Anthropology Theories
1> You will be doing part 2 of the project document. You will choose a community on second life related to any BTS fandom (kpop band) to research. You can find any community of your choosing to write this. You will then follow the proposal guide as is. you must include anthropological theories that relate to the community you are talking about. 2. you will have to create a basic resrecah question that focuses on a central issue that effects the community that relates to gender, identity, race, age etc. (does not have to be all of these could be 1 or multiple) the reproach question must answer who, what, where, when and why. YOU MUST have a direct question like “how has a persons off-line identity changed after being apart of the BTS second life fandom” you must then talk about the specific group you will observe, for example, make and females between the ages of 18-25 on second life PARTICIPANTS MUST NOT BE UNDER 16! KEEP IN MIND you are not conducting any interviews you are only discussing the approach to how you will conduct interviews, that’s what you are proposing. You must include all these sections Sections to Include: Each section should be set off with a section heading/sub-title. The total proposal should be between 2400-3000 words, not including the bibliography. Title – Your title should be concise. It can be divided into two sections before and after a colon (:). Rather than being cute or witty, you should aim to include all or most of the key words that pertain to your proposed research. Introduction (/20)- This section, which should be one- two comprehensive paragraphs that will first introduce your topic and community and provide some background information about your chosen community. It should provide enough information about the chosen topic and community that any general reader can understand exactly what the project is about. It should peek the readers interest and clearly outline why it is focused on anthropology. There should also be at least one sentence explaining how anthropological theories will be used to support the main argument. Clarify the purpose and rationale for your research. Be brief, and concise, and do not devote a long stretch of time to explaining the details. At the end of the introduction you should state your research question in one sentence. In this one sentence you need to inform your reader about who, what, where, and why your research is significant. This should be a refined version of the question that you wrote for your Site Selection assignment. There are links to articles on how to write a research question below, but if you are still having trouble formulating your ideas I would suggest contacting the Writing Center at York. Review of Literature and Theory (/60)- This section will be approximately 4-7 paragraphs in length. It needs to contain a more in-depth explanation of your research objectives by contextualizing it within a body of scholarly literature. Given what has already been written on the topic, why is your research important? What will it contribute to our knowledge, within the discipline of anthropology? To answer these questions, you must place your research within a theoretical and conceptual framework and review the work of other scholars. All of the sources you have listed in your bibliography should be mentioned here (even if some are only mentioned briefly) In your discussion, make sure to outline the theories that are most important to you, and discuss how other anthropologists or scholars have investigated this or similar issues. Understanding your theoretical and conceptual framework will require a lot of thought, so don’t try to write this part in one night! Take time to think about how your research will complement or refute extant scholarly writings. If you have never written a literature review before you need to do some research to figure out how this is done. The biggest mistake students make is writing an annotated bibliography for this section….there is a big difference between the two. You will receive 0 if you submit an annotated bibliography. A literature review is written in formal essay-style and should clearly summarize what other authors have said about your particular topic and community. All authors listed in the bibliography should be mentioned here. It also needs to answer the question: How will this research add to the anthropological literature on the chosen topic? Anthropology theories must also be summarized and outlined in terms of how they apply. As a fourth -year student you are expected to know how to write a short literature review. If you have never written one, I would highly recommend contacting the Writing Center at York. There are also links to articles below that might get you started. Also, the best way to learn is to read others literature reviews which usually follow the introduction in all anthropological articles. Methods (/60) – This section should answer the questions of where, who, how, and when: 1) where will your field site be? 2) What methods will you use to investigate the problem you have posed? 3) What schedule do you plan to follow to accomplish all of your goals? This section should clearly outline the methods used, why and how they will be used? Where the research will take place and a bit about the demographic involved. It should also include a brief timeline as well as references to anthropological theories about your chosen methods and methodologies. Remember: your methods must conform to the Generic Protocol and our ethics clearance rules. In summary include: 1) Describe the digital place/places you will conduct your research and offer important information regarding its social importance and users etc. 2) What methods will you use to investigate the problem you have posed? You need to explain how you will contact the participants and develop a relationship with them. Make sure you explain in detailed how the methods you have chosen (and need to use due to ethics clearance) will work for your particular project, are anthropological, and will benefit the creation of a digital ethnography. You need to cite anthropology sources here. Also, explain the amount of time you will spend, if you are doing any reviews of digital documents (including review of newspapers, historical archives, etc.); and if you plan on taking photographs or videos etc. Discuss your research procedures in down-to-earth, precise language. What are your strategies for collecting information? How do you plan to organize your field data: will you keep a field log? Will it be written by hand or typed on a computer? How will you contact your participants? 3) What schedule you plan to follow to accomplish all your goals? The Method section should end with a timetable or timeline (which can be in chart form) that outlines when you intend to complete each step of your research and writing up. List of Interview Questions (/20_The whole class will focus and use the basic interview question list provided (11 in all) but you also need to create 5-10 open ended questions that are more specific for your particular project focus. Make sure they are open-ended and not close questions. We discussed the difference in Week 7. Bibliography (/20) – This should include the sources you have or should consult, which link up with your Literature Review. For the proposal you need a minimum of ten sources (80% anthropology) you found outside of the course material, plus any sources from the course you would like to use. Do not rely on course materials for your research project. Most of these should follow from your Site Selection. Your mark here will be based on the correct formatting, and appropriate choices (all anthropology or related to anthropology), closely related to your topic (as explained in the literature review), fairly recent (most after 2000). Remember your project is focused on Digital Ethnography so make sure most of your sources are as well. The more current the sources the better! All references cited in the proposal should be included in the bibliography. Use the Author-Date Chicago Manual Style only. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html Spelling, Grammar, Style, Presentation in-text citations etc. (/20)
