When speaking with others about my work, I do not use the word “developing” as a label for the countries I work in - China and Mexico (or India, where I was last year).
But it’s difficult when everyone else insists on calling all places outside of the US and Europe “developing” (or even under-developed).

Who has the power to define when a country is “developing” or developed”? What do we mean by development?

Is a country labeled “developing” if it is considered to be at poverty level according to the UN Human Poverty Index or World Bank poverty index? Just because a country has poor people does not mean the people are in poverty or an impoverished group. (I will write a separate post about this statement later)

Labeling a country developing or developed is a dichotomy that places the West (Europe, US, sometimes Japan, Canda and Australia) to be the First World—models for all aspiring nation-states. And then everywhere else outside of the “developed world” are black holes of underdevelopment or regions in the process of developing into a “First World” nation. This dichotomy assumes a linear trajectory with all “non-developed” or “developing” nations aiming to become more “developed.”
The word is a politically correct post-colonial stand-in for concepts around civilizing the “other,” the “savages”, the “indians.”

• So what are developing countries developing into? Is a country considered developed when it starts acting like other “First World” nations? Starts moving all its citizens into wage-labor? Pushes for people to buy on credit? Pushing countries to participate in global capitalism?
• Is a “developed” country one that looks like the United States? When it start exploiting neighboring countries or engages them in neo-liberal agreements that clearly provide more benefit to the “developed” nation and in the long run actually harms the ‘developing” nation?

So I work in Mexico - let’s use this as an example.

• Would Mexico, an OECD and NAFTA, partner become more “developed” if it transitioned from being an export economy to an import economy?
• Would it be more “developed” if it learned how to out-source it’s economic activities to its neighbors?
• Would Mexico be developed if it learned how to jail 40% of a historically discriminated group? (US has the highest incarceration rate in the world! 2 million in prison, 4.9 million under supervision, 40% of black males at any given time in the US are in jail).
• Would Mexico be developed if they legalized the sale of hand guns?
• Would Mexico be developed if they started unstabilizing neighboring economies, and then proceed to on one hand offer lots of low-wage labor jobs that other Mexicans won’t perform and then on the other hand tell neighboring countries that it is illegal to enter Mexico to take these jobs?
• Would Mexico be developed if it copied the US’s Patriot Act and spied on a group of citizens without due process?

I ask these questions to point out the shaky definition of “developed.” In comparing the US and Mexico, the US in many ways is more progressive than Mexico, but in many other ways Mexico is way more progressive and forward thinking than the US. So we should question what we mean by “developed” and ask if that has affected our ideas about American exceptionalism.

Can we find an alternative from “developing”? Certainly a general label with sweeping assumptions of Western superiority does not work.

Here are some alternatives that I have seen being used elsewhere. I am not a fan of them.

Marginalized
I don’t like the world marginalized because many of times Western nations have created the very situation of marginalization in many of these countries. We complain X country is marginalized, but we don’t take responsibility for how our policies may have marginalized them in the first place! When I hear this term being applied to Africa I think of two old ladies chatting and saying, ” oh dear - those Africans are so marginalized from us, let’s donate money to the Help Rwanda with Water Fund for Every HIV Maleria Baby.”
Also there is too much power for the signifier to deem the other as marginalized - which is practically the same as using the word “alienated.” How does it sound if I were to say, “India is an alienated country?” Alienated from what and by who? No. So out with “marginalized.”

Emerging
So what are these countries emerging from? Who are they emerging to? It sounds like we—the West—JUST noticed and discovered these “emerging” regions. It’s as if these countries were laying dormant and all of sudden they are growing! building! working! emerging! It also has too much of a capitalistic overtone that treats people like consumers - the “emerging markets” theme. When I hear emerging, I imagine a circle, where the US is in the middle and it sees the whole world beyond its circle and then choses to deem areas that are “emerging.” Then it sets off on a ship and says I will talk to these people in these “emerging areas.” (and then I will take their things! ahhh) Well hey - that’s what the Europeans did back then but they had God on their side. Now we have things - lots of things - instead of taking resources we “help” them turn their resources into commodities to “help” these “emerging” regions come out of poverty. AHHH so no to emerging!

First World, Second World?
by now this should sound obviously wrong! hello POWER problems? who has the power to define who is in First place - sounds like rigged game to me. so definitely a NO!

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OPTION B! So here are a few words that I am using as an alternative for now (as suggested by the picture in this post).

transitioning or transforming
These two words connote change and dynamism! like yah things are moving! These words paint a more circular, holistic and cyclical image than the linear, 1-D images I think of when I hear marginalized or emerging.
Transitioning is already used quite often to refer to the Chinese economy - a quasi socialist-capitalist market, hence a transitioning economy.
Transforming and transitioning are both words that could leave the power in the hands of the people and the outsider. So a region can be transforming to us (the outsider), but also transforming to the villagers in everyday life. For example, a village could be transitioning from one type of economic model to another, and it could just as well at the same time be under economic, social or cultural transition to the villagers themselves.

I also like these terms because it takes a more relative approach to regions - so that a so called “developed” area could contain several regions that are undergoing a lot of transformation. Or a “developed” country could be relatively stable and not experiencing a lot of transitions. It allows us to look at countries like China with more precise terms - where one province could be experiencing a lot of economic transitioning while another is experiencing more social transitioning. Or in Mexico we could say some states are undergoing a lot of political transformation while other states are less politically active.

Under-served
I also use the term under-served in the context that WE - I - AMERICA - have literally under-served a group. Therefore, when I work in the projects of the South Bronx I call it an under-served area because it has been under-served by the city, the state of NYC and etc. I refer to the rural areas of Oaxaca where I work as under-served because in some areas, such as education, have been under-served by the state government, the federal government, corporations and etc.

