Volume 2, Number 3, 2014 ISSN 2052-8396 (Online) SPECIAL METHODOLOGY EDITION

SPACE AND CULTURE, INDIA

A peer reviewed India focused International J our nal i n Humanities and Social Sciences

December 2014

Published by: ACCB Publishing, England Raju. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 EDITORIAL OPEN ACCESS Research Methodologies: An Exciting Mixed people. Photograph perceived as ‘speaking for Bag! itself’ is then seen as somehow objective. Professor Saraswati Raju† Contrary to this, are the recent shifts in There are many books and articles, which photographing and videoing the city to discuss a variety of social scientific research incorporate the contemporary theoretical methods. As such, bringing out an issue on concerns to show embodied experiences of research methodologies may be somewhat urban spaces. Such works use visual images to questioned. However, our purpose here is implore the affective feel rather than to somewhat different and twofold: to expose decipher the representation of urban spaces. the readers to different subject fields with For these scholars, photographs thus become varying methodological concerns having important analytical tools. The other shift is specific disciplinary edges in one place and, in through digital visual images. Rose observes the process, indirectly touch upon the various that these two - the theoretical and the possibilities while relooking afresh at existing technological - are analytically distinct. research trends. The mixed bag thus deals with However, the multimodal technology and scholars directly pointing out the inadequacies online platforms not only allow for new ways of existing doctoral theses in the Indian of scholarly engagements with places, they are universities on one hand to positioning the now being effectively used to create their feel local in the historiography as one of the as well making 'representation' just one among research concerns on the other. several epistemological possibilities. Such an approach makes a way of looking at photos The issue opens up with the invited paper by with ‘an aesthetic sensibility rather than a Gillian Rose. She discusses the evolutionary semiological/discourse, a response that takes trajectory of visual representation of the city the form of a bodily and emotional stance which has familiar and yet extraordinarily rather than interpretive or hermeneutic work’. complex history, unravelled by many. From the The differentiating methods have their own maze of kaleidoscopic images that it has, Rose pitfalls, and a meaningful collaboration has picked up the visual medium of between urban scholars interested in visual photography, and its interface with the urban. modes and a visual practitioner is what is Photography has been chosen because of its required to overcome them - a concern that widespread use in diverse conditions and the has remained inadequately addressed. focus is on scholars - professional social Whether such collaboration would be scientists or otherwise who use or create considered well within the purview of critical images as ways to understand what 'the urban' social sciences is another issue. is. A seemingly trivial medium, photographic representation is in fact about politics of that Rose mentions geographical practice of map- representation - a glossy and idealised making that does not depend on the cityscape can also be captured through its distinction between professional and amateur underbelly of squalor, shanty settlements, and cartographers in claiming the ground realities so on. The criticality of such representation, and use ‘representation’ as the preferable mode of depicting urban spaces. however, is assumed to be self-evident thereby missing the point that the text thus The camera/smartphones have added another produced can be read differently by different dimension to the whole debate about everyday social practices through which urban

† Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional lives are being performed, often going beyond Development, School of Social Sciences, (CSRD), representation and/or evocation of urban. The Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Email: digital mediums act in close association with [email protected] Raju. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 2 the social networking sites with accompanying Misra et al. explore the Social Network images, texts, comment, and so on. This, Analysis (SNA), which has received increasing according to Rose, is ‘networked urbanism’ attention from various disciplines and is used wherein the emergent form of urban visual to unravel social relations among individuals culture offers significant challenges to and institutions in the next article. According prevalent social science methodologies. The to the authors, the analysis has been largely three-way relationship between photographs adopted by scholars interested in studying and urban - representation, evocation and livelihood systems of the rural poor. The performance - necessitates rather different growing commercialisation of common methodological approach from social scientists property resources as well as movements to interested in the mediation of urban spaces by non-farm employment has rendered a visual technologies. In order to work as complex tenor to rural livelihoods; there is representational devices, photographs require information overflow from diverse sources and interpretation so that their meaning can be the service needs are becoming progressively decoded; for them to act as evocative devices, multifarious. The intertwining of these factors the photographs entail an aesthetic sensibility requires not only a comprehensive in order to experience their affect, and their understanding of issues faced by the rural understanding as performative devices require people; any services aimed at sustenance an engagement with the dynamic network of entail efficient rural institutions and their social practices, their creation and distribution restructuring at multiple levels. According to for enactment. The three - the photographic, the authors, SNA is such an analytical tool the urban and the social-theoretical - are, which can handle livelihood system analysis however, interlinked and cannot be and can deal with matters of practical understood apart from one another. importance such as the influential actors as The second article by Venkat Pulla is about well as the key institutions in a livelihood Grounded Theory which works in reverse order system and the functioning of their interactive as compared to the conventional method in network, their role in rural development, and social science research, i.e., theoretical so on. The paper offers elaborate research framework first which is to be substantiated methodology along with graphic details about with data. Instead, the grounded approach is different kinds of networks, matrices, from ground upward, i.e., with no terminologies commonly used in the analysis, etc. for those who would like to adopt SNA as preconceived theoretical ideas prior to a research project, it is the empirical a research tool. observations, the data collection in various The article that follows is by Indrajit Goswami ways, which form the basis for generating a who has systematically analysed several theory. In a way then the researcher goes to doctoral theses selected randomly from the field without being constrained by ongoing reference sections of two leading universities theoretical constructs. The author deals with in Tamil Nadu, India to point out the loopholes the principles and processes of the Grounded and conceptual inadequacies therein. Theory followed by discussion on the nature of Following a brief introduction to quantitative codes, coding process and the concept of and qualitative methods, the author discusses saturation. Not surprisingly, there are the problematic issues in research, which arguments against and in favour of Grounded include irrelevance of thesis titles, insufficient Theory. Pulla delves into these issues in depth attention to data collection, sample size and and is of the opinion that the theory does selection, identification of proper instrument provide a sound theoretical basis for practice. for their execution and framing of objectives, Selected narratives from the author’s recent hypotheses and operational definitions, etc. studies explain the processes involved in The case-by-case observations on each thesis Grounded Theory. gives a critical edge to the study, which should Raju. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 3 help the prospective researchers, About Professor Saraswati Raju academicians, and students avoid the pitfalls. Prof. Raju’s teaching and research interests The objective of this article is purely academic include issues related to social development and its scope is limited to enhancement of with focus on gendered marginalities in labour quality of future research studies in the market, access to literacy/education/skills, domains and related fields. empowerment, and gender and space. She has Sarma’s article carries out a critical review of published extensively on these issues in the trends of historical writings with reference national and international journals of repute. to Assam. The historical writings of Assam She is one of the founding members for the have more or less followed the basic International Geographic Union (IGU) periodisation of Indian history in terms of Early Commission on Gender and Geography. Historical Period (600 BC to 400 CE), Late Member of editorial boards of Annals of Historical Period (400 CE to 700 CE), Early Association of American Geographers, Antipode Medieval Period (700 CE to 1200 CE) and and Progress in Human Geography, amongst Medieval Period (1200 CE to the Colonization others, she has been at the forefront in Period). According to the author, there is no introducing gender studies in Indian geography; apparent difficulties whatsoever in following her co-edited publication of the Atlas on this specific periodisation. However, the Women and Men in India has been praised as a absence of an early historical phase is an landmark work in this direction. Her recent co- intriguing problem in the dynastic history of edited and edited books include Colonial and Assam. The author opines that a pan-Indian Post-colonial Geographies of India (2006, Sage approach to the history of Assam in the Publications), Doing Gender, Doing Geography: Northeast would thus not be just in decoding Emerging Research in India (2011, Routledge), the cultural dynamics of the complex society in Gendered Geographies: Space and Place in the region; the history would lack authenticity. South Asia (2011, Oxford University Press) and An alternative and more precise periodisation her co-authored book titled NGOs and the State of the historical phase that has been provided in 21st Century: India and Ghana (2006, by him does not suggest any clear marker INTRAC, UK). between periods and eras in the region, but emphasises on slow and steady Saraswati has received many visiting awards transformations. Sarma stresses on and fellowships in her long and illustrious corroboration of the historical events through career. She is a recipient of Janet Monk Service ‘proper’ historical source material for Award (2010) given by the Women Specialty reconstructing the history of the region rather Group of Association of American Geographers than deriving inferences from mythology and for exemplary contribution to the study of legends. However, he acknowledges the gender/feminist concerns in geography. This is importance of recent trends such as selective the first ever award outside the Anglo-Saxon utilization of oral traditions, folklores and world. She has also been awarded the 2012’s memory in historiography. Sarma’s exposition, Distinguished Service Award for Asian although not directly dealing with research Geography instituted by the Asian Geography methodologies per se, pointedly brings out Specialty Group, Association of American how any research has to be contextualised by Geographers, USA. The award honours taking into account local histories and spatially 'outstanding scholars in the field of Asian distinctive communities rather than adopting geography who have demonstrated exceptional all-encompassing metanarratives. scholarship as well as service to the specialty group'. We hope that the readers would enjoy this issue, as always feedbacks are welcome.

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 METHODOLOGY OPEN ACCESS Visual Culture, Photography and the Urban: An Interpretive Framework Professor Gillian Rose† Abstract This paper offers a framework for understanding and reflecting upon the various ways that urban scholars have worked with visual representations of city spaces. It suggests that there are three main approaches: representing the urban, evoking the urban and performing the urban. The paper discusses the methodological implications of each of these. Key words: photography, urban, visual culture, methodology

† Department of Geography, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK Email: [email protected] ©2014 Rose. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 5

Introduction images. Professional visual practitioners, such There is of course an extraordinarily long, rich as architects, filmmakers, advertising or and complex history of visual representations television companies, photographers or artists, of the city. From high art, to popular culture, generally create the images themselves that are across urban-related professions to the mass studied in this body of work. A body of such media, urban places have been encountered work is taken and interpreted by the scholar to and pictured by all sorts of visual practitioners. demonstrate how it represents a specific The material and affective qualities of urban understanding of the urban. environments have thus been mediated by Photography in particular has been used in many kinds of images, and in turn our many different ways in relation to the city. engagement with the urban has been shaped Some of the earliest photographic work by photographs, paintings, drawings, films, showing city places appears highly descriptive: plans, maps, digital visualisations and videos of photography as a technology has very often real and imagined cities, among many other been used as a means of objectively recording visual forms (see for examples: Boyer, 1994; visual appearances. In the second half of the Gordon, 2010; Lindner, 2010; Marcus and nineteenth century, for example, many urban Neumann, 2007; McQuire, 2008; Nilsen, 2013; development projects in Europe and its Tormey, 2012). colonies were documented by photographers This short essay takes just one possible route who recorded both the old areas of the cities being demolished and the process of building through this complex intersection between visual culture and the urban. It focusses on one the modern infrastructure that took their place. visual medium: photography. Photography is a And while many photographers from Europe useful medium through which to explore ways travelled to photograph colonial cities, of conceptualising relations between the urban photographic technologies were rapidly taken and visual media, because it has from its up by equal enthusiasm by photographers in inception been used to picture cities; it is also a cities globally, who developed their own urban very widely distributed technology, used in a visions (Pinney and Peterson, 2003). The use of vast range of contexts by diverse kinds of users. cameras to record a changing urban landscape The essay also looks at one particular kind of continues into the twentieth century, of course. 'visual practitioner': scholars, whether However, most scholars of urban photography professional social scientists or not, who use or would not argue that the camera is ever make images as ways of understanding what objective. While it may faithfully record the 'the urban' is. The essay offers a brief patterns of light that fall onto its chemicals or framework for approaching the range of ways photovoltaic cells, a photographer pointed the in which urban scholars have engaged with camera at a particular place, controlled the photographic images as a means of camera's sensitivity and exposure to that light, interpreting, evoking and performing city developed the print or uploaded the file to a spaces. computer, perhaps edited the photograph Representing the Urban somehow, before sending it on to various audiences to make their own interpretations of How cities are represented in various visual it. Indeed, Elizabeth Edwards has recently media, from film to architectural drawings to dissected in detail the documentary impulse photography to paintings, has been considered animating the widespread amateur by a large literature from a range of disciplines. photography movement in late-nineteenth and This scholarship, broadly speaking, focuses on early-twentieth century England, arguing that how discourses about 'the urban' are both their efforts to describe changing urban and reflected in, and re-articulated by, visual rural landscapes were both driven by, and Page | 5

