，展示了数据弄脏的体验如何在进行大规模观测研究时发挥着真实而动态的作用。在这些观察的基础上，并借鉴最近使用档案馆的两个项目，我们反思了这些问题在多大程度上确实在方法上存在问题，以及方法的重要性和数据的敏感性在多大程度上也在其他研究网站和方法方法中发挥作用。在这样做时，我们强调与各种数据接触所涉及的实际和后勤实际问题，并强调这些问题所带来的机会和制约。我们提请注意档案馆的重要性所提供的感官的“暗示”和“暗示”，并探索不同的回应方式及其对所产生的产出的类型和状况的可能影响。最后，我们审议了我们的讨论对今后可能尝试将档案馆的内容数字化的影响。
The Mass Observation Archive presents numerous methodological issues for social researchers. The data are idiosyncratic, difficult to analyze, and the sample design is nonsystematic. Such issues seriously challenge conventional social research protocols. This article highlights a further characteristic of the archive: its unwieldy materiality. Focusing on the sensory experiences of the archive and its particular type of data, the article shows how the experience of getting ‘dirty with data’ plays a real and dynamic part of conducting Mass Observation research. Building on these observations, and drawing on two recent projects that have used the Archive, we reflect on the extent to which these issues are genuinely methodologically problematic, and how far the materiality of method and the sensuousness of data play a part in other research sites and methodological approaches too. In doing so, we emphasize the physical and logistical practicalities involved in engaging with all kinds of data, and highlight the opportunities as well as the constraints that these pose. We draw attention to the sensuous ‘cues’ and ‘hints’ offered by the Archive's materiality, and explore different ways of responding to these and their likely implications for the type and status of outputs produced. Finally, we consider the implications of our discussion for possible future attempts to digitize the contents of the Archive.