Und Less or More Evenly Developed
I also use the term “developed” often of time just because I know if I don’t, it causes all this confusion and then I have to get into a loooong conversation on what I don’t like the word “developing? One comprise I offer is to think of development more relativistically. So in terms of income distribution, I feel comfortable saying that the US is more evenly developed and Mexico is less evenly developed. In terms of consumption, the US is less evenly developed and Figi is more evenly developed. 

Another good stand in for development is distribution. So we could say income is more evenly distributed in the US and less evenly distributed in Mexico. 

By thinking of development relativistically and variably, it opens the possibility a country to be more or less developed/distributed depending on the topic. It also highlights that while a country is more evenly developed, it could become less evenly developed. It introduces a notion of temporality and change. So while the US may be one of the most evenly developed for income distribution, it become less evenly developed if the middle-class slowly disappears. 

I would love to find out if you have any ideas of other words!

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So what is at stake in defining a region as developing or as something else?
Why it is such a big deal to me? What’s at stake for me are my analyses, my ideas, and my research conclusions. The way a researcher sees, frames or defines a country or region, affects the analysis that comes out of the investigation. For this reason, it is critical for researchers who work with global issues to be self-reflective of how they label a country.

If you think a group of people LACK something, then your research will only see what they lack and not what they have. And this could color the researcher’s proposals for policy or program proposals for a region. What I’m trying to argue is that the term “developing” implies the notion that a group is lacking information, knowledge, resources and etc. It implies that developing areas need to be fixed. I refuse to use the term “developing” on any of my groups because I just don’t see them in that way!

The label of “developing” contains a whole lot of assumptions about modernity, capitalism and power. When a researcher goes into a region to study power relations and then proceeds to label the region as developing, then the analysis runs the danger of reifying the very power imbalance that is being studied in the first place. And this happens quite often and new academic fields are born out of “development” minded research and new projects are born out of “development” frameworks.

For example,  many  “development-based” projects have emerged out of development minded research that aim to economically “develop” a country. A field that seems close to the work I do is Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). I have an inherent discomfort with the entire field of ICT4D. As a young field, it is still developing its theories and models. But at the end of the day, there is an assumption that technology does good - technology is for “development.” (will write more posts later on this faulty assumption)

Well anyone in or going into ICT4D should read William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (thanks David Jacobs for bringing this to my attention!). Easterly carefully documents how World Bank or UN projects over time have actually worked to under-develop a region. My counter to the ICT4D world is that it needs to have a sister field if they want to legitimize their normative field - called ICT4UD - which stands for Information Communication Technology for Under-Development. This field would look at all the ways technology has under-developed a region. And this field would avoid showing repetitive pictures of 30 impoverished Pakistani or South African kids around one laptop. please - no more.

At the end of the day, as my colleague Jesus says, these are all different for referring to those who are different from yourself. It’s important to be aware of the assumptions and connotations that these terms bring with them.

my friend Donna also tells me that Bolivian sociologist, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, says that the new Bolivian constitution rejects the inclusion of the words “development” or “growth” as they are loaded terms associated with international agencies coming in to “change” Bolivia. Rather, the want want sustainability, distribution, reciprocity and cooperation as they were used by Bolivians traditionally.

So I say Vote for OPTION B!

Suggested Readings:

Easterly W. The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. Penguin Press; 2006:436.

Redclift MR. Sustainable development (1987-2005) – an oxymoron comes of age. Sustainable Development. 2005:65-84.

Leaving for 3rd ethnographic fieldwork trip to Mexico in a migrant-sending Oaxacan village.

This will be the 3rd time over a period of 3 years that I’m going into the mountains of Oaxaca (Sierra Madre y La Madre del Sur) to do research on ICT usage in a rural Oaxacan migrant-sending village. This year is particularly exciting because I feel that after two years of building up my relationship with the village the families really have become my friends. And I get to spend New Year’s Eve in the village!

The Mixteca Baja is one of my favorite places in the world because the people and the place are so hospitable. I feel really at home here. As an urbanite, getting to know how people live in rural areas is such a great learning experience. It is amazing the amount of knowledge that is required to live off the land.  Here are pictures below from the last trip in 2009. In the first few pics, I am riding Mocho, a one-eared donkey. I am playing with some of the kids and the last few pictures are of the village cemetery. The rest of my pics are here.

So this year I’m going with a research colleague, Tanya Menendez, who came as a research assistant 2 years ago. Tanya is now very involved in the currently funded project. She has also developed a close relationship with many of the families. I’m really excited to have her come with me this time. Plus, it’s always good to do fieldwork in teams of two when the language you are working in not your first. I am sure there will be many times that Tanya is going to correct me on my Spanish.

This time we are going to live with some of the families in the village. In the previous years we stayed in a hotel in a town 45 minutes away. This year we get to experience the village 24/7! This means that I can focus a lot of my ethnographic efforts on the social practices inside homes and really observe family interaction. It also means more home cooked yummy meals!

In terms of the fieldwork, I’m super interested in seeing what kind of social changes have taken place since last year and in comparison to two years ago. When I was there last year, there was a noticeable increase in the population of young males (from around 20 in the village to around 50) because many of them had been deported - not because they were criminals - simply because ICE (US immigration and customs enforcement) had picked them up while they were walking on the street looking for work.

With the economy as it is, I wonder how the families are doing economically and socially. In one family, the father had shown up in the village over night after having been deported. The family couldn’t get in touch with him for many weeks because he was held up in a detention center. When he appeared in the village 1 month later after no contact with his family, overnight they realized that they had lost their only source of income. Having to return back to a complete subsistence lifestyle, the mother had to make some tough decisions about the finances. They had to take their oldest son (15 years old) out of school even though he wanted wanted to finish high school. Their plan was to have being work or migrate to the US so that he could help with the fees of his two younger brothers staying in school.  The mother  also had to cut off cellphone usage for both sons. With no father working in the us, the kids’ social circle had shrunk down to their own village overnight. It became difficult for them to reach or even see their friends in other villages.

