Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EoPPP (A Global Comparative Ethnography of Parliaments, Politicians and People: representation, relationships and ruptures)
Período documentado: 2022-10-01 hasta 2024-03-31
This project – Ethnographies of Parliaments, Politicians and People (EoPPP) – is reshaping parliamentary studies towards multidisciplinarity, decolonising and innovative communication approaches:
- pioneering a new comparative approach to ethnographic research in the study of parliaments: we have developed an analytic framework for study, published as a book by Routledge, received training in visual ethnography from the University of Manchester, undertaken fieldwork in six countries, held fortnightly workshops online (often with invited guests), and visited each other’s sites. Due to Covid, the researchers had to adapt their plans. While Axelby began researching Sheffield local politics, mostly online, the fieldwork relying on travel was more limited (in Brazil, Ethiopia, Fiji, India and the US). However research began in mid 2021 from a distance in Fiji (by Kaur) and Brazil (by Brum). Tesfaye researched in the archives in Addis Ababa, rather than the local politics of Tigray, due to the war in Ethiopia. All researchers have reported on their findings regularly to the team at the fortnightly workshops and we planned a global workshop for summer 2023 in Brussels;
- decolonising international research on parliaments: we contracted two Ethiopians and three Brazilians to study their own politicians; commissioned Ethiopian colleagues to make a film about Sheffield; and reflected on how we impact on our own research differently;
- communicating international research on parliaments to influence academics and politicians: The PI was commissioned to write articles about ethnographic research on Parliaments and has focused attention for the first time not just on their approach but on the ethnographers themselves as a group of scholars (in the Journal of Organizational Ethnography and Political and Legal Anthropology Review). She wrote highly innovative articles about (a) political parties (Ephemera, 2021) and space within parliament (for a book to be published by University College London Press) while the CI published an pioneering article on public engagement. Various members of the team have given keynote talks and presentations to a wide range of audiences – both academics and politicians – and participated in networks, promoting anthropological, decolonising and inclusive approaches to the study of parliament but also to citizen engagement within parliament.
- pioneering a new comparative approach to ethnographic research in the study of parliaments: we have developed an analytic framework for study, published as a book by Routledge, received training in visual ethnography from the University of Manchester, undertaken fieldwork in six countries, held fortnightly workshops online (often with invited guests), and visited each other’s sites. Due to Covid, the researchers had to adapt their plans. While Axelby began researching Sheffield local politics, mostly online, the fieldwork relying on travel was more limited (in Brazil, Ethiopia, Fiji, India and the US). However research began in mid 2021 from a distance in Fiji (by Kaur) and Brazil (by Brum). Tesfaye researched in the archives in Addis Ababa, rather than the local politics of Tigray, due to the war in Ethiopia. All researchers have reported on their findings regularly to the team at the fortnightly workshops and we planned a global workshop for summer 2023 in Brussels;
- decolonising international research on parliaments: we contracted two Ethiopians and three Brazilians to study their own politicians; commissioned Ethiopian colleagues to make a film about Sheffield; and reflected on how we impact on our own research differently;
- communicating international research on parliaments to influence academics and politicians: The PI was commissioned to write articles about ethnographic research on Parliaments and has focused attention for the first time not just on their approach but on the ethnographers themselves as a group of scholars (in the Journal of Organizational Ethnography and Political and Legal Anthropology Review). She wrote highly innovative articles about (a) political parties (Ephemera, 2021) and space within parliament (for a book to be published by University College London Press) while the CI published an pioneering article on public engagement. Various members of the team have given keynote talks and presentations to a wide range of audiences – both academics and politicians – and participated in networks, promoting anthropological, decolonising and inclusive approaches to the study of parliament but also to citizen engagement within parliament.
During the first year (2019-20) of EoPPP, the team was set up by Emma Crewe (PI) and the SOAS research office. Partnership agreements were created with the two main partners: Mekelle University and the University of Leeds. Crewe reviewed the literature from around the world, analysed the contribution by anthropologists to parliamentary studies and wrote this up in a book. This was published by Routledge as Anthropology of Parliaments (2021) as an open access monograph. The Global Research Network on Parliaments and People created a new website as planned, highlighting EoPPP, and its plans and achievements, alongside the Network’s historical research programmes (see www.grnpp.org). A knowledge management system (Glasscubes) was established for the storage of data. SOAS finalised the agreement with the ERC, and the ethics framework, and appointed a new ethics advisor (Dr Gerhard Anders, University of Edinburgh).