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 6 constitutive of, nationalist discourses of with other forms of urban discourse, but nostalgic anti-urbanism (Edwards, 2012). Thus, suggesting very different versions of Dubai. their apparently descriptive work in fact also Thus, this approach to the visual representation articulated a quite specific ideological position. of cities is valuable for its careful attention to Hence, a recurrent theme in scholarly work on images themselves, and for its critical capacity. photographs as representations is the politics In a world in which the urban—as well as the of that representation: how and what is social and the economic—are increasingly pictured, by whom, and with what effects. represented visually, the interpretive tools There are many studies demonstrating that the offered by this approach are important and work of representing urban spaces is by no necessary. means trivial. The work of re-presentation However, this approach to visual materials is always represents both an urban scene but also less effective in considering how specific a social scene, both in what is pictured but also images, or groups or genres of image, have in how it is pictured and what relation is specific effects with particular audiences in established with specific viewers by the formal particular places and times. Its interpretation of components of the image. Many scholarly what a photograph means tends to rely on a studies have therefore taken photographs of method drawn loosely from semiology and different urban places and explored how their what I have elsewhere described as discourse content and symbolic references affirm or analysis (Rose, 2011): it is a method that relies contest other discourses defining the urban. on a close reading of the photograph and other Jane Tormey's recent book discusses this at texts, figuring out what elements in the some length (see, Tormey, 2012). photograph relate to what other elements in, It is also important to note that this critical say, policy documents or the mass media or engagement with the politics of representation novels or some other discursive form. As an has taken visual form too. Many scholars of the approach, it has little to say on what Appadurai urban have felt that, given the power of images calls the 'social life of objects' (Appadurai, in representing cities, they should respond in 1986): how objects, let's say visual objects like a kind, with photographs. Allan Pred, for canvas, a photograph or a map, become example, in his discussions of modernity's embedded in circuits of social practice, and emergence in Sweden, uses collaged images to only have an effect in the context of that demonstrate the complex intersections of new practice (Rose, 2012). It is not particularly and existing architectural and social forms interested in how images are understood by (Pred, 1995). In a more contemporary vein, lively audiences. Hence efforts to counterpose Yasser Elsheshtawy has written about Dubai critical visual work to oppressive forms of and subtitled his book Behind an Urban representation often seem to assume that their Spectacle (Elsheshtawy, 2010); in it, he criticality is self-evident: that photographing reproduces a few of the glossy marketing workers, for example, is inherently to assert the images through which Dubai visualises—and value of labour. Paradoxically, this ends up not sells—itself to investors and tourists as a so distinct from arguments that claim that the dazzling urban spectacle of sun, starchitecture photograph speaks for itself, and is therefore and sand. However, he also includes a chapter somehow objective. of his own photographs, black and white Finally, before moving on to other bodies of images of the migrant workers whose labour work that assert different relations between sustains Dubai's economy and whose photography and the urban, it is important to residential and work spaces are invisible in the mention a specific tradition of photographing city's dominant imagery. Here, images confront the built urban environment that exists within images: equally embedded in their relations the social sciences. Some urban scholars also use photographs in order to document change Page | 6

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 7 to the material urban landscape. Usually they that offer concepts with which to understand are linked explicitly to a body of written urban change in urban built environments. scholarship, and their aim is to describe, This body of social science work is perhaps not visually and systematically, how a cityscape has as exciting as some other forms of urban changed over time. scholarship that engage with visual media. Its An example of this kind of work is the project images are not often particularly visually Invincible Cities, curated by Camile Jose Vergara exciting or even aesthetically attractive. That is and Howard Gillette. Vergara has been taking not their point. Their point is to work as a form photographs of the New York neighbourhood of evidence for material change, a fuller and of Harlem for years, and they are now all on the more detailed form of evidence than verbal project's website, along with photos of description can provide. In addition, as Camden, New Jersey, and Richmond, California. evidence, their epistemological status is subject The photographs are organised by location (and to explicit discussion and clarification. This, I also by building type), and it is therefore think, is very important for social scientists possible to search the site and find a series of interested in using visual images. Simply saying photographs stretching over two decades or 'our culture is visual now, so we need to take more of a particular building or view. These photographs' is not an adequate methodology, scholars do not claim that their photographs as this body of work demonstrates. The links are a neutral record of urban change, however. between concepts, methodology, evidence and They concur that photographs—like any other interpretation need just as much puzzling over form of image—are never windows onto a real when the evidence is visual as it does when the world. Photos are created in a specific context: evidence is, say, an interview transcript or a in this case, debates among urban studies policy document. scholars about the nature of change in urban Evoking the Urban environments. This is evident in a number of ways in Vergara's project. The Invincible Cities The previous section discussed a large body of website has a long essay by Vergara on the work that is particularly focused on the changes visible in his Harlem photographs; he is representation of urban spaces. Clearly, there clear that his photos construct an are many genres of photography that have interpretation of that change, which is driven been taken by urban scholars to be by globalisation and its persistent inequalities. representational: documentary photography, While that particular project leaves the precise photojournalism, art photography, and so on. link between the photographs taken and that Interpreting photographs, or other visual interpretive framework unclear, there are other media, as representational is a methodological projects that have addressed that link more stance towards the image, not one driven by directly. Charles Suchar, for example, in his the image itself. Hence, as theoretical shifts study of gentrification in Chicago, has create new methodological problematics, developed the notion of a 'shooting script' as existing photographs can be interpreted the bridge between the social-scientific concept differently—and photographs of city spaces can of 'gentrification' and the photographs he takes be created in ways that assert a different as a record of its material manifestations in the relation between the city and its imaging. landscape (Suchar, 1997). Scholars using In recent years, two such shifts are evident to photographs of urban places in this way, then, me. The first, which the next section will are not doing so naively. They understand their discuss, is the embedding of image-making and form of photography to be representational, sharing in a wide range of everyday urban and its representationality is articulated practices. The second, to be discussed now, is through explicit relations to other texts. In this an approach to creating images of the urban case, the texts are those works of social science has become more and more popular among

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Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 8 scholars influenced by the move in urban are related. Mark Hansen, for example, argues theory towards a concern with the embodied that digital technologies necessarily entrain experiencing of urban spaces. This is an interest bodies—and are therefore affective—because in the experiential and the sensory aspects of bodies are the site through which digital data is the urban: urban spaces as felt through the processed (Hansen, 2004). skin, smelt through the nose, seen through the I prefer to keep the two shifts—the theoretical eyes. A number of shifts has driven it in and the technological—analytically distinct. It is contemporary social theory, including work on clearly the case that efforts to use photographs embodiment, the sensory and the affective. In to evoke the sensory aspects of urban life this work, visual images are used as a means continue to be made using 'analogue' less to decode the representation of urban technologies like disposable cameras and prints spaces by linking them to other discourses— of photographs in journals. For example, Tim whether visual or textual, popular or social- Edensor's writing in his book on derelict urban scientific—but rather to evoke their affective spaces is interspersed with his black and white feel. The claim is made in this scholarship that photographs from those spaces: uncaptioned, images—usually photography and video—are they insert a powerful feeling of melancholy especially effective ways to do this. Images are abandonment into his text as they show vacant seen as a means to convey visual affects but buildings, the detritus of their past human also to hint at tactile, auditory and olfactory occupation, and their slow succumbing to the affects; and of course video can also carry plant life that is taking over these spaces sound effects. The work of Sarah Pink has been (Edendor, 2005). The affective use of very influential here (please see, Pink, 2009; photographs depends more on theoretical 2011; 2012). orientation than ontological essence, it seems This argument suggests that images are not to me. always and only representational. For scholars Nonetheless, it is also the case that digital using photographs and videos to evoke urban technologies are enabling some urban scholars affect, indeed, images are more-than- to experiment with new visual forms, and with representational. Photographs and videos can new forms of distributing their work; and these convey feelings, emotions, states of mind, new channels are allowing more scholars to use affective states, sensual effects: and all these photographs for affective ends. The online are important in understanding the lively and distribution of photographs, for example enchanted materialities of urban places. These (including online versions of print journals), feelings and responses are difficult to express in allows urban scholars to work with colour words, but, according to these scholars, a photography in ways that has not until now photograph can evoke them. Photos are thus been possible in an academic context. And the important analytical tools for scholars of urban availability of cheap video editing software—as affect. well as online distribution platforms—has made Alongside this theoretical move towards an the making of videos much easier for social interest in the experiencing of urban spaces, science scholars. Moreover, multimedia there has been another shift of a different kind: software and online platforms also allow for the emergence of digital forms of creating, new forms of scholarly engagement with editing and distributing visual images. At the places. For example, Roderick Coover has same time as urban scholars began to start discussed a number of examples of what he thinking about urban places as affective fields calls "digital panoramic environments" (Coover, or sensory landscapes, so digital cameras and 2011). Digital panoramic environments take a websites for sharing photography and video like visual form that has historically been used to YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr have become represent city landscapes—the panorama— pervasive. For some scholars, these two shifts and problematise its specific viewpoint by Page | 8

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 9 layering in other images, text and sounds. time to develop them. Hence the increasing Exposition—the traditional academic voice— interest in collaborating with artists and can thus be supplemented, as Coover says, with filmmakers to convey senses of urban place poetry and narrative, music and games, (and such collaborations are also welcomed by ambient sound and graphics. Clearly, the many visual artists seeking conceptual multimodality enabled by such software frameworks and indeed funded placements for technology allows the urban scholar to evoke their own work). To date, however, there has more directly, perhaps, the colours and sounds been little explicit reflection in the social and feel of urban spaces. Coover also argues sciences on this process of collaboration that it dissolves the hegemony of the between two different fields of professional representational, as its explicit engagement practice, and even less discussion about what with a range of forms of engaging with places might constitute a 'successful' collaboration. makes the representational just one among The criteria for such a 'success' are complex, several epistemological possibilities, and differ between urban studies and fine art: possibilities which also include the evocation of what may be a successful project in one field the more-than-representational. may be illegible in another. Indeed, the whole These are important arguments which are question of how different spectators encounter radically different from the body of work more-than-representational images is not discussed in the previous section. There is no addressed in this move towards the visual engagement with notions of representation in evocation of affective urban spaces. this work; there is little interest in discursive There is also the difficult question of how such contexts, or the histories of visual genres. The academic work—work that engages with the assertion that photographs are necessarily non-representational by experimenting with more-than-representational is an ontological what for academics are unconventional media claim about the nature of the photograph as a —is evaluated by academic peers as 'social specific medium. As Roland Barthes so science'. There are two issues here. One is famously did many years ago, these scholars simply getting such experiments out to social ask: what is the essence of photography? science audiences so that they can be discussed (Barthes, 1982). And their answer is that "the widely. At the moment, most such visual has an explicitness and immediacy which experimental projects seem to be hosted on delivers a multisensory impact" (Spencer, 2011, individual project websites; as far as I am 32). This response suggests that looking at aware, there are no sites that offer to host a photos requires an aesthetic sensibility rather range of different social-science-related than a semiological/discourse-analytic one: a projects and thus act as an online 'journal' for response that takes the form of a bodily and various multimedia projects (though the site emotional stance rather than interpretive or photomediationsmachine.net has begun to act hermeneutic work. as such a site for more digital humanities- This essay is not the place to attempt to related work). Equally pressing, there is very adjudicate between these very different little debate in the social sciences so far about approaches to photography. However, just as how these experiments might be evaluated as approaches to photographs as representational social science. What counts as a robust, significant online multimedia output? And how have their lacunae, so too do deployments of photographs as more-than-representational. does that relate to the aesthetic response that images as evocations seem primarily to Of course, one issue for urban scholars turning require? to visual modes not only to create evidence but also, in effect, to convey their analysis, is that A further question often addressed to scholars they require the sophisticated skills of a visual using more-than-representational images to practitioner—and few have them, or have the evoke urban experience is how such work Page | 9