Another major change that we had noticed was that the youth were no longer treating their cellphones as a necessary object. Rather, many of them were using MSN Messenger as their primary communication tool with their friends. The novelty of a cellphone had worn off. This was a noticeable difference from the 1st year where the youth carried their cellphones with them everywhere in EVEN though the signal was horrible within the village. These cellphone carrying youth were the first cellphone adopter in the village and they made their cellphone ownership status very obvious. They never let it leave their hands and it was always visible. However, during the 2nd year, the youth rarely carried their cellphones on them. Many of them reported that they had forgotten it or that it wasn’t charged.

This year, I wonder how the youth will be using the cellphones and MSN. I’ve noticed that they sign on to MSN less often and I wonder if this is due to the economy tightening up.

I have a long fieldwork guide, but I would like share a quick glimpse into some of the topics that Tanya and I  would like to find out from this year’s fieldwork trip:

understanding spatial perspectives: We will have people draw mental maps of their daily activities within the village and point out when and where they use their cellphones or make time to go to the internet cafe 45 minutes away. Some questions to ask: where they usually leave their cellphones, why do they carry it with them, what areas have good signals, how to they manage sharing a cellphone, when does their schedule change, where are all the places they visit in the surrounding area on a typical month?

Do more research on the caseta telefonica: when do they chose to make or receive calls at the caseta, who calls them, have they noticed any differences in calling patterns in the last 3 years, who initiates calls in the family, have they changed the way that they use the caseta?

private communication and inside the home: how to women manage the finances, how do they use the cellphone, what do they use it for, how do they communicate with other women, how to they manage their kid’s schedules, how often to they talk to their husbands and sons in the US, what is most important to them, how often to they leave the village, do they take a cellphone with them, when was the first time they used a cellphone, do they prefer to use the caseta, the telefono fijo, or the cellphone and why, and what made them decide that a cellphone was important for their child, who taught them how to use the cellphone?

undocumented migrants in detention centers: Talk to return migrants who have been held in federal detention centers: what phone #’s do they call, how often are they allowed a call, who tells them when they can make a call, do they have difficulty reaching their family in Mexico, how do they feel in the detention centers, do they hear of stories where people can’t reach their family in Mexico, what makes them want to stay longer or plead their case, did they try to look for a lawyer, and do their friends and relatives in the US know when they are picked up?

how families are dealing with the slow economy: are migrants getting or maintaining jobs, are they feeling the economic slowdown, how are families managing with less income, what kind of decisions have to be made with less money in the family, are documented versus undocumented migrants experiencing the economic slowdown in different ways, are migrants sending less money?

Changes in usage of communication tools: how do people decide when to use IM vs cellphone vs the caseta, has cellphone signal improved this year, how often are people using their cellphones, have prices changed for cellphone usage, are people on special plans and if so how did they find out about it, how much are people spending per month on cellphone usage

going to the cybercafe: I would like to go to do some mobile ethnography again and travel with the youth to the cybercafe in the town 45 minutes away. what kind of websites are they visiting, how have their internet viewing patterns changed, how often they go to the cafe, how do they negotiate getting money from their moms to pay for internet time, how often to they talk to their friends online, how have their viewing patterns changed over the last 3 years, what new things have they discovered about the internet, how often to they use email, who do they email with.

life histories: understand life changes among informants, what they plan to do, what kind of path they see for themselves, will they chose to migrate to the US, what are some difficulties they are dealing with, any stories from the previous year, what are they excited about, how they feel about their role in the village?

Cultural changes with the village and migration: how the village is doing with its resources, how the tree replanting project is going, status on water treatment, status on the library initiative,  how do the older people feel about the younger people, are people moving back from the US, is there a population decline, how was the fiesta this year, why do people decide to not migrate, how do young people feel about migration, what does the village do with the return migrants and the deported migrants, how quickly do the deported migrants return to the US,

This is the 1st post of a 4-part post on my fieldwork experience in Oaxaca, Mexico. This are unedited field notes that show the moments that have nothing to do with technology during my fieldwork. Here is where I explain the context for why I’m sharing these notes. (Post 1,Post 2,Post 3,Post 4)

I am so sad to leave Sabinillo. Today was our last morning and everything would be much more meaningful as it would the “the last” of whatever.  We got up and Esmeralda was still sleeping but everyone else had woken up. We sat at the breakfast table as Eusevia served all of us some yummy tortilla breakfast. We also had some of the chayote from Magdelena…

Joaquin at the very last minute said that he couldn’t join us on a hike because he had received a call about a job. I told him that I was very sad that he couldn’t come with us because this was the day we were going to eat the chinches!  Someone had called him at his house and asked him to transport water so he had to take the last minute job. 

As we were walking, we all kept an eye out for the chinche. I wasn’t sure what to expect. In my mind I was expecting for them to catch some kind of tiny bird. 

Maria showed me the little basket weaving that she said the chiches would run into when we created the fire. So then again, I thought we’re going to find birds!

As we were walking, Leonel started screaming that he found some chinches. I looked at his hand and realized it was a freaking insect! it was a full on cockroach looking specimen with legs and wings. And before I could even scream Cristobol put the chinche in his mouth. Then Yuxi found one and put it in her mouth too. They both seemed to enjoy the insects. Then they told us that it was our turn. I said that they were way no way I could eat the insect - I have never even touched an insect before! I have extreme insectaphobia and scream at the site of a cockroach or spider. But Tanya then said that she could do it.  I didn’t believe her, but then the kids just kept encouraging us. then I said I would eat it if they took the legs off it which would effectively kill the insect. So Tanya and I agreed to eat it. I tried not to flip it. I couldn’t touch it so I needed the kids to put it in my mouth. I flipped out. I thought the insect would come back alive in my mouth. The taste wasn’t too bad. I was waiting for the spicy taste because everyone said that Chinches were spicy. After some quick chewing I separated out the insects body onto my tongue and before I spit out I showed the camera (Tanya was shooting) the insect’s body on my tongue as proof that I ate an insect. But then everyone kept saying that we had to one “en vivo” - live. I was thinking that there was no way I could do that but I would just keep hiking. 