In preparation for the second year (2020-2021), the team was appointed in Brazil, Ethiopia and the UK. The Project Co-ordinator conducted an annotated bibliography of political communication and a stop-go animation in which the team explained their approach to research. From Autumn 2020 the team met for fortnightly meetings to reflect on themes, develop research plans and learn from other academics and creative scholars-artists. They reflected with other ethnographers of Parliament and scholars using more quantitative approaches about methodologies, ethics and the challenge of accessing elites. Each researcher consulted with experts in their field and then presented to the team a ‘deep dive’ about parliaments in the context of the political world of their fieldsite and their plans about what to research. In summer 2021 they collectively attended an ethnographic film-making course online, held by the University of Manchester’s Grenada Centre, all making sample films in preparation for producing creative outputs for EoPPP.
As the fieldwork was held up by Covid, the researchers scaled up the engagement with other scholars and officials within parliament to promote ethnographic approaches to studying parliaments. Axelby, Kaur and Crewe, who had already created a new committee within the Royal Anthropology Institute (Committee on the Anthropology of Policy and Practice), established a new series of webinars to create a bridge between academic anthropologists, practitioner anthropologists outside the academy and policy-makers or leaders in a range of organisations. Of particular relevance to EoPPP, they arranged webinars about (a) how anthropologists might give evidence to parliaments, (b) with two anthropologists who had become politicians themselves, (c) about strengthening the Equality Act (two of them have already been placed online and the other will follow in time: https://www.therai.org.uk/events-calendar/podcasts/anthropology-communicates).
All researchers have produced a huge range of both scholarly publications and creative outputs in journal articles, book chapters, edited volumes, a special issue on the ethnography of political institutions, and a series of planned monographs. The books will be published as part of a new Berghahn series (Living Democracy), with the series being edited by the PI Emma Crewe. The creative outputs have been exhibition in a major exhibition – Living Democracy: frayed entanglements – including four major documentary films, but also photographs, timelines, paintings, animation and 3 screen immersive film, with special guided tours being arranged with students, parliamentary officials, political scientists and members of the public. This will go online in the coming months.
In preparation for the second year (2020-2021), the team was appointed in Brazil, Ethiopia and the UK. The Project Co-ordinator conducted an annotated bibliography of political communication and a stop-go animation in which the team explained their approach to research. From Autumn 2020 the team met for fortnightly meetings to reflect on themes, develop research plans and learn from other academics and creative scholars-artists. They reflected with other ethnographers of Parliament and scholars using more quantitative approaches about methodologies, ethics and the challenge of accessing elites. Each researcher consulted with experts in their field and then presented to the team a ‘deep dive’ about parliaments in the context of the political world of their fieldsite and their plans about what to research. In summer 2021 they collectively attended an ethnographic film-making course online, held by the University of Manchester’s Grenada Centre, all making sample films in preparation for producing creative outputs for EoPPP.
As the fieldwork was held up by Covid, the researchers scaled up the engagement with other scholars and officials within parliament to promote ethnographic approaches to studying parliaments. Axelby, Kaur and Crewe, who had already created a new committee within the Royal Anthropology Institute (Committee on the Anthropology of Policy and Practice), established a new series of webinars to create a bridge between academic anthropologists, practitioner anthropologists outside the academy and policy-makers or leaders in a range of organisations. Of particular relevance to EoPPP, they arranged webinars about (a) how anthropologists might give evidence to parliaments, (b) with two anthropologists who had become politicians themselves, (c) about strengthening the Equality Act (two of them have already been placed online and the other will follow in time: https://www.therai.org.uk/events-calendar/podcasts/anthropology-communicates).
All researchers have produced a huge range of both scholarly publications and creative outputs in journal articles, book chapters, edited volumes, a special issue on the ethnography of political institutions, and a series of planned monographs. The books will be published as part of a new Berghahn series (Living Democracy), with the series being edited by the PI Emma Crewe. The creative outputs have been exhibition in a major exhibition – Living Democracy: frayed entanglements – including four major documentary films, but also photographs, timelines, paintings, animation and 3 screen immersive film, with special guided tours being arranged with students, parliamentary officials, political scientists and members of the public. This will go online in the coming months.
The PI and the researcher leading the project in Brazil are co-editing the world's first Encyclopedia on parliament (the Elgar Encyclopedia on Parliamentary Studies. They have commissioned 83 authors from around the globe, from a range of disciplines and 50:50 women and men. The volume of publications and events for testing our findings have been scaled up. We held a workshop for 20 parliamentary ethnographers at Glasgow University in summer 2023, to test our findings and finalise our preparations for publications, and plan screenings of our four major documentaries and presentations at conferences in all six countries. The potential for dissemination has increased since we wrote the proposal due to active participation in networks (such as International Parliament Engagement Network [founded by CI Cristina Leston-Bandeira], Study of Parliament Group and the Royal Anthropological Institute) but also due to the team’s contacts with the Brazilian and UK parliaments in particular.