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 10 might be understood as 'critical' in some way. photographic practice in particular is the third While scholars such as Nigel Thrift and Gernot area this essay addresses. Böhme have been arguing for some time that How might we think digital photography and contemporary capitalism is itself investing the urban together? Again, this is not simply a heavily in the creation of affective brands, question of new technologies driving a new commodities and environments (Böhme, 1993; relationship to the urban. For digital cameras 2003; Thrift, 2011; 2012), it is not clear that the participate in many different photographic visual evocation of such affects can in and of practices, of course. They are used in itself challenge that 'aesthetic economy', to use photographic art practice as a means of Böhme's phrase. Such a challenge, according to documentation. The rise of 'citizen journalism' those persuaded by these arguments, is not and the enthusiasm of the mass media for simply a question of 'resisting' the affective in photographs taken not by professionals after some way. Instead, it requires the twisting, events have unfolded, but by amateur refracting, mediating, multiplying of the witnesses of events as they happened, has not affective. If the mission of social science is at dimmed. They can even be used, with apps and least to question taken-for-granted forms of hardware attachments, to take sophisticated social organisation, however, more photographs and to make and edit videos and experimentation exploring effective forms of films. Moreover, in terms of family such multiplication are necessary. photography, there has been little change Performing the Urban between what was done with analogue One thing shared by all the scholarship this cameras and what is now done with digital essay has briefly reviewed so far is an cameras: photographs are still taken by family overwhelming focus on images produced by members, of other family members, for what might be described as 'expert' visual circulation and display primarily among practitioners. Most of this scholarship works members of that same family. with visual materials created by highly skilled In terms of sketching a third analytical frame artists, cartographers, architects, visualisers, for thinking about the relation between photographers and filmmakers; some has photography and the urban, though, I want to certainly addressed amateur practice but most focus on a specifically digital form of has not. photography, and suggest a specific way in However, certainly since the invention of which it is related to the urban: by performing relatively cheap cameras at the end of the it. In particular, I want to focus on the nineteenth century, photography in particular imbrication of photographs in many forms of has also been a field inhabited by vast numbers social networking. Facebook, Instagram, of relatively technically unskilled individuals, Snapchat and Vine are all immensely popular who have nonetheless created huge numbers sites and all are full of photos and videos, of images. Amateurs organised into film or usually taken with cameraphones. Now, clearly camera clubs have taken some of these images. the subject matter of these images is not often Many other images taken in everyday situations particularly 'urban'. However, their extensive are usually described as 'family photography', use in urban spaces alongside other forms of and many family photo collections also contain online data—particularly various kinds of images of urban spaces taken on holidays and mapping apps—suggests that there may be an on family outings. In addition, with the advent emerging imbrication of the photographic with of digital cameras and cameraphones, the the urban that deserves further scrutiny of a numbers of photographs of urban spaces now particular kind. being taken has increased enormously. The Geographers have paid attention for some time emergence of digital forms of making, editing, to the ways in which digital technologies are storing, displaying and circulating into popular allowing popular and activist engagements with Page | 10

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 11 urban maps. They are interested in the ways to a lack of attention to and engagement with that online maps can be used as means of the actual location of the cameraphone and its enabling and organising different forms of place user. Many other forms, though, are about representation, by allowing photographs to be locating places, discussing places, arranging to added to specific locations, for example. This meet in specific places, reviewing places and of has spawned discussions of "neogeography", course looking at photographs of, and defined as map-making that does not depend photographing places (Graham et al., 2013). In on the distinction between professional and this situation, the locations and social relations amateur cartographers (Wilson and Graham, that enact the urban are being constituted 2013). It has been suggested that these through a specifically digital medium, that of particular practices tend to be about competing the social network, with its reliance on images, claims to know the truth of what a place is brief texts, comment boxes, 'likes' and reviews. really like, and are probably best approached in This is a lively, networked urbanism, constantly terms of the first analytical frame presented in refreshed, updated and renewed, its landscape this essay: that of the politics of representing configured by multiple users enacting a urban spaces (Elwood and Leszczynski, 2013). network, in large part by taking and distributing However, there is another way in which simple photos. popular photography—especially cameraphone This is an emergent form of urban visual photography—and urban spaces can be culture, and its parameters remain uncertain. thought of together, which concerns the It offers some significant challenges to social everyday social practices through which urban science methodologies, however, in its scale, its life is performed. This approach draws on a dynamism and its complex negotiation body of work interested in social practice: in between material places and their mediation by the routine doings, sayings and feelings through the affordances of multiple digital networks. It which so much of social life happens. A suggests that the qualitative methods of theoretical interest on the practices of urban semiology, discourse analysis and aesthetic life focusses on the specific modes of talk, sensibility required by approaching comportment, sensibility and gesture that photographs either as representations or as sustain city life. In addition, it is clear that evocations are inadequate: methods are digital technologies that use images are needed that can deal with the sheer numbers increasingly integrated into those practices that of images involved in these online networks. perform the urban. Methods are also needed that can engage with Digital technologies—especially smartphones— the dynamics embedded in the software are becoming more and more central to the platforms that structure these sites, as Jean performance of urbanism, and particularly to Burgess and Joshua Green point out in their ways of inhabiting urban spaces. These forms of study of YouTube (Burgess and Green, 2009). inhabitation—of embodied practice, modes of Methods are needed that can engage with the comportment and sociability—are increasingly social practices through which such mapping mediated by smartphones and specifically by occurs; thus far, various versions of the images that they carry. Here then we might ethnographic participant observation have think of cameraphones not as representing or been deployed, but there are limits to how this method can engage with people distributed even evoking the urban—though they can be seen to do these things too—but as enabling over distances, communicating via small and mediating its performance. Given the screens (Kitchin et al., 2013). Finally, methods frequent laments that online devices are are needed that can engage with the ways in diminishing public sociability, this may seem an which so many of these photos that perform unlikely possibility. Moreover, indeed, some the urban in this way are taken casually and uses of cameraphones may indeed contribute looked at casually. They are the visual Page | 11

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 12 equivalent of the phatic forms of understood as performative devices, communication that Vincent Miller argues are photographs require an engagement with the typical of the internet more generally: dynamic network of social practices that their "communications which have purely social creation and distribution enact. What each (networking) and not informational or dialogic approach shares, however, is a conviction that intents" (Miller, 2008). That is, these are images the photographic, the urban and the social- that do not convey meaning or expect theoretical cannot be understood apart from engagement from their viewers: they are made one another. simply to be used on a social networking site as References a means of maintaining that social network. Neither the attentive interpretation required if Appadurai, A. (1986). The Social Life of Things: an image is seen as a representation, nor the Commodities in Cultural Perspective. affective stance called for by approaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. images as affective, are necessarily part of how Barthes, R. (1982). Camera Lucida, trans. R. these casually-created images are used to Howard, Jonathan Cape, London. perform social relations. All this poses challenges to social scientists interested in Bennett, J. (1997). ‘The Enchanted World of studying photographs and urban visual culture; Modernity: Paracelsus, Kant, and Deleuze’, it also suggests that there is more work to be Cultural Values, 1(1): 1–28. done theorising the relation between the visual Böhme, G. (1993). ‘Atmosphere as the and the urban that is about neither Fundamental Concept of a New Aesthetics’, representation nor evocation. Thesis Eleven, 36(1): 113–126. Conclusions Böhme, G. (2003). ‘Contribution to the Critique The relation between photography, or any of the Aesthetic Economy’, Thesis Eleven, 73(1): other visual technology, and the urban, has 71–82. never been a relation between two distinct and Boyer, M.C. (1994). The City of Collective knowable entities, such that 'the camera' Memory: Its HIstorical Imagery and photographs 'the city'. The relation between Architectural Entertainments. London: MIT these two is much messier than that. Press. Photographs interpret the city for us, and as Burgess, J and J. Green. (2009). YouTube: Online urban scholars we understand the work that Video and Participatory Culture, Polity, they do through both theoretical and Cambridge. conceptual lenses. Clearly, there are many ways in which photography in particular intersects Coover, R. (2011). ‘The Digital Panorama and with urban spaces. This short essay has argued Cinemascapes’, in Switching Codes: Thinking that photographs can be understood as having Through Digital Technology in the Humanties three main relations with the urban. They can and the Arts, eds. T. Bartscherer and R. Coover. represent urban places; they can evoke urban Chicago: Chicago University Press, pp.199–217. places; and they can perform urban places. Edensor, T. (2005). Industrial Ruins: Spaces, Each of these relations invites a rather different Aesthetics, and Materiality. Berg, Oxford. methodological approach from social scientists interested in the mediation of urban spaces by Edwards, E. (2012). The Camera as Historian: visual technologies. Understood as Amateur Photographers and Historical representational devices, photographs require Imagination, 1885—1918. Durham NC: Duke interpretation in order that their meaning be University Press. decoded; understood as evocative devices, Elsheshtawy, Y. (2010). Dubai: Behind an Urban photographs require an aesthetic sensibility in Spectacle. London: Routledge. order that their affect can be experienced; and Page | 12

Rose. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 13 Elwood, S. and A. Leszczynski (2013). ‘New Perception’, Qualitative Research, 11(3): 261– Spatial Media, New Knowledge Politics’, 276. Transactions of the Institute of British Pink, S. (ed.). (2012). Advances in Visual Geographers 38(4): 544–559. Methodology. London: SAGE. Gordon, E. (2010). The Urban Spectator: Pred, A. (1995). Recognizing European American Concept Cities from Kodak to Google. Modernities: A Montage of the Present. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press. London: Routledge. Graham, M., M. Zook, and A. Boulton. (2013). Rose, G. (2012). ‘The Question of Method: ‘Augmented Reality in Urban Places: Contested Practice, Reflexivity and Critique in Visual Content and the Duplicity of Code’, Culture Studies’, in The Handbook of Visual Transactions of the Institute of British Culture, eds. I. Heywood and B. Sandywell, Geographers 38(3): 464–479. Berg, Oxford, pp. 542–558. Hansen, M.B.N (2004). New Philosophy for a Rose, G. (2011). Visual Methodologies: New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Interpreting Visual Materials, 3rd edition. Invincible Cities, Rutgers Ford Foundation, London: SAGE. available at: Spencer, S. (2011). Visual Research Methods in http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/intr the Social Sciences: Awakening Visions. London: o.html (accessed 20 January 2014). Routledge. Kitchin, R., J. Gleeson, and M. Dodge (2013). Suchar, C.S. (1997). ‘Grounding Visual Sociology ‘Unfolding Mapping Practices: A New in Shooting Scripts’, Qualitative Sociology, 20, Epistemology for Cartography’, Transactions of 33–55. the Institute of British Geographers, 38(3): 480– 496. Thrift, N. (2011). ‘Lifeworld Inc—and What To Do about It’, Environment and Planning D: Lindner, C. (2010). Globalization, Violence, and Society and Space, 29(1): 5–26. the Visual Culture of Cities. London: Routledge. Thrift, N. (2012). ‘The Insubstantial Pageant: Marcus, A and D. Neumann (eds), (2007). Producing an Untoward Land’, Cultural Visualizing the City. London: Routledge. Geographies, 19(2): 141–168. McQuire, S. (2008). The Media City: Media, Tormey, J. (2012). Cities and Photography. Architecture and Urban Space. London: SAGE. London: Routledge. Miller, V. (2008). ‘New Media, Networking and Wilson, M.W. and M. Graham (2013). Phatic Culture’, Convergence: The International ‘Neogeography and Volunteered Geographic Journal of Research into New Media Information: A Conversation with Michael Technologies, 14(4): 387–400. Goodchild and Andrew Turner’, Environment Nilsen, M. (ed.). (2013). Nineteenth-Century and Planning A, 45(1): 10–18. Photographs and Architecture. Ashgate, Farnham. Pinney, C. and N. Peterson. (ed.) (2003). Photography’s Other Histories. Durham NC: Duke University Press, Pink, S. (2009). Doing Sensory Ethnography, 2nd edition. London: SAGE. Pink, S. (2011). ‘Multimodality, Multisensoriality and Ethnographic Knowing: Social Semiotics and the Phenomenology of Page | 13

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014

METHODOLOGY OPEN ACCESS Grounded Theory Approach in Social Research Dr Venkat Pulla† Abstract This paper discusses Grounded Theory, which is one of the newer methodologies becoming popular with social researchers since its evolution in the late 1960s. The paper discusses the principles and processes of the Grounded Theory and then explores the nature of codes, coding process and the concept of saturation. It then goes on to discuss the pros and cons, arguments for and against the use of Grounded Theory methodology in social research and explores the applicability of this methodology in producing sound theoretical basis for practice. Selected narratives from the author’s recent studies are used to explain the processes of Grounded Theory methodology. Key words: Grounded Theory, qualitative research, data analysis, inductive research