We then continued on the trail to look for more chinches because Maria said that the chinches that we ate were too small. And the bigger ones were tastier, but we needed to attract them into the basket with fire. 

We could see the entire village from where we were - it was so quiet - I guess this was perfect chiche gathering hour!

 So I thought all week that were going to hunt for birds and roast them, but now I understood that it we were hunting for insects.  the other word for insects is Beechos - which I didn’t know. I only knew the word “insecto” for insect.  I feel like a dummy! Now I know why all the people had a surprised look on their face when I told them that I was going to eat a Chinche. Here I was thinking that they were impressed I was going to go bird hunting, but they were probably thinking this crazy Chinese girl is going to eat some insects!

We found  open field and Maria started the fire to get the Chinches to come out of hiding. Then they captured them.  I wasn’t brave enough to put the insect in my mouth. But Tanya and I decided that we both had to eat it live - and plus they said that was when the insect was most tasty.

They caught several large chinches. I couldn’t believe that I was going to eat them.

I tried to touch the insect but I panicked.  When Yanette tried to put it in my hand I couldn’t rack up the nerves to actually grab the insect so Cristobol walked on over and put the insect in my hand and I started screaming and had a panic attack. I couldn’t control my screaming and I threw the chinche on the ground.  Yuxi  came over to hug me.  I was hoping that Yanette wouldn’t find it. But she was too smart. She found it. EVeryone kept saying that it wouldn’t do anything to me (no hace nada) but I kept thinking that the insect would bite my lips off.  So finally i thought ok I am going to do this and plus we are grabbing video of this moment - I told Jonny to put in my mouth - he put in my mouth and I flipped out a bit…but i did it! Esmeralda hugged me immediately and everyone was congratulating me. 

I can’t believe that I ate a live insect. I have a complete fear of insects. I am so proud of myself. 

When we came back from the hike, Jacinto still wasn’t there. We prepared our luggage and walked it out to the fields and put them on top of a large can so that the dogs wouldn’t pee on it. 

Post 1 of 4: I touched the stomach of a pregnant Donkey!

Post 2 of 4: spending New Year’s Eve Dancing til 5am

Post 3 of 4: Time for the Jaripeo - Bullriding

Post 4 of 4: Eating Live Insect

This is the 1st post of a 4-part post on my fieldwork experience in Oaxaca, Mexico. This are unedited field notes that show the moments that have nothing to do with technology during my fieldwork. Here is where I explain the context for why I’m sharing these notes. (Post 1,Post 2,Post 3,Post 4)

Manny and Leonardo came with us to the Jaripeo. Leonardo drove to the Jaripeo. We parked the car. It was complete darkness as we were driving on the carretera and then you can see the fabric of the stage for the bands. The Jaripeo’s smell started coming through the windows. As we drove closer, we could make out people standing out front waiting for their friends. All of sudden the night seemed to brighter. The moon was full and the dogs were howling at the noise. In the middle of the mountain crevices, was a firefly - the light of the jaripeo. I imagines those who lived in the sierras who were looking down at us with their binochulars trying to find out when the bulls would be let out.

The jaripeo entrance fees were 100pesos a ticket. Originally they had been 80, he raised the price last minute!! 

We sat in the bleachers next to the entrance. Many people are there with families. 

 Leonardo  said that he never has ridden a bull. 

I took lots of photos of the band and of the jaripeo.

There were two clowns - payasos - performing to the music. They were engaging in very homosexual behavior. They simulated anal sex and blow jobs. The clown grabbed the other clown from behind and pushed him over and rocked himself on his butt. This was very shocking to see at at Jaripeo. They were very sexual with each other. 

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The stadium was only 50% filled.

We drank some cafe de holla. I bought it from Esmeralda’s aunt. We talked about a bit. 

I saw Esmeralda (Jacinto’s grandaughter).  Esmeralda talked this year, but she whispered a lot inside my ear. It was hard to understand her. She sat on my lap while I was observing the crowd.

I would’ve liked to talked to Carlos about how he organized the event. He was too busy with running the event and he said that he could talk more when he done returning all the bulls but that would be after we were gone. I had the chance at least to chat with him a but when I was near the bullriders by the stage taking pictures. Octavio let me into the area and said I could take pictures.

I spent about an hour near the band and I saw the photographer/videographer of the event. He was about 40-50 years old. He was using an old handheld video camcorder.  He walked like he owned the place. He had a humongous photography camera and he made sure that his hands were always on it. When he walked up, one of the bull rider assistants gave him a cigaratte. He sat down, put his feet on the table. He didn’t take any pictures of the band. I couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other because the stereo was right behind my ears. During the event, the photographer/videographer was walking around selling his dvd’s of the event for 100 pesos. He was the only the one who had the tools to record the event. other than the person with the hand-held cam, I didn’t see anyone with cameras or video cameras. 

The jaripeo announcer was also treated with a lot of respect from the bull riding assistants. The bull riders were preparing themselves near the bulls. The photographer and the announcer acted like they were the most important people in the area. 

When the announcer was resting in this area, there was an assistant announcer. The head announcer would shout out announcements  and make lots of hand motions to the assistant. He seemed frustrated when the assistant wasn’t saying things on time or would forget to mention things. For example he was motioning like crazy to the band, and then the assistant mentioned the band.

When it was time for the announcer to enter the ring, he was puffing up his hands, shaking his limbs and took his vest off. 

There were only men in the area. The only time a woman entered the area was when Esmeralda’s aunt came into sell beers to the Jaripeo riders.  I was very aware that I was the only female in this space. But I didn’t feel unwelcomed. 

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The announcer started the event by introducing each bullrider. He kept saying each bullrider was “la seleccion Poblana.” When each bull rider was introduced, he would come up and draw a sign in the dirt - maybe the bull rider was making a sign of a cross? 

The bullrider (jinetes) wore colorful bullriding pants. They would kiss their hands and wave to the crowd.

Carlos  owned two of the bulls. He was asked to come out and the announcer thanked him for organizing the event. He then asked the photographer/videographer to come out and he talked him up big time - like he’s the best photographer and he makes the best videos and you should all buy them. When he was finished with the introductions, the announcer said a prayer and asked the virgen mary to protect each rider. 

The first novice rider to come out fell off his bull and then the bull stepped on his back. He crawled back out of the ring and barely made it. He needed people to pull him out. He lost conciousness for about 5 minutes. The clowns and Octavio were trying to wake him up. The bull had stepped on him several times. He didn’t look paralyzed at least. He woke up and then they put him in a chair. He look so young. 

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We noticed that people weren’t using their cellphones at all to take pictures. I wonder if people had even brought their cellphones with them. 

We saw one person with a handheld video-cam.

We saw someone taking out their phone for about 1 minute and then they put it back in their pockets. 

A lot of people were complaining that the bulls weren’t good. That means that they weren’t going crazy.

Leonardo’s cousins kept walking by and trying to give him beers. Lots of youth were drinking beers. Lots of youth were also smoking. There were people from surrounding pueblos - not everyone was from the Sabinilo even though Carlos organzied the event. 

When we left the event, a lot of men were drunk. They smelled so bad. Lots of alcohol in the air. As we were crowding around the exit to leave, there were several men lined up and trying to say hello.

There was a total of 9 bulls.  Octavio paid 2000 pesos for 7 bulls and he owned 2 bulls.

Each jinete gets 4,000 pesos to come out and compete.

Leonardo mentioned that Carlos will end up losing money on this Jaripeo, and realized that after he summed up all the costs; but decided to go through with it anyway since he had already told people he was doing it — this is also why he raised the price last minute, so he wouldn’t lose as much money. It was supposed to originally cost 80 pesos, but it ended being 100 pesos to enter.

Post 1 of 4: I touched the stomach of a pregnant Donkey!

Post 2 of 4: spending New Year’s Eve Dancing til 5am

Post 3 of 4: Time for the Jaripeo - Bullriding

Post 4 of 4: Eating Live Insect

This is the 1st post of a 4-part post on my fieldwork experience in Oaxaca, Mexico. This are unedited field notes that show the moments that have nothing to do with technology during my fieldwork. Here is where I explain the context for why I’m sharing these notes. (Post 1,Post 2,Post 3,Post 4)

After eating tamales and hugging everyone with the New YEars blessing, Elizabet went to the stereo to turn the radio on. She put in a CD. It was around 11pm and a couple started dancing and then they were joined by Eva and her husband Alex. Eva was wearing high heels - they were too big for her. The shoes were at least 1 inch too long. She painted her nails.  

As I was watching the two couples on the dance floor, I was wondering what the process was to invite more people onto the dance floor and how it people could dance to 5am in the morning. 

Then all of sudden, Ricardo, the 60 year old man,  asked me to dance.  Now we were the 3rd couple. I had no idea what I was doing, but I just hopped around like a bunny hoping that I could pass. This was my first time dancing the Chilena. while it seems easy - just a two step tap with no hands and the couples spin around each other.  it was kinda hard.  I was really embarrassed at first. Ricardo wasn’t too drunk and I heard everyone cheering me on so I kept dancing. When we finished, we sat down.

Then Ricardo asked me to dance again, this second time around everyone had joined the dance floor. I was trying to get the Chilena steps down and every-time I felt tired, I would smile at other people and they would give me energy by giving me words of encouragement. 

Alvaro was very encouraging, every time I looked at him he would smile and be really positive. He always danced with Elizabet. 

In between the Chilenas, people would sit down and wait to be asked onto the dance floor. I eventually started sweating because I wasn’t getting any breaks. The minute I would sit down, someone would ask me to dance. 

Manny dances with such happiness. 

Some parents were dancing. Married couples only dance with each other - they never dance with anyone else.

During the slow dances, husbands and wives usually dance together - even the ones who didn’t dance the Chilena would get up to dance the slow songs. I only did one slow dance with some uncle of Leonardo. He wasn’t creepy. I didn’t like the slow dance because you had to hold hands.

The males were drinking tequila. The women didn’t drink at all. 

Ricardo kept wanting to dance with me.  Dancing with Ricardo beccame increasingly  difficult because he was sweating tequila by the end of the night. He kept asking me to dance. 

I danced with Beni a few times and I also danced with Leondardo.

The dancing continued through 5am. There wasn’t out right pressure to stay, but everyone did through the entire night except for Leondardo’s sister who just had a newborn. Her husband stayed. 

I used the bathroom outside- they have a really nice bathroom - a stall for a toilet and a stall for the shower. They have running water inside where they wash the dishes. Two story house. 

Dancing appears to be a way to socialize kids into dancing at a young age. Adults would dance with kids and old people would dance with younger people. No one ever danced with a partner of the same gender unless it was between two young girls under the age of 12 years old. 

Some people didn’t dance and they just sat there and watched the whole entire time. 

This reminds me of the first time I came in 2007 when there was the big dance fiesta in SAbinillo. All the older people would stand outside of the fences as they watched young people dance inside.