† Senior Lecturer, Coordinator, Social Work Discipline, Australian Catholic University, Australia, Emails: [email protected] and [email protected] ©2014 Pulla. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Introduction The first work in the new tradition of Grounded Social research concerns itself with people and Theory was carried out with dying patients and those perplexing philosophical questions resulted in a publication of Awareness of Dying regarding knowledge, truth, values and being, (1965) by Glaser and Strauss. Subsequently, and how these aspects govern human they released a methodology book titled behaviours and activities (Somekh et al., 2011). Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967). Both of In essence, social research allows us to discover these are seminal works that have allowed for who we are as people, why we act the way we Grounded Theory to grow over the last five do and what may be some of the outcomes of decades. Thus, a Grounded Theory is one, which has developed from the use of Grounded these actions and behaviours concerning others in our society and environment and the Theory methodology, as was intended by the systems surrounding all of us. Thus, “social theory developers who made clear delineation researchers seek to identify order and between the Grounded Theory method and the regularity in the complexity of social life; they resultant theory (Bryant and Charmaz, 2007). try to make sense of it” (Ragin, 1994: 31). Social Although for the purpose of this paper, we research includes variables such as time and suggest that Grounded Theory refers to both space that our interactions occupy. Differing the process or methodology and the resultant from the stringent methods of scientific theory. This allows us to view Grounded research with its clear parameters and Theory as a theory generating research measurability, social research allows for methodology, even beyond the context of this interpretive analysis that incorporates how paper that allows for the incorporation of people think, feel and act. This is not to say that scientific objectivity on one hand and the social scientists do not make measurement, meticulousness into traditional subjective they do. With the careful collection of data and qualitative methodologies on the other to allow subsequent interpretation of this data, findings in for both credibility and validity in research provide considered answers to questions about outcomes (Hennink et al., 2011). With the use human behaviour, people, communities and of Grounded Theory, we can see then the societies. I believe that Grounded Theory is a importance of maintaining traditional scientific research method that seeks to develop theory precision for validity coupled with considered that is grounded in data systematically elucidation of perhaps not so readily gathered and analysed, and it is imperative in measurable aspects of human life, thoughts, the method that a continuous interplay feelings, behaviours and interactions, and the between data collection and analysis occurs meanings that people place on their life throughout the research process. experiences. Despite being in vogue for the last fifty years or It is expected that as a general rule, researchers less, Grounded Theory has become “the that deploy Grounded Theory approach make discovery of theory from data— systematically sure that they have no preconceived obtained and analysed in social research” theoretical ideas before starting on their (Glaser & Strauss, 1967:1). The methodological research project. This does not mean that we thrust of Grounded Theory is towards the ignore the literature review. The intention development of theory, without any particular clearly is to make sure that researchers are not commitment to specific kinds of data, lines of constrained by literature when coding. research or theoretical interests. Rather, it is a Researchers clearly avail the opportunity not to form of doing qualitative analysis that includes impose concepts on the data and instead wait a number of distinct features and uses a coding for those concepts to emerge from the data. In paradigm to ensure conceptual development other words, the research does not begin with and density (Strauss, 1987). a theory, the theory is the outcome. It is a set

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 16 of grounded concepts integrated around a that came through in our literature review. Our central theme to form a theoretical framework research as a result of ‘intensive interviews’ that explains how and why persons, allowed us as interviewers to organisations, communities or nations  Go beneath the surface of the described experience and respond to events, challenges experience(s) or problematic situations (Corbin and Holt,  Stop to explore a statement or topic 2011).  Come back to an earlier point Coding in Grounded Theory Research  Validate the participant’s humanity, Coding is an important phase in Grounded perspective or action (Charmaz, 2009: Theory Research. ‘A code in qualitative inquiry 26) is most often a word or short phrase that Interviews are contextual and remain symbolically assigns a summative, salient, negotiated that allow participants to recount essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute their concerns without interruption. ‘That is for a portion of language-based or visual data’ interesting, tell me more about it’ is an (Saldhana, 2012: 1-31). The following example approximate sentence after a nod that creates is about a code generated from the description an ambience for new information to emerge given by a research participant from research participants—the result is a Descriptive code construction or a reconstruction of the reality Housing (Charmaz, 2009). Interview stories do not The bamboo poles, bamboo mat walls, bamboo reproduce prior realities (Murphy & Dingwall, made beds, plastic sheets and thatched roofs had 2003; Silverman, 2005). There is a clear clumsily protected us from heat and rain difference between an intensive interview The following illustrations will assist our process and an ordinary disclosure in everyday understanding. In recent study, the author and life. Even research participants have clear his colleague were trying to understand the opportunities to reflect, grow and receive their sense of ‘identity’ and or ‘belonging’ of the light-bulb movements and feel rewarded. Lhotsampa community of Nepalese origin driven out of Bhutan in the late 1980s, accused Ram Rani Dahal began narrating her 18 years of of being illegal migrants, who has taken refuge living in refugee camp. in a third country after languishing in refugee ‘life and experience in camps had been camps in Nepal for more than two decades. The painful not having enough to purchase study was researching intergenerational good food and clothing; fear of perceptions and the precipitating factors accidental fires, rain and flooding. The behind those perceptions about home country bamboo poles, bamboo mat walls, and settlement in a third country. We started bamboo made beds, plastic sheets and our journey in Grounded Theory. We had no thatched roofs had clumsily protected preconceived logically deduced hypothesis. We us from heat and rain. We made several constructed our codes as we moved on. Our attempts to repatriate to Bhutan our sampling was aimed towards theory country of origin but failed’ but biggest construction rather than population of all always haunted by the identity representativeness. We did conduct limited crisis—where do I belong to?’ ( Pulla, literature review after developing our 2014) independent analysis (Charmaz & Bryant, What do we learn from the above narrative? 2009). Just as we learned from our data, our Identity questions were the research questions research participants also made sense of their hence logically main codes in this research. experiences. We coded our data based on bits However, new melancholic information that of information that existed beyond the data relates to 18 years of existence in the camps such as the ethnography of the Lhotsampas comes to surface. Although we are aware that

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 17 they have been living in camps, but were not to realise that we have new codes to add to significant to us in the original research and new orientation in theory to explain: questions around identity, we are compelled to I know nothing of Bhutan and have ignore this valid information from research nothing to be called as mine in Bhutan. participants. “A researcher has a topic to The most influential factor for my pursue. Research participants have problems to decision regarding resettlement is the solve, goals to pursue and actions to perform fact that I do not want to live hard non- and they hold assumptions, ideas and feelings” existent life like my parents and (Charmaz, 2006: 33) Therefore, our research grandparents here in Nepal camps. I questions and mode of enquiry in Grounded want to be regarded and respected as Theory privilege us to shape our subsequent ‘somebody’. I will build my own identity data and analysis. It allows us to reshape in new place—a new identity. research questions and focus on the direction of the enquiry. The above illustration from our research confirms that as researchers we were not Unlike other qualitative methodologies, focused on testing hypotheses taken from Grounded Theory does not test questions with existing theoretical frameworks, but rather a theory, it analyses data to produce a theory open to developing a new ‘theory’ grounded in that answers those questions. Of importance empirical data collected in the field. As such, and worthy of note, is that whilst Grounded the data of the young participant above has Theory is a theory-producing method, the deliberately privileged our theoretical antithesis of other methodologies which begin orientations. with a theoretical underpinning, it can incorporate a general underlying belief or a Social researches quite logically focus on a value system. It is such an underlying belief that certain amount of literature review even in all influences the questions that researchers ask qualitative research designs, and often mentors and the structure that the research takes. It is suggest to us that it is through a literature important then to acknowledge these beliefs review we identify gaps and it is in those gaps and values at the beginning. there are myriad opportunities for research. However, early on, Glaser and Strauss (1967) We will revisit the previous illustration of the explicitly advised against conducting a Lhotsampa study. The researchers were aware literature review in the substantive area of that the children of the Bhutanese refugees, research at an early stage of the research born in Nepal in the last two decades did not process: “[a]n effective strategy is, at first, have any legal identities—neither Nepalese nor literally to ignore the literature of theory and Bhutanese, which by itself, is an issue for them. fact on the area under study” (1967: 37). The The study was attempting to understand the idea I presume emerges from the notion not to intergenerational perceptions around their be stormed by extant theoretical constructs identity but the participants of research led us and hypotheses but to allow exposure to into the precipitating factors behind their naturally emerging categories from the data. decisions to leave Nepal and allowed us to The argument appears reasonable and as such understand their perceptions about home sustained as ploughing early may be a country and settlement in a third country. We “potentially stifling process” (Dunne, 2011: learnt about their eagerness to a futuristic 114). Unlike most strategies of inquiry, resettlement in a third country possibly was Grounded Theory demands that data collection closely linked to their perceived social status in and analysis occur concurrently, rather than in Nepal while they continue to languish in the a linear sequence affording a “dynamic camps in eastern Nepal. When we heard a interplay of data collection and analysis” (Payne young participant say the following, we began 2007: 68). Having said this I do not advocate a puritanical approach to Grounded Theory-

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 18 based research. To me, a certain prior review of of Grounded Theory research. With a starting the area is fine as long as it does not point and outcomes that differ from other consummate the researcher, and the methods of qualitative research, Grounded researcher is sincerely open to the data to lead Theory must inevitably have a process(es) that him into new pastures for theory development. distinguish it from other qualitative research I also do not advocate a Grounded Theory methodologies. As such, Grounded Theory has approach to a novice in social research, but a set of tasks that are repeated throughout the certainly agree with Charmaz’s suggestion that research process to produce the cyclical nature delaying the literature review can help “to of Grounded Theory with the result of avoid importing preconceived ideas and producing data that is thoroughly analysed. imposing them on your work” (2006: 165) Overall, while it presents guidelines for rather encourages you to articulate your ideas. collecting and interpreting data for the Principles and Processes of Grounded Theory production of theory, these guidelines remain flexible and intended to be so to allow the Grounded Theory in reality provides a process researcher to react to the data as it is collected for developing theory from research and is and analysed (Hennink et al., 2011). The set of underpinned by the following principles: original tools intended by Glaser and Strauss for  Data analysis is non-linear and revolves Grounded Theory methodology were the in a circular process, which may involve following: the researcher repeating or overlapping  Verbatim transcripts which allows for a depth in the research  Anonymity data.  Development of codes  Interviews are transcribed verbatim,  Definition of codes allowing for an emic perception of the  Coding of data data, an understanding and  Describe data interpretation of the interviewees’ own  Compare data perspective.  Categorise data  Data collection and analysis are  Conceptualise interlinked, thus allowing for the circular  Theory development process, which allows for not only analysis but also effectively, reanalysis In keeping with the flexibility and circular and reinterpretation ensuring valid end nature of Grounded Theory methodology, product. these steps may be followed in order, or not,  Inductive analysis is used which does and also reapplied as often as is necessary until not make assumptions and allows the the theory is produced. The key factor is the data to narrate the story. data, the collection with acknowledgment of  Continuing comparison is used to researcher’s beliefs and values, the analysis and interpret data and evaluate concepts interpretation of the data and the theory that that arise, then further collect and arises from the data. In this way, we can see interpret data, and so on in a circular the evolution of theory about themes of social motion. research that is discovered from within the  Analytic memo writing is used to track data itself rather than imposed by ideas and the theory development process. values and beliefs of a researcher who is aiming  Analysis involves more than description to fit data to a research question. One could and involves explanation and eventually argue here quite validly that Grounded Theory theory (Hennink et al., 2011). presents perhaps the best means of discovering truthful theory from the real source of With the above principles at the core of the knowledge. methodology, we must then discuss the process

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 19 Data, Codes and Coding writing. Memos are written throughout the The process of Grounded Theory begins with research as a way to capture what the and is inextricably linked to data collection. This researcher is thinking about the data, to track data takes the form of verbatim interviews concepts for further explanation and as a (Hennink et al., 2011). The researcher must means of further analysis of the coded data ensure that the interview is transcribed exactly (Hennink et al., 2011; Oliver, 2012). Eventually as recorded. This is crucial for Grounded Theory the memos can become data in and of where the end result, the theory, is derived not themselves (Oliver, 2012). from concepts or ideas held by the researcher, From this data collection and concurrent but evolves from the ongoing, inductive motion analysis, a process known as theoretical of data collection and analysis (Oliver, 2012). sampling is then utilised to source new data Unlike other methodologies, the analysis can with which the emerging concepts can be and should begin as soon as data is collected further explored (Oliver, 2012). It is this cyclical (Oliver, 2012). Upon receipt, the data is coded motion of data collection, immediate analysis (Oliver, 2012), and every line is coded in detail and further collection that forms the very basis in a process known as microanalysis (Hennink of Grounded Theory. It is this process that et al., 2011). Each interview transcript is coded makes Grounded Theory unique in the vast in this way with microanalysis more beneficial array of possible research methodologies for at the beginning of the research to develop a social research. Another term that we use in list of concepts for further analysis. Strauss & Grounded Theory is called saturation by which Corbin (2008) describe this process as the it is suggested that the research process has means to break open the data so as to ensure ceased to yield no more new data (Morse, all possible meanings are disclosed (Oliver, 2007). When the researcher feels that no new 2012). The whole process is qualitative, and information is to be gained regarding a coding then suggests naming segments of data particular concept from the collected data, with a label that simultaneously categorises, analysis can move forward to the next step and summarises and accounts for each piece of sampling ceases. The researcher knows when data. In the inset below is an example of saturation has been reached when all the narrative on the right side and the possible respective data has been analysed, the codes that we carried in the study example, researcher understands all that has been Figure 1. identified, and there is consistency across the The logic of initial coding allows us to the many forms (Morse, 2007). questions: Pros and Cons of Grounded Theory  What is the data suggesting? Or Inevitably, Grounded Theory has both admirers “pronouncing” (Charmaz, 2006: 47) and detractors. It is the stance of this paper  From whose point of view? that Grounded Theory presents an appropriate  What theoretical categories are methodology for social research as well as a emerging from the data under study? valid and practicable means of developing theory, but of course, as well it should be, it is Thus, initial coding sticks close to data and goes the nature of the social researcher to explore beyond any pre-existing categories in the data. these arguments. To consider the detractors The attempt is to code with words that reflect first, it is necessary to explore the following actions. This certainly is not to suggest an criticisms of Grounded Theory, that it is a empty head but an open mind. lengthy and often ambiguous process and that Memo Writing it places too much emphasis on the source of Journey into research is expected to move on knowledge resting in social constructions. to the next stage of what is called memo

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 20

Figure 1: Grounded Theory Coding Example

Three Narratives: Participants raise many “I had always dreamt of returning home open-ended questions— someday. We fought, we hoped. We patiently the raised questions have waited. And now I am confused like I never was no answers. in my life’ (pauses a while, and continues to For many refugees talk)—I am 64 years old. How would I describe resettlement is not an how I feel about my current state of my mind option. regarding going to America? To me America is a Leaving forever their compulsion, the last resort. I do not know what national identity. else I can do for my children. I do not want Shifting to an alien land is them to go through the same fate as I did. I lost traumatic. my wife in the fight and now I cannot sacrifice The senior population their future for me. I will go with them for their requires a separate better life.” His voice fades and breaks. analysis. A woman participant aged 60 said, “A few Their reluctance and weeks back, there was a huge discussion at my agony and their dilemmas. house regarding applying for resettlement. I They want to be with their resisted for years and now I am awaiting my family. They do not want name in the list. My cousins and sister-in-law to go to foreign lands. are all in America. They are happy there and A ‘No choice’—choice of they have been asking me to come as well. I do either languishing in Nepal not know what to do now when my sons have camps or moving to already applied for resettlement. I am old and another country. in no way can support myself now. I have to be Ageing; Age related with my family. For that, I have to go with degenerative health them. I am in the biggest dilemma of my life. I Increased dependency on want to return home (Bhutan). But do I have a children to care choice?”

A third participant said, “The UNHCR advocates Suffering in camps for the protection of human rights of the depicted as humiliation refugees like us, or that’s what I heard. and indignity and However, I do not feel like being protected. I degrading and dividing feel like I am the dirt on a marble floor waiting People to be swept away. These ideas of resettlement are dividing us. A deep hole is being dug between us. Our unity of refugees is being degrading in many ways. My identity is Bhutanese. I am against the idea of forever leaving Bhutan. Although, I feel that returning to Bhutan is a distant dream for me and others like me. I still hold on to my tiny bit of hope left after years of struggle. A home is a home. However, the family is everything. It is breaking

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 21 Dissatisfaction with the us within to decide on what to choose for our approach of resettlement future. I wish the international community Questions on could understand that. I wish we didn’t have to Resettlement policy choose between our hearts and our souls.”

Grounded Theory is a time consuming and The other critique of Grounded Theory that lengthy process (Corbin and Holt, 2011). It bears some exploration is that when compared requires intensive interviews, textual analysis, to other methodologies for empirical research, it may be that Grounded Theory places too remains a fluid, interactive and open-ended much emphasis on knowledge being based on process while the researcher sits through what may be deemed social constructions transcribing relentlessly written memos, (Oliver, 2012). Unlike research in the natural analysed and coded, memos re-written and sciences, which uses a rationalistic, structured then coded and analysed, and all until approach to determine how the natural world saturation is reached. Grounded Theory works, social scientists seek to determine not perhaps does not lend itself to a quick sampling only how people behave but how they interact and think and make meaning from their of a small number of research participants. experiences and contexts (Oliver, 2012). Once However, it is within this criticism that benefit again then, we can see how a critique can be may also be seen. Grounded Theory being a instead utilised to support an argument for thorough exploration, whilst time consuming, Grounded Theory rather than to dissuade. may also be considered more meaningful due People do indeed interact with their to the lengthy process. For theory that is environments and make individual meaning developed from its embedded place with the from their experiences and perceive environmental stimuli in unique data, surely uncovering this theory should interpretations, which inevitably affect involve a process that is comprehensive and reactions and then ultimately behaviour. exhaustive and involves painstaking analysis of Therefore, to argue that Grounded Theory collected data. To utilise an inductive process places much emphasis on knowledge that is with interpretive and revelatory analytical collected from people and then analysed to progressions to arrive at sound theoretical explore these individual interpretations is, in reality, an argument against the concept of concepts is surely of benefit more so than social research in entirety. One could make a detriment. Thus, it is from this criticism that we counter argument that the very purpose of may indeed also come to view a major benefit. social research is to gather knowledge from the Grounded Theory is inductive and begins with interaction of people with their contextual no preconceived ideas, it utilises meticulous environs, and thus, the use of Grounded Theory exploration of precisely transcribed data, coded as a methodology for such is indeed comprehensively to the point of saturation to appropriate. arrive at sound and valid conceptual ideas upon In support of Grounded Theory as a meaningful which theory can be grounded. This must take and purposeful methodology for social research time, it must inherently be a lengthy process are the arguments that Grounded Theory meets the wide range of philosophical and but instead of framing this time consumption as ideological requirements of researchers from a negative, perhaps it is the very essence of why number of disciplines. Grounded Theory can be Grounded Theory is so applicable for social used by researchers who hold any number of research. underlying beliefs and values and may be coupled with numerous theoretical

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 22 underpinnings but as it is not guided by any regarding the methodology and also the theoretical base giving the Grounded Theory process and procedures it will entail. process great flexibility (Evans, 2013). As noted The Grounded Theory methodology requires a earlier in this paper, it is vital for the researcher question much broader than other qualitative to acknowledge underlying ideologies and methods, which may be a difficult concept for beliefs due to the impact they can have on the experienced researchers. It is a point worth structure of the research and the way in which noting however because the nature of this the researcher conducts the research. So with methodology is to refine the question some self-awareness, reflective practice and throughout the process to the point where professional research ethics, Grounded Theory theory can be developed rather than beginning can prove to be a valid and effective research with a theory and testing a narrowly defined methodology for many subjects and across hypothesis. numerous disciplines. The circular nature of data collection and The most convincing point in favour of analysis for Grounded Theory may well require Grounded Theory as a means of social research second interviews for clarification from the is that Grounded Theory, by its very nature, same participant. This may be important to produces theory that is grounded in the data, note at the first interview and be incorporated which it has explored. Thus, the nature of into the consent and information packages for Grounded Theory makes it applicable and valid ethical practice. as a means of generating theory, which can then be used for work with the very people Conclusion from whom the data was collected in the first The use of Grounded Theory as a qualitative place. It appears quite apparent that Grounded research methodology, although not by any Theory should be utilised for those researchers means a methodology with as long a history as who are aiming to discover and develop others, is a most appropriate methodology for theories for practice in which people are the social research. With a process that involves core business. data collection and concurrent analysis in a Implications for the Social Researcher cyclical motion to produce concepts from which a theory will evolve, it produces an end result For the social researcher, the implications of that is embedded in the data from which it has using Grounded Theory are important. For the been extricated. This is perhaps what makes student or beginning researcher, it may be Grounded Theory most appropriate for social necessary to garner some support from research, that the theory, which is not assumed mentors or colleagues due to the vast by the researcher at the beginning, evolves out differences between Grounded Theory and of data given by a sample of people and is then other research methodologies for social refined for use for work with those same research. people. Ethics committee may also require open and References honest discussion of the validity of the Grounded Theory methodology, which of Bryant, A. and Charmaz, K. (2007). Grounded course, has no theoretical underpinning at the Theory in Historical Perspective: An beginning and may well seem, to the Epistemological Account. In A. Bryant and K. committee member with little experience of Charmaz (eds). The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory, a dangerous and unguided Grounded Theory. London: SAGE Publications, delving into the human behaviour. The pp. 29-57. researcher must, in this case, present a valid Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded reason for using Grounded Theory and may Theory: a Practice Guide through Qualitative need to provide some more information Analysis. London: Sage.

Pulla. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India 2014 Page | 23 Charmaz, K. & Bryant, A. (2009). Grounded Research. British Journal of Social Work. Vol. Theory. International Encyclopedia of 42, 371-387. Education, 3rd ed. 406-412. Payne, S. (2007). Grounded Theory. In E. Lyons Corbin, J. and Holt, N.L. (2011). Grounded & A. Coyle (eds), Analysing Qualitative Data in Theory. In, B. Somekh and C. Lewin (eds). Psychology. London: SAGE, pp. 65-86. Theory and Methods in Social Research (2nd Pulla, V. (2014). The Lhotsampa Studies edn). London: SAGE Publications, pp. 113-120. (Unpublished Memos) Dunne, C. (2011). The Place of the Literature Ragin, C. (1994). Constructing Social Research. Review in Grounded Theory Research. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. Vol. 14, No. 2 (March 2011): Saldhana, J. (2012). The Coding Manual for 111–124. Qualitative Researchers. London: SAGE Publications. Evans, G. (2013). A Novice Researcher’s First Walk through the Maze of Grounded Theory: Silverman, D, (2005), Doing Qualitative Rationalization for Classical Grounded Theory. Research: A Practical Handbook, SAGE The Grounded Theory Review. Vol. 12, No. 1: Publications, isbn 9781412901970 37-55. Somekh, B., E. Burman, S. Delamont, J. Meyer, Glaser, Barney G. and Strauss, Anselm L. (1965). M. Payne, and Thorpe, R. (2011). Research in The Awareness of the Dying. Chicago: Aldine. the Social Sciences. In B. Somekh and C. Lewin (eds). Theory and Methods in Social Research Glaser, Barney G. and Strauss, Anselm L. (1967). (2nd edn). London: SAGE Publications, pp. 2-16. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine. Strauss, A. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Hennink, M., I. Hutter, and A. Bailey. (2011). University Press Qualitative Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and Morse, J. (2007). Sampling in Grounded Theory. procedures for developing grounded theory In A. Bryant and K. Charmaz (eds). The SAGE (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Handbook of Grounded Theory. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 229-244. Acknowledgement Murphy, E.A. and Dingwall, R (2003), The author is grateful to Professor Saraswati Qualitative Methods and Health Policy Raju, Dr Rituparna Bhattacharyya. Mr Dhurjjati Research, Transaction Publishers, Piscataway, Sarma and other anonymous reviewers for NJ 08854 their suggestions in finalisation of this paper. Oliver, C. (2012). Critical Realist Grounded Theory: A New Approach for Social Work

Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 METHODOLOGY OPEN ACCESS Application of Social Network Analysis in Livelihood System Study Sanchayeeta Misra,† Rupak Goswami,Ῑ * Debabrata Basu,Ῐ and Rabindranath JanaΊ Abstract Social Network Analysis (SNA) has received growing attention among diverse academic fields for studying ‘social relations’ among individuals and institutions. Unfortunately, its application has remained limited in the study of livelihood systems of rural poor. Complexity in rural livelihoods has increased sharply in the face of increased pressure on natural resources and rapid shift in farm-based to non-farm based employments. This poses great challenge to successful livelihood intervention in rural areas. On one hand, rural development/extension needs to cater to diverse information and service need of the rural people; on other hand, rural institutions need to deliver livelihood-sustaining services more efficiently, which often need institutional restructuring at multiple levels. To achieve these challenges, a strong innovative analytical tool is required for understanding the complexity of rural livelihoods and the associated role of rural institutions. SNA provides excellent scope to analyse such complex systems and interactions among their components. This article proposes an outline of using SNA in livelihood system analysis. The analysis can provide answer to many questions of practical importance – Who are the influential actors in a livelihood system? Which are the key institutions contributing towards sustainable livelihoods? How do these actors interact among themselves? This will help rural development administrators to deliver livelihood-supporting services more efficiently through informed targeting and capacity building. Key words: Sustainable livelihoods, Livelihood system, Social network analysis, Rural development, Rural extension

†Doctoral Student, IRDM Faculty Centre, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, India, Email: [email protected], ῙAssistant Professor, IRDM Faculty Centre, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, India, Email: [email protected], ῘProfessor, Department of Agricultural Extension, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia-741252, Email: [email protected], ΊAssociate Scientist – ‘A’, Sociological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata-700108, Email: [email protected] *Corresponding Author ©2014 Misra et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 25 Introduction actors and a set of relations between them One of the survival strategies of rural poor, (Wasserman & Faust 1994). SNA has developed such as marginal or small farmers, as an approach for studying ‘social relations sharecroppers, landless labourers, and ‘rather than ‘individual attributes’ (Burt, 1978) marginalised sections of society is their that indicates the ways in which people are potential and ability to be mobilised and act as connected through various social familiarities a class in order to fulfil their needs or demands. ranging from casual acquaintance to close On many issues, particularly the ones which are familiar bonds (Hanneman & Riddle, 2005). It of collective interest or which require focuses on the analysis of patterns of bargaining with those who have power and relationships among people, organisations, authority, mobilisation as a class plays a key states and such social entities – both visually role as a matter of their strategy. In course of and mathematically (Jamali & Abolhassani, daily life, situations often arise when a 2006). With the growing volume of applied household needs to meet family requirements empirical works with SNA, researchers have immediately, often by taking help from others. found it increasingly efficient in studying They interact with one another as neighbours, complex systems – be it natural or human- friends, kins, employers/employees, etc. and managed. gradually build networks of regular interaction Livelihoods of rural poor is a complex system through these ties (Jana & Choudhuri, 2013). which requires materials, services and We label these networks as social networks. information to manage diversified These social networks work at uncertainties, and these are transmitted and household/family level and play central role in shared in the form of complex networks. In the survival strategy of rural poor. Such flows of fact, rural livelihoods in the developing help and support operate in an unnoticed countries have experienced rapid changes in manner, directly, either pair-wise, or through the face of increased human pressure on intermediaries in the network. Thus, this natural resources, economic liberalisation, process works beneath the surface, keeping a structural adjustments and climatic variations low profile, but steadily, to meet various urgent (Ellis, 2000). The complexity has increased requirements of daily life and living that one further due to increasing shift of rural cannot fulfil by one’s own resources. Social employment from farm-based to non-farm- networks, in this sense, provide a strategy of based livelihoods (Lanjouw & Lanjouw, 2001; resource mobilisation from those with whom Lanjouw & Shariff, 2004). This poses two one has network connections. Understanding important challenges to rural development. such networks is of immense importance for First, rural extension services need to be pro-poor research and development. Analysis expanded, so that diverse livelihood needs are of such networks – Social Network Analysis efficiently met by the public funded (SNA) – has received growing attention among programmes; second, rural development, diverse academic fields ranging from sociology, which are largely governed by ill-coordinated anthropology, economics, politics, to line departments, self-governing decentralised psychology, business, mathematics and physics bodies (panchayats) along with voluntary (Freeman, 2004). A social network is a set of sector, needs to be better organised (or people (or organisations or other social reorganised). Understanding the network of entities) connected by a set of social rural people that sustain their complex relationships, such as friendship, co-working or livelihood needs (at the micro level) and the information exchange, and SNA shows social network of stakeholders/institutions that relations as patterns of points and lines in a delivers livelihood-sustaining mathematical space with formal properties that information/services/materials to rural people can be analysed with precision (Crossley et al., are critically important for improving the rural 2009). The focus of inquiry consists of a set of livelihood systems. Institutional innovation also Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 26 becomes easier when we understand the potential of exploring the complexity in sustainable livelihoods system in its entirety.1 livelihoods systems of rural poor. Without a strong analytical tool, it is almost Employing SNA to explore the complexity in impossible to understand these unique and livelihood systems asks for a conceptual context-bound networks. The application of framework within which the SNA is to be Social Network Analysis (SNA) is of particular employed. For this to happen, we have taken importance for systems characterised by up Sustainable Livelihood (SL) framework (DFID, multiplicity of actors and diversity in their 1999) as a starting point, since this framework sharing of information and/or services (Scott & has been widely used in development practices. Carrington, 2011). Rural livelihoods, Then, we have introduced the concept of everywhere, is a complex system marked by ‘system’ before describing the SL framework. huge diversity in public and private actors and This is followed by a comparison of a ‘rural unthinkable diversity in their sharing of livelihood system’ with generic characteristics information and/or services. Moreover, this of a ‘system’ to establish the system diversity is linked to the macro realities characteristics of rural livelihoods, on which (structures and processes) of a livelihood SNA may be employed. Then, we indicated the system. These need to be analysed for practical implications of using SNA in informed decision-making in livelihood livelihoods system analysis with an explicit set intervention and institutional restructuring and of questions that might be answered with our reforms. Hence, application of SNA is of analysis. The next section elaborates on the strategic importance for rural prosperity in methodological outline that might be general and for rural extension services in considered for using SNA in livelihood system particular. This has important implications for study. This include – sampling, relevant extension programs, where information/service variables to be used, measurement of failure in public sector extension systems has relationship between actors/institutions, data reduced extension impact (Anderson & Feder, collection and analysis. Then, we introduce the 2007). Unfortunately, application of SNA has reader to the commonly used technical terms particularly been limited or absent in analysing used in SNA and link them with the livelihood complex livelihood systems in spite of its great system study. This will help readers to relate the terminologies with the livelihood realities 1 Rural communities in marginal environments are of rural poor. Since matrices and graphical increasingly being exposed to unforeseen and representations may represent network data, transforming trends and processes. This asks for an we briefly demonstrate both the techniques in organisational environment that encourages and fosters the article. We have also given the possible innovations to cope up with such situations (Poole & de Freece, 2010). Innovation envisages application of software that may be used in SNA. knowledge of all types to achieve desired social and A System economic ends (Hall et al. 2001) and is essentially a social process where interaction with other members of the A system is a group of interacting components, society triggers learning and adaptation of new ideas operating together for a common purpose (Douthwaite, Carvajal, Alvarez, Claros, & Hernández, (Spedding, 1988). Checkland, the proponent of 2006). As a result, innovations generally arise out of a network of actors and relationships (Conway & Steward, Soft System Methodology (Checkland, 1981) 1998). It has become progressively evident that network observed a system as model of an entity, which structure embodying linkages between actors, frequency is characterised in terms of its hierarchical of their linkages, their roles in the networks and the structure, emergent properties, communication degree of clustering (of actors) influence the institutional and control. The system approach proposes a environment that encourage and foster innovation (Spielman, Davis, Negash, & Ayele, 2011). This has way to understand that entity and negotiate its necessitated the use of analytical tools that helps in problems for improved performance. In appreciating such networks quantitatively and paves contrast to the Reductionist scientific enquiry possible ways to improve its efficiency. that reduces phenomena into smaller

Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 27 components in order to study and understand stock of resources used to generate well-being them, Systems theory studies the whole system (Rakodi, 1999). Assets include human capital and relationship among its components. (age, education and training, and family Biology and environmental science use its structure); natural capital (e.g., climate, water principles widely, as do other disciplines and land); physical capital (equipment, including systems analysis (Walby, 2007). This is livestock, and electricity); financial assets applicable to almost any subject (Spedding, (credit); location-specific factors (such as access 1988) and empirical evidence is out there to to infrastructure and social services), and establish its efficiency in analysis, management social, political, and institutional assets, and improvement of existing system (Cavallo, including social and political networks, and 1982), be it agriculture (Ikerd, 1993) or rural social inclusion. A livelihood framework is a development (Belshaw & Chambers, 1973). way of understanding how households derive We aspire to advance the same for analysing their livelihoods. An easy way of thinking within livelihood systems (DFID, 1999), a much more a livelihood framework is using the household complex and dynamic system than many other triangle of assets, capabilities and activities. social systems where system analysis has been Household members use their capabilities and applied. We take a brief account of livelihoods assets to carry out activities for sustaining frameworks in the next section and argue how livelihoods. Household assets refer to the a livelihood framework qualifies to be a resources that households own or have access ‘system’, thus, lending scope for application of to for gaining a livelihood. Where capabilities analytical tools (such as Social Network are the combined knowledge, skills, state of Analysis). health and ability to labour or command labour Sustainable Livelihood System of a household. Household strategies are the ways in which households deploy assets, use A livelihood comprises of capabilities, assets their capabilities in order to meet households’ and activities required for a means of living objectives, and are often based on past (Chambers & Conway, 1992). A sustainable experience. In the present article, we use livelihood allows to cope with and to recover livelihood framework to understand livelihood from stress and shocks, to maintain or enhance system. Hence, the terms ‘livelihood its capabilities and assets to provide sustainable framework’ and ‘livelihood system’ are used livelihood opportunities for the next synonymously for operational purposes. generation. A household’s assets consist of the

Figure 1: Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Framework (DFID, 1999)

Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 28

Table 1: Comparison of a ‘rural livelihood system’ with generic characteristics of a‘system’ A system A livelihood system It has a purpose (or purposes) A livelihood system sustains the need of individuals - it exists for a reason and achieves in a community, without causing negative some change, or 'transformation'. externalities in social and ecological systems. Its performance can be measured, Food and Nutrition Security, Employment, Poverty, and it can be shown to be more, or etc. less efficient. There is a mechanism for control - a Households at micro-level and Institutional decision-making process. arrangement at meso- and macro-level makes decision based on contexts. It has components - which can It has assets, capability, vulnerability, structure and themselves be taken to be systems. processes, and livelihood strategy. Its components are related, and Livelihood strategies are pursued based on assets interact. which are used in the context of vulnerability and structures & processes. It exists as part of a wider system or Livelihood system is part of external systems such as, systems - its environment, with which ecological system, policy framework, etc. These are, it must interact. in fact, conceptualised in the livelihood framework (the micro-meso-macro linkage). It has a boundary - which defines what A livelihood system has a hierarchy of boundary – is, and what is not part of the system. individual-household-community-local administrative/ ecological units, etc. Has its own resource. Individuals have livelihood assets; institutions have staff, buildings, finance, etc. An expectation of continuity, and Livelihood sustains when it adapts with or recovers can be expected to adapt to, or from vulnerabilities and is achieved through changes recover from disturbances. in livelihood strategies. Livelihood systems study needs to adopt Implication of Applying SNA in Livelihoods system approach as a conceptual framework to System Analysis characterise interactions among the institutions SNA has been used to solve a wide range of in a livelihood system, patterns and strength of problems in Sociology and Anthropology interactions among them, and associated (Kossinets and Watts, 2006). Studies are also constraining factors. There is an explicit found in the Economics literature such as, assumption that learning takes place in many studies on impact of networks on the adoption parts of a livelihood system, and these can be of innovations (Bandiera & Rasul 2006; Temel diffused to other parts of the system through et al., 2003) adaptation to uncertainties active linkages between organisations and (Beuchelt & Fischer, 2006) and success in people (see Temmel et al., 2003). Graph- finding a job (Granovetter, 1973). Apart from theoretic approach used in SNS is used to this, SNA has a strong tradition in investigate linkages between different understanding coping strategies of poor people components of the livelihood system and against vulnerability vis-à-vis peoples’ social possible clusters and interaction pathways are networks.2 Application of SNA has recently also detected. This directly leads to generate corrective measures for enhancing system efficiency. 2 People in rural areas traditionally depend on social networks for their survival. This survival strategies are often related to food and nutrition security (Martin et al., 2004), co-management of scarce natural resources (Pretty, 2003), climatic variations (Adger, 2010), access to Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 29 been made in the context of institutional information/service delivery/materials networks especially in the field of agricultural and hence improve sustainable extension.3 Unfortunately, this has rarely been livelihoods? used in the analysis of rural livelihoods, b) Is clustering of people/institutions in although cases may be found where network extension/rural development partner analyses have addressed a part of livelihood desirable? system (Cinner & Bodin, 2010). The analysis will help us understand the individual and Application of SNA in Livelihood System institutional networks that sustain rural Analysis: A Methodological Outline livelihoods, which lay ground for strategic Sampling communication and development intervention. Moreover, the first step in building capacity for Sampling Location networking in rural communities starts from Before selecting the sites and deciding on their helping the rural people and their service number, assumptions are to be made regarding providers understand and visualize their the factors that account for the variation in existing networks (Douthwaite et al., 2006). livelihood outcome in a study area. These are Application of SNA in livelihood system analysis the sampling factors. These might be as diverse helps us to answer following important as land distribution, agro-ecological conditions, questions: presence of institutions such as credit institutions, schools, health, and NGOs, ethnic a) Who are the important individuals composition, population density, composition (central and influential) in the social of population by gender, physical accessibility, networks related to different livelihood local opportunities for non-agricultural information/service/materials? employment etc. (see Ravnborg, 2002 for b) How do these networks interact among similar application in poverty research). themselves? Alternatively, is there Data on all such factors are often only collected commonality among the networks? or available for areas larger than communities, c) Who are the important institutions such as Gram Panchayats (grassroots-level local (central and influential) in the livelihood self-governing body in rural India). The support systems and how do they availability of data also varies from one interact with other institutions? sampling factor to another. For instance, detailed data on population density are often These questions then follow a compelling set of available from population censuses whereas practical questions (see Mobarak et al., 2011) – data on land distribution are usually scarce. a) Can partnering with well-connected Some information is usually available for factors people/institutions in extension/rural such as broadly defined Agro-ecological development efforts enhance flow of conditions, ethnic composition, literacy rate, etc. A study may adjust sampling factors credit in distress (Servon, 1998), managing job in hard according to the availability of such data in times (Reimer et al., 1997). consultation with the local administrators, 3 Application has specifically been made in the context of panchayat personnel, concerned academicians, Agricultural Knowledge and Information System NGO etc. If data on human development indices (Spielman et al., 2009) that conceptualizes agricultural and/or livelihood zoning is available for sub- knowledge development as the product of interaction among multiple stakeholders. This has further been district level, they may be used directly for the applied for understanding Agricultural Innovation purpose of site selection. Maximum diversity Systems (AIS) of the developing countries (Spielman et sampling is used to select study villages of al., 2011, Asres, Sölkner, Puskur, & Wurzinger, 2012). We unique sampling factor combination (Ravnborg, believe that this application now needs to be extended 2002). However, critical reflection of researcher to livelihood system analysis, of which AKIS and AIS are components. is always important at this stage of research. Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 30 Sampling Household/Individuals Variables and Their Measurements One important distinction of social network (Background of Respondents) data is that it is collected from the whole Following DFID’s Sustainable Livelihood population instead of using the independent Framework (DFID, 1999), different variables probability sampling (as is done in a cross- may be included in the data collection sectional survey). Network studies are likely to instrument, which will help us to draw a clear employ complete enumeration of actors within picture of livelihood pattern in a rural setting. a defined/naturally occurring boundary. Since These variables are analogous to variables used the whole population is studied in SNA, the in cross-sectional survey research. However, selection of boundary is very important for the network data is collected through a making valid generalisation. Network data separate set of questions. These questions often involve several levels of analysis involving might be on different livelihood sustaining individuals embedded in a network that is information/service/materials, which are embedded in other network. This is called a explored by FGD/PRA. Measurement of the “multi-modal” structure (for e.g., a farmer network data is discussed in the next section. A network embedded in rural extension network) tentative list of variable, which might be of high which is very likely to occur in case of livelihood relevance to livelihood systems study, is networks. presented below: Sampling Institutions/Organisations a) Natural assets (Land, Water, Aquatic Sampling of institutions/organisations resources, Trees, Forest products, Wildlife, Wild foods & fibres, associated with sustainable livelihoods is context-bound since non-government Biodiversity, Environmental services stakeholders do not follow uniform institutional etc.), Social capital (Networks and environment like public funded extension/rural connections, patronage, development services. This asks for – apart neighbourhoods, kinship, Relations from extensive literature review – an of trust and mutual support, Formal and exploratory phase that maps the stakeholders informal groups, Common rules and to be studied by SNA (Asres et al., 2012). Some sanctions, Collective representation, professionals have used management tools like Mechanisms for participation in Stakeholder Analysis for the same (Aberman et decision-making, Leadership, etc.), al., 2011; Prell et al., 2009). Records are also Physical capital (Infrastructure: available where PRA tools like Venn diagram transport - roads, vehicles; secure have been used for identifying relevant shelter & buildings, water supply & institutions (Asres et al., 2012). sanitation, energy, communications, Tools and technology, tools and Sampling Ties equipment for production, seed, In situations when collection of full network fertilizer, pesticides, traditional data is expensive or time consuming, sampling technology etc.), Human capital (Health, of tie may be considered as a viable option. Nutrition, Education, Knowledge Snowballing, tracking down alters from an ego- and skills, Capacity to work, Capacity to centric network, or selecting egos from ego- adapt), and Financial capital (Savings, centric network have been proposed as Credit/debt, Remittances, Pensions, alternative options for identifying nodes Wages, etc.). (Hanneman & Riddle, 2005). For an b) Vulnerabilities (Shocks - floods, understanding of relevant terminologies, see droughts, cyclones, Deaths in the family, Table 3. Violence or civil unrest, Seasonality, Trends and changes, Migration, Population, Environmental change, Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 31 Technology, Markets and trade Full-rank ordinal measures of relations – This is Globalisation, etc.). used when a complete ranking of all available c) Policies, Institutions & Processes choices (e.g., Rank ‘1’ for the first choice, rank (Policies of government/of different ‘2’ for second best choice and so on) are levels of government/of NGOs/of possible to record. Most commonly, this kind of interational bodies); Processes that - the data is considered to be interval during data “rules of the game”/decision-making analysis. processes/social norms & Interval measures of relations – This may be customs/gender, caste, class/language. done by asking respondents to report the d) Livelihood strategies (Combining - the frequency or intensity of ties with others by interviewing them. However, indirect measures assets they can access/Taking account of - the vulnerability context/Supported like communication data (e-mail, letters etc.) or obstructed by - policies, institutions are often found to be more reliable than self- and processes. reporting. A wide range of mathematical manipulation is possible with these data. These variables help us to describe/characterise the important actors in a Data Collection network after the analysis of SNA data. Preparation of Interview Schedule Measurement of Relationship (for Networks) Based on the pre-testing and depending on the Data may be collected at different "levels of objectives, preliminary interview schedule may measurement", which are also common to a be formed with the help of literature survey survey research. Given below are different and discussion with the experts from relevant levels of measurement for network data: field of livelihood analysis and Social network analysis. The interview schedule may be divided Binary measures of relations – Researcher is into several sections, namely interested in examining whether a tie exists or not among two persons or institutions of Section A: Background Information, covering interest. This is the most commonly used socio-demographic features of the household measurement in SNA. In many cases, scores are Section B: Livelihood Asset, covering five types also dichotomised based on a ‘cut-off’ point. of assets However, this incurs squandering of valuable Section C: Livelihood Information Network: data. Questions on access to (individuals) livelihood Multiple-category nominal measures of information/service/material relations – This is used when the respondents Section D: Livelihood Knowledge Information are asked to choose from a list of alternatives Network: Questions on access to (institutions) (e.g. name of institutions, type of services, etc.). livelihood information/service/material Each alternative is coded by its type. This is commonly analysed by creating a series of Before starting final data collection, entire binary measures. schedule needs to be pretested for elimination, addition and alternation with respondents in a Grouped ordinal measures of relations – Mostly non-sample area adjacent to study locations. used when the researcher is interested in This is especially important for the Section D, measuring the strength of relationship (e.g. because of the location specificity of networks. frequency or intensity). Due to less availability Distinct network is expected to be found on of analytical tools, researchers often convert information/service/material, which are ordinal data into dichotomous data or assume relevant to the studied communities. it to be interval data for analytical purposes (Hanneman & Riddle, 2005). Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 32 Techniques of Field Data Collection from all the members of a household (who are Data may be collected at two levels – Micro, operationally eligible to livelihood vocations that is, at the community level (FGD and PRA); and survival strategies) to understand and at the Macro (interview with interview multiplicity of livelihood of all the family schedule), i.e., beyond the community level. members, which may help in examining For the network analysis, a whole community is gendered networks. Some others may collect taken up for study. Several such communities data with an explicit temporal (seasonal) from different geographical locations and/or consideration, thus, exploring the seasonal livelihood zones may be selected. For the dynamics of social networks. Macro level, an exhaustive set of stakeholders Data Analysis affecting livelihoods of the given community Conventional Data and Network Data are developed through Focus Group Discussion Compared (FGD). This may be followed by interview with these stakeholders individually or, preferably, Social Network Analysis approach, using both in the form of a workshop. FGD is also used for statistical and visual techniques, is undertaken identification of livelihood-supporting to analyse the collected data. Before that, let us information and services on which data from distinguish network data from conventional individual households are to be collected (survey) data (Table 2) with which the SNA- (through interview with interview schedule) for beginners have more acquaintance with. network analysis. Data should be collected

Table 2: Difference between Conventional Data (e.g. Cross-sectional Survey) Network Data Conventional Data Network Data a) Often use samples for study a) Study the whole population on defined actors b) Mostly, result of independent b) In general, actors are not sampled and probability sampling results based on all actors within the study boundary c) A rectangular array of measurements, c) A square array of measurements, the the rows being the cases, or subjects, rows being the cases, or subjects, or or observations and the columns being observations and the columns being qualitative/quantitative scores of the same set of cases, subjects, or attributes, or variables, or measures observations d) Data focuses on actors and attributes d) Data focuses on relationship between the actors

Level of Network Data Development Officers, Panchayat functionaries, Network data essentially describe the nodes etc. These Panchayats/Blocks are again situated and their inter-relations for bounded within Panchayat Samity, Zilla Parishad/District populations. In case of livelihood system livestock officers, which can be thought of as analysis, for example, interpersonal networks of stakeholders at the district level. relationship among villagers for sharing of Such networks, taken together, are called livestock management represents a ‘one-mode’ ‘multi-modal’ networks (see Fig. 4b). In the network (see Fig. 4a). Now, this village exists above example, individual animal raisers form within Gram Panchayat/Community one mode network, Panchayat/Blocks a second, Development Block that might in turn envisage district officials, a third, and so on. Individual relationship/network of Dairy Extension persons are then embedded in networks that Officers, veterinary surgeons, Block Livestock are embedded in networks that are embedded Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 33 in networks. However, very few analyses have So far, more elaborate works have been done attempted to work on more than two modes on single relational data than on multi- simultaneously (Haneman and Riddle, 2005). relational. There are approaches and methods Multiple Relations in Livelihood Systems such as network correlation, multidimensional Analysis scaling and clustering, and role algebras that have been developed to work with In a conventional data set of cross-sectional multirelational data. survey, cases/actors are described by variable(s), while in case of social network data Common Terminologies Used in SNA set (actor-actor) only one kind of relation is Now, we introduce some terminologies described. However, just like a survey associated with SNA to make it easier to researcher might get interested in multiple describe the features of data used in network attributes of actors (multi-variate case), analysis as well as its analysis and researchers in SNA work with multiple kinds of representation. We assume that the readers ties that connect actors in a network (Haneman have basic orientation in SNA and will readily & Riddle, 2005). be able to connect the terminologies to When we are thinking about network ties livelihood systems. Else, we recommend among different actors in livelihood systems readers to go through Haneman and Riddle (e.g. agriculture, health, small business, etc.) in (2005), a lucid and open-source text on SNA an area, we are often eager to identify common applications. Selected terminologies and their stakeholders in different livelihood networks. implications in livelihood system study have been given in Table 3. Please note, that the The positions that households hold in the web of affiliations are multifaceted. Importance of terminologies cover both directed (edges an actor in seed-sharing network may/may not connecting nodes have direction) and non- be similar in networks on plant protection or directed (edges connecting nodes do not have treatment of livestock. This kind of multi- direction) networks and the implications given relational networks and the structure of for individual elements in this table are only networks composed of multiple relations are of demonstrative. There might be many other particular importance in livelihood systems examples/forms of relationships, which is not analysis. given due to space constraint. We have only given examples having strategic importance in livelihood interventions.

Table 3: Social Network Analysis Elements and Their Implications in Livelihood System Study Elements Definition Implication for/scope in/equivalence in livelihood system study Node/actor An individual, a household, an organisation, A villager, a household, an or other entity of interest within a network SHG/farmers’ group, Panchayat, Block Development Office Tie Interconnections between actors, may be A social relation between: directed or non-directed (Fig. 3) Villager-Villager, Villager- Panchayat, Panchayat-Panchayat Ego Actor of interest within a network An opinion leader, A panchayat member Alter Actor directly connected to an ego SHG members connected to their Secretary Dyad Pair of actors linked by a tie Information sharing between Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 34

two farmers Indegree The number of ties directed towards an No. of queries (on actor from other actors, e.g. the number of information/services) received social interactions that an actor receives by a farmer regarding plant from other actors protection; signifies actor’s prestige/popularity in a network Outdegree The number of ties originating from an No. of services/information actor to other actors, e.g. the number of requested by a farmer to other social interactions that an actor approaches fellow farmers; signifies actor’s to other actors expansibility on the network Network Graphical representation of relationships A seed sharing network, An that displays points to represent nodes and animal traction network NGO lines to represent ties; also referred to as a network graph Ego Network Network that only shows direct ties of the A network of a rural leader with ego to the alters and not between alters his followers (Fig. 5a) Network Size Total number of nodes in a network Total number of nodes in an Innovation System/SHG network Network Number of ties, expressed as percentage of Effectiveness of grassroots Density the number of ordered/unordered pairs. networks may be monitored When density is close to 1.0, the network is said to be dense, otherwise it is sparse (Fig. 6a & 6b). Reciprocity If two actors are directly related to each The cohesiveness indicates other, then two nodes are said to have solidarity among the people reciprocal relations (for whole network); constituting a network of a total number of reciprocal pairs of the specific relation. network are standardised probabilistically and deterministically to get the measure of reciprocity of the network (Rao & Bandopadhyay, 1987) Centrality Measure of the number of ties that a node Shows the important persons or has relative to the total number of ties institutions in the local livelihood existing in the network as a whole; system centrality measures include degree, closeness, and betweenness. Degree Total number of ties a node has to other It signifies actors connected to nodes. A node is central, when it has the maximum number of actors in a higher number of ties adjacent to it (Fig 7a). system; important for information dissemination Closeness Measure of reciprocal of the geodesic Important for disseminating distance (the shortest path connecting two service/information in nodes) of node to all other nodes in the emergency network. A node is “close” if it lies at short distance from many other nodes (as in being physically proximate) (Fig. 7b). Betweenness Number of times a node occurs along the A node can play the part of a shortest path between two others (Fig. 7c). liaison or broker or gatekeeper Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 35

with a potential for control over others. Eigenvector A node’s centrality is proportional to the Shows importance and control sum of centralities of those it has ties to over a system (Fig. 7d). Bridge An edge is said to be a bridge if deleting it Important link between would cause its endpoints to lie in different subgroups, helps in maintaining components of a graph. information flow; needs special attention for mainstreaming/ formalisation Bridge of A tie that connects nodes that would Helps in strategic intervention degree k otherwise be at least k steps apart for reducing lag in information dissemination/technology transfer Path length, Number of links between two nodes, length Important to anticipate the Distance of shortest path between them (geodesic) time/energy required for planned information flow/service delivery Cliques Every individual is directly tied to every Closed group might be of other individual (Fig. 9) innovators; or organisations having understanding of resource sharing Core Cohesive subgroup within a network in The dominant part of a network; which the nodes are connected in some often spatially grouped or maximal sense grouped by common interest; Periphery Nodes that are only loosely connected to Often found to be the the core and have minimal or no ties marginalised section of the among themselves society Structural A structural hole occurs whenever a person A person who has a large hole (a) has a relationship with someone who is number of structural holes in his connected to a separate cluster of people or her network is likely to be and (b) has no other direct or indirect exposed to more diverse connection with the people in that cluster information and opportunities (Fig. 8) than a person who has relatively few structural holes in his or her network, e.g. an SHG is

connected to a distinct group via a District Rural Development Administration facilitator. Structural Actors are structurally equivalent to the Structural equivalence suggests equivalence extent they have the same in- similar intervention for neighbourhoods equivalent structures (e.g. a and out-neighbourhoods (Fig. 10) value chain) Clustering All the actors who are directly connected to Important for controlling ego in a neighbourhood; when calculated infectious diseases; targeting for all the egos, gives clustering of the message for quick effect whole network Brokerage A person connecting two otherwise Capacity building of such person unconnected people is a “broker” of is crucial for rapid information Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 36

information flow. Brokerage differs from dissemination; important for structural holes in that (a) it does not controlling vested interest assume that groups are unconnected and (b) it more clearly describes the flow of information. Sources: Wasserman & Faust (1994); Scot & Carrington (2011); Borgatti et al (2009); Davies (2004); Hanneman and Riddle (2005); Asres et al. (2012)

Representation through Matrices: An sustainable livelihoods. The goal of livelihood Illustration system (LS) is to facilitate smooth delivery of information/services/materials that meets This section introduces readers to several graph theoretical concepts used in the analysis of the diverse livelihood need of a community. If the Innovation Systems Study (Temel et al., 2001). LS consists of 6 components: Policy (P), We have adapted the approach for livelihood Research and Development (R), Extension (E), systems study as and when found suitable. Credit (C), Marketing (M) and Voluntary services (V), the components are placed in the Let the linkage matrix S is defined as a matrix diagonal cells and their linkages are placed in that maps cross-component linkages relating to the off-diagonal cells of the matrix S.

P PR PE PC PM PV RP R RE RC RM RV EP ER E EC EM EV S= CP CR CE C CM CV MP MR ME MC M MV VP VR VE VC VM V

The term PR in the 1st row – 2nd column of S with the organisations under Component P, represents the probable binary linkage (one-to- which may or may not exist. These linkages can one) between representatives of organisations be flow of information, service, or materials. under Component P with representatives of Now this Matrix S can be used as a coded organisations under Component R, which may linkage matrix S[c], a matrix with binary codes: or may not exist. Likewise, the term RP in the ‘0’ for ‘absent’ and ‘1’ for ‘existing’ linkages. For 2nd row – 1st column of S represents the a hypothetical situation, the matrix might look probable linkage of the organisations under R like: P 1 0 0 0 0 0 R 1 0 0 0 S(c) = 1 1 E 1 1 1 1 0 1 C 0 0 1 0 1 1 M 0 0 0 1 1 1 V

Examining along the row we see, P reports reports linkage with all other components. If linkage with R, R reports linkage with E, and E we examine along the column, E, C, and M Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 37 report linkage with P. Note that the links are may report linkage with Public extension directed and not symmetric (since, P reports department, while the extension agency might linkage with R, but R does not report linkage not report reciprocal linkage). The coded with P). This often happens while working in linkage matrix may be represented by a digraph field situation, where actors perceive their having six nodes/vertices and 10 edges (Figure linkage differently (e.g., a grassroots level NGO 2a).

Figure 2a: Digraph Showing Linkage of Matrix S (c)

The matrix S[c] can be refined when all the components, we get the following measurement of linkage strength is available matrix. For the present example, assume that with the researcher. The strength is often we have taken data from all stakeholders measured through scale (e.g. ‘0’ for a non- separately on the degree of linkage their existent, ‘1’ for a weak, ‘2’ for a medium, and organisations have developed with other ‘3’ for a strong linkage). If this procedure is stakeholders of the system. For P, we got scale repeated for all the organisations, a total of 6 value of 3, 2, 2, 3, and 3 from five stakeholders. vectors will be developed. When all the linkage The average of these scores was 2.6 (rounded strengths are reduced to an average vector for to 3).

P 3 0 0 0 0 0 R 2 0 0 0 S(r) = 3 1 E 1 2 1 2 0 1 C 0 0 1 0 1 2 M 0 0 0 1 2 1 V

Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 The row of P indicates its intensity of influence (n); 0.33=weak (w); 0.66=medium interaction within the system (reflected (m); 1.00=strong (s)). This weight may then be separately by P’s interaction with other imposed (by multiplication) on Matrix S (r) to components i.e. E, C & M, in the system). give rise to an adjusted refined linkage matrix S A researcher might also be interested to know (a). ‘3s’ in S (a) indicates multiplication of 3 with the strength of influence created by a the scale value for ‘strong’, that is, i.00, component on others. This might be recorded resulting in 3.0. by measuring the strength in a scale (0=no

P 3s 0w 0n 0w 0w P 3.0 0 0 0 0 0w R 2s 0w 0n 0w 0 R 2.0 0 0 0 S (a) 3s 1m E 1m 2w 1s 3.0 0.66 E 0.66 0.66 1.0 2s 0n 1s C 0w 0w = 0.66 0 1.0 C 0 0 = 1m 0n 1m 2s M 0w 0.66 0 0.66 2.0 M 0 0w 0n 1w 2w 1w V 0 0 0.33 0.66 0.33 V

This linkage matrix S (a) may now be however, the intensity of influence varies with represented as a directed graph (Figure 2b). components of the system, Policy (P) being The matrix (Figure 2b) clearly shows the highly influenced by Extension. The analysis influence of a component within the system. may be taken further to cluster similar For example, Extension (E) shows high institutions having same influence within the influence within the livelihood system; livelihood system.

Figure 2b: Adjusted Directed Graph

Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Graphical Representation the midwife). Again, a graph may be simplex, Graphical representation of social relationship i.e. showing single relationship (e.g. makes it easier (than matrix) for the viewer to information exchange), or multiplex, i.e. lines understand complex social structures when the showing relationship on more than one type of network size is small and simplex. The graph relationship (e.g. information exchange and may be non-directed i.e. choices are made non- resource sharing). These relationships may also directional, and directed, i.e., choices made are be shown in separate graphs. Depending on the directional (Fig. 3). Choices are shown with levels of measurement, the graphs may be arrowheads in a directed graph. It is often binary (presence or absence of relationship) or beneficial to use directed graphs instead of signed (attraction and repulsion) or valued non-directed, since two individuals may not (high, medium, low). A graph may also feature perceive the tie between them similarly (a one-mode (Fig. 4a) and two-mode (Fig. 4b) pregnant women may mention a choice for a relationship. midwife, which might not be reciprocated by

Figure 3: Networks with Directed and Non-directed Ties

Figure 4a: One-mode Network Figure 4b: Multimode Network A graph can also represent a single node, i.e., ‘ego network’ indicates the role of a node in the ego network (Fig. 5a) or the whole network the social system. After working out the (Fig 5b). While a whole network shows the important nodes (as indicated by their overall pattern of interaction in a system, an

Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 40 centrality), ego network may be studies for individual actor (Table 4). Not all the properties these individual nodes. have, however, been explained in the text. A clearly constructed graph reveals some Refer back to Table 3 for the theoretical strategically important characteristics of a explanation of the concepts and its system – connections among nodes, density of relation/scope in livelihood system study. In connections, ‘cluster’ of systems, etc. A series some SNA software, one can also find options of figures are given below to understand the to impose individual properties such as graphs, which are based on different group and centrality score on node attributes, thus individual attribute of the nodes and/or making the visualisation more meaningful network. Borgatti (2002) summarises the social (since more central nodes are shown network concepts based on connections and proportionately larger than other nodes of the similarity for whole network, subsets or network) (Fig. 5b & 7e).

Table 4: Social Network Concepts based on Connections and Similarity for Whole Network, Subsets or Individual Actor Whole Network Subsets Individual Actors Connection Cohesion Groups Centrality (Density, (clique, (degree, avg. distance, n-clique, closeness, centralisation) k-plex) betweenness; structural holes) Similarity Structural equivalence

Figure 5a: Ego Network of P Figure 5b: Whole Network (Goswami, 2007)

Figure 6a: Low Density Network Figure 6b: High Density Network Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 41

Figure 7a: Degree Centrality Figure 7b: Closeness Centrality

Fig. 7c: Betweenness Centrality Fig. 7d: Eigenvector Centrality

Figure 7e: Nodes Represented in