We just danced the Chilenas allll night with the occasional romantico. There were probably only 3-4 songs that were not a romantico or a ____some other type of dance. I kept thinking surely they would change the song….nope…chilenas….ALLL night!

While everyone was dancing, Ricardo made an announcement inviting everyone back over for a posole breakfast in the morning at 8am. It was already around 3am when he made this announcement.

I never saw Beni take his cellphone out. I noticed that the girl with the camera would occasionally take her camera out to take pictures. 

There were no calls to the caseta during the entire night.

It’s impossible to find a clock in the village. People never know the time and if people do have cellphones, they don’t carry it on them. 

I couldn’t believe that everyone stayed until 5am. Even the oldest people!

Post 1 of 4: I touched the stomach of a pregnant Donkey!

Post 2 of 4: spending New Year’s Eve Dancing til 5am

Post 3 of 4: Time for the Jaripeo - Bullriding

Post 4 of 4: Eating Live Insect

This is the 1st post of a 4-part post on my fieldwork experience in Oaxaca, Mexico. This are unedited field notes that show the moments that have nothing to do with technology during my fieldwork. Here is where I explain the context for why I’m sharing these notes. (Post 1,Post 2,Post 3,Post 4)

-post-4-of-4-eating-live-insect”>Post 4)  

I felt the heartbeat of a baby donkey inside the mother’s tummy!

I haven’t even felt the heartbeat of a human baby inside a mother’s tummy before! It was totally crazy! We were hiking back to the village after we spent a morning learning about how the pueblo is reforesting its land to capture water and how it currently receives water from the mountains without any pumps - just through pure gravity - and on our way back we saw two donkey’s tied up to a tree. This donkey is pregnant. Can you see it’s big tummy?

It was such a beautiful moment - the air was so clean and all you could hear were the birds and crunching of the earth from the donkey moving around. I really happy to be so connected to everything around me at that moment  - the air, the clouds, the blue sky,  the animal, the grass, the earth, and the water. I breathed in the smell of fresh trees and sometimes whiffs of donkey poo - even that was lovely.

Leonardo taught us so much that morning about water supply, management, and distribution. I am amazed at the knowledge that each pueblo to maintain themselves.

I think that a lot of times in urban areas, we are so removed from our daily resources - we don’t really understand how seeds become the food on our plate, who picks the fruit so that we can afford vegetables without running a farm, how water arrives in the house and etc. Massive infrastructure is highly capitalist societies automates and centralizes many functions so that larger populations can be organized in more concentrated or spread out areas. But the flip side is that we lose so much knowledge about our basic necessities.

I don’t mean to say that I felt that life in a rural area is more “simple” - I don’t like that connotation - that urban areas are more complex and rural areas are more simple. Everything that I was learning while I lived in the village was super complex.

For example, there was an immense amount of complexity involved in the village’s water system - but what was most interesting was that the level of complexity was most relevant for the village and it was one that the chose for themselves, it was not something that was decided by the government or some water company. The current water system relies on pure gravity. The water is from the ground and it is delivered through pipes that were built 20 years ago. Since it is from the ground and they do not use massive fertilizers, the ground water is clean. The village has plans to build a electro water pump but they are trying to figure out the best way to do it sustainably without negatively impacting the land. Therefore, they’ve started a reforestation project to capture water in several parts of the mountains before they proceed with the electro water pump. To me, this is really complex thinking because it’s strategic. They are thinking through the consequences of over-digging a hole to suck out ground water with an electric pump - they are thinking about the future of the village. That is just beautiful.

Anyways - I ended that morning with touching a baby donkey inside its mommy! What a great morning to start a day of fieldwork. I got some great interviews so far.

Post 2 of 4: spending New Year’s Eve Dancing til 5am

Post 3 of 4: Time for the Jaripeo - Bullriding

Post 4 of 4: Eating Live Insect

I started to write this post about how much I love fieldwork when I had just returned  from my last field work trip to Oaxaca, Mexico from December 2009 to January 2010. But I’m just getting around to posting it!  This will be a 4 part post that shows 4 excerpts taken out of my field notes (unedited) on observations that have nothing to do with technology usage. 

I just returned from Oaxaca, Mexico and this was the one of the most fun fieldwork trips ever. I miss everyone in the village so much as a I’m reading through my fieldnotes. Three things really stand out in my fieldwork trip this year. 

1.) After three years of visiting the village, I felt so welcome this year. I really felt like the people trusted me and were so much more open with me. I could just chill with families and feel confident that they were very comfortable with me in their house. In the past two years, I didn’t live in the village. This year, I went with my research colleague, Tanya Menendez, and we both lived in the village with several families. It makes such a different to go to sleep with the family in the same house and to wake up together, eat breakfast together, brush your teeth together - you get to see all the little things and hear all the stories that people talk about at the end of the day. 

2.)  I’ve noticed that I’ve become a better ethnographer. After three years of doing fieldwork in China, Mexico, and the US, I can actually see how my fieldwork notes have improved this time!  One of the best things I’ve learned about doing excellent and honest ethnography (yes I put a value on that!) is something that my adviser Barry Brown told me and it’s something that has stuck with me ever since.

Barry and I were on a bus ride back from an exhaustive fieldwork workshop in Mexico. It was 7pm and really dark. With the Pacific Ocean to our left, our bus felt like it was hugging the mountain as we were making our way up the Pacific Coast from Mexico back into the US. We were chatting about my dissertation and  I was saying something to the effect that my fieldwork in China during the summer didn’t go as expected because I didn’t get to observe what I had wanted to research. He responded to me, “you don’t get to chose what you observe.”  Barry’s advice was so simple, yet so true. He reminded me that every moment is ethnographic. So this time I took his advice with me into the mountains of Oaxaca. I ended up writing everything down. I almost became obsessive about what I recorded. Glancing over my fieldnotes, I am surprised about how much of it isn’t about technology. 

And then that’s when I realized that this is precisely what informs my analysis and my way of thinking about technology usage - I have to understand all those little moments that do and don’t involve technology. Communication technologies is only a sliver of people’s everyday lives. We forget how much time it takes to prepare a tortilla, make a blanket, and farm the fields.

3.) This realization of the importance of moments that have nothing to even do with technology made me realize how I was transformed by the fieldwork. There’s always the concern for an ethnographer when going into a field site of how much time it takes to feel like you’re a part of the community, get adjusted to the food and lifestyle (I never have a problem with the food!), and understand local rhythms. I was pretty proud of myself for just how quickly I adapted to life in the village.

There was one moment when I first arrived where I was craving for something I owned but didn’t bring - my sunglasses. We were 1600 meters above sea level so I was not used to the strong sun rays. We were walking up the mountain to the cemetery with several kids around the ages of 6 to 10 years old and two participants around the age of 25 years old. The kids were running around us and I was trying to keep up but the sun was directly hitting my eyes. I kept squinting and rubbing my eyelids, my contacts slightly in pain from the burning sun. I tired to focus on the semi-trail beneath my feet where the grass had been flattened over time, trying to avoid the dried cow dung and rocks.

After 20 minutes of climbing, I looked up and saw little white tips poking out of the mountain top. We climbed for another half hour and by the time we reached the top, the sun has moved slightly above our heads. By now I could see the white tips revealing themselves into large white Catholic crosses that were on top of tombs. We walked into the middle of the cemetery. One of the kids brought me to their uncle’s tomb. He  told me that he had just recently died of diabetes at a young age, only early mid-50’s. Their was still a candle burning inside his tomb.

I started thinking about the cycle of poverty and health. Many of the kids I was with are fed candy all day because it is less expensive to buy candy than to make food. This leads to early diabetes. It’s hard to reverse this practice of candy feeding because candy is also seen as a luxury - it’s a new food product and when guests arrive, one is always given candy in the way that males offer other males a cigarette in China. Children are always stuffing little sticky balls that are half-melted into my hands. And there is no way I can turn it down because I know how much it costs and more so I know the intent behind the gift. I squinted my eyes to focus on the date of his passing.

I looked up from his grave and as I readjusted my eyes to the landscape. I realized that we were were standing on top of a mountain peak and we were surrounded by the deep juts of the Oaxacan Sierras. I put my hand over my eyes from the hard sun that lit up the glittering peaks all around us.

The kids were running around on top of the graves and one of the participants, Ivan, stood on a cement block and just looked out into the valley. He too, put his hand over his eyes as he surveyed the view. He had just returned from 3 years of living in the US as an undocumented migrant. This was his first time visiting the village cemetery since he has crossed the desert into the United States 5 years ago. I was looking at his back, but I didn’t focus on just his body. This time I wasn’t squinting to look at the details of a trail or tomb,  but I was squinting to see the entire magicalness of the place. There I stood, behind Ivan, with the sun shining on us. Surrounded by a forest of raised tombs, the lifted weight of the moment fell on all of us like snow. And a pattern emerged to tell a story of attachment, home, and belonging. All the stories from the first and second field site visits over the past 3 years streamed into the moment. It became clear to me why all the phone calls to the US, the caseta visits, the trips to the internet cafe 1 hour away - why it all matters so much. They matter because these are the ties that are greatest to them. So despite years of no contact between an undocument migrant and her/his family, the village as an infrastructure survives. Despite peso depreciation, unequal immigration laws, deathly crossings into the deserts, expensive telephone access, and inconsistent mobile access, the weight of a place can carry the heart of a Oaxacan back to here - this cemetery. 

No matter how far a villager goes or how long one lives outside of the village, everyone wants to be buried in the place they were born (women who marry in adopt the male’s village). This is the underlying tie that binds migrants to their home, no matter how many thousand miles they travel for work or how many trips they make to the US. The elaborate governing system of Usos y Costumbres (Uses and Customs), reminds each villager of their attachment. The system dictates that every migrant male has to serve several terms throughout their life in the political governance of the village. It doesn’t matter what you are doing or how far away you are, you must come back to serve the cargo for 1 year every time you are voted into the position. If one fails to serve their cargo (responsibility), then they are denied burial in the village. It may not sound like a big deal, but it would be the equivalent of telling someone that if you don’t serve in an administrative government position every few years in the town that you were born, then you will not be allowed to die in the company of friends and family - you will die alone. So no matter where you are at with your career, if you are voted into the role, it is not negotiable. Now, imagine that.

Usos and Costumbres is practical in that it creates a stable and obligatory system to maintain village political and social structure. It is also cultural because it creates an emotional investment to the village, a common language and practice, and shared pressures - all factors that contribute to the strong village identity. The system tells every male villager (and their family) that nothing is more important than the ties to your village, and if you forgo these ties then you forgo your community.These ties are stronger than the ties that bond a Oaxacan to her/his nation.

People tend to gravitate towards what they can connect to. This - the Usos y Costumbres and the migration process - as intense as it sounds, I could connect with it. All of it came back to family. We tend to think of America as a place of rapid change and opportunities. And then places like this village in Oaxaca seem to never change. But the tethers of the global economy shake even the mountain tops.  Anytime rapid changes come through the winds, power, love, and dreams are constantly being centered and de-centered. In the process of all that centering and de-centering, hearts can waiver and the choices that appear before us often pull us away from those we love and those who love us.

And in this one visit to the cemetery, I could understand how the Usos y Costumbres was a system of centering - centering the actual body and heart to the village. One could not tele-serve his cargo from the United States. One had to come back to Oaxaca and then risk the crossing across the desert again to enter into the US.

So there I stood in the cemetery, surrounded by every single person who had ever been born in the village or married into this village was buried or will be buried in one of the tombs. I was squinting to read the words on the tombs and squinting to see the grandness.

——

Squinty has been my online moniker for over 10 years and my friends have always said that I squint a lot when people are talking. I squint a lot because I want to understand the details of a conversation ( I also am Chinese so my eyes are already squinty). But after this fieldwork trip, I was thinking about squinting as a way to understand the connections and patterns of a context. Ethnography is the constant negotiation of the micro and macro. If an ethnographer is always focused on the micro, then s/he can easily get lost in the details. One has to pop up a layer to get perspective on the details. So engaging with the macro is an engagement with patterns. Ethnography, like squinting, is the constant moving between the micro and the macro. I think this is a lovely way to explain the work of ethnography or any kind of work that involves a holistic understanding of details and patterns.

————

One of the other side thoughts that came out of this story about me wishing that I had sunglasses with me is the idea of similarity.  An important part of ethnography, but rarely discussed, is the ethnographer’s goal of achieving sameness with his/her participants. To garner the trust of your participants, you want to minimize any obvious  visuals that would make you different from the people you are hanging out with. I say this not because I think one should trick participants. Participants are not stupid and it’s almost impossible to lie about your background, especially when doing fieldwork in close communities or doing deeply emotive ethnography where people share their hopes and dreams. I saw this because one of the most important assests and ethnographer has are her/his eyes and smile. You want to minimize anything that would take your participants away from focusing on your face.  So when working in a village where no one wears sunglasses, it means I can’t wear sunglasses even if I wanted to. You don’t want to block your eyes from being seen. 

——-

Overall I must admit that I was nervous about how quickly I could adjust to living in a place where I couldn’t shower everyday and have running water and electricity 24/7. But I did just fine. I didn’t even really think about it after a while.

Is there such thing as conducting ethnographic fieldwork where you are not transformed by the process? I always feel like I am an undergoing a new experience when I’m in the field and I’m not sure if I ever want to change that. Perhaps that’s a good way to gauge my interest in a project - my personal degree of internal transformation. I see no other way to conduct engaged and passionate ethnography.

So I’m going to provide 4 excerpts out of my unedited field notes of moments that have nothing to do with technology directly. But these moments inform my research and they maintain my connection to the village. I hope they give a sense of why my heart is in Oaxaca.

Post 1 of 4: I touched the stomach of a pregnant Donkey!

Post 2 of 4: spending New Year’s Eve Dancing til 5am

Post 3 of 4: Time for the Jaripeo - Bullriding

Post 4 of 4: Eating Live Insect

Nokia Talk - Values in technology design and use: ethnography’s contribution View more presentations from triciawang.

I gave a presentation at Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto back in June, 2010.  I’ve already written a post that explains my sides on China, but I still need to create one for Mexico. So stay posted! In the meantime, the abstract is below and here’s the slideshow.

Values in technology design and use: ethnography’s contribution
As a sociologist, I’ve been trained to ask macro questions about underlying social conditions. While illuminating for society at large, sociological findings do not always readily appear to be relevant for the technology industry and/or people outside of academia. As an ethnographer, I’ve been trained to ask more grounded questions about the everyday lives of people and how they experience underlying social conditions. Ethnographical insights can offer more tangible, immediate, and actionable analysis. As such, companies have started incorporating ethnographic research into their strategy, product design, and marketing.

My talk today is about how I came into my research at Nokia wanting to answer the question: how can ethnographers contribute to the product design process of a mobile device? Ethnographically grounded research for technology use is a method that aims to reveal users’ values, beliefs, and ideas. Nokia was one of the first mobile companies to concertedly hire ethnographers as part of its design process,
In the mid to late nineties, Nokia changed the mobile industry forever by creating affordable, user friendly phones. More than a decade later, the hardware mobile phone market is nearing saturation. With Nokia transitioning from a company that produces hardware to software, how can ethnographically driven research  provide strategic insights for this shift?

I start off the presentation by reviewing the following  projects I worked on while at Nokia.
1.) Farmville:  (w. Liz Bales, Jofish Kaye): We did some preliminary surveying to gain insight into the most popular facebook game. I discuss my interest in how games like Farmville support less-meangingful social ties.  I wrote a blog post about this: Playing FarmVille?: Casual Games maintaining Less-Meaningful Ties on Facebook

2) Inventive Leisure Practices (Jofish Kaye): I interviewed local hackers to better understand how they form communities around their practice. We see leisurely hacking communities as critical, yet understudied sites of innovation.
3.) If time permits, towards the end of my presentation I will also discuss a third project, The If I Can Dream House. (w/ Janet Go, Liz Bales) The If I Can Dream House is the first “post-reality entertainment” production. As the show is only available online through a 24/7, 60+ camera live stream and weekly Hulu releases, we wanted to better understand how audiences connect with this new form of interactive media.

In the second half of my talk, I discuss how working at Nokia these past three months have initiated a critical shift in my research practices from being an ethnographer in the clouds to an ethnographer on the ground.
I provide two examples of how I’ve reframed my research in terms of how values influence technology design and use.
1.) The first case is from my ongoing fieldwork in Mexico where I have spent over three years in a rural, migrant-sending village. I share my analysis on how my research on Mexican migration and migrants’ use of technologies in Mexico and in the US had led me to believe that Nokia already has an American market with a strong brand connection with unfulfilled technology needs.
2.) The second case is my ongoing dissertation work in China where I discuss how my future fieldwork will include four central themes: gaming and leisure, value clashes, social connections, and communication.  I will also be interviewing Chinese entrepreneurs of failed copy-cat social networking technologies. Here’s the post that explains in greater detail my slides about social connections in China: Privacy and The Anonymous user in China: Importance of understanding multiple cultural orientations towards guanxi/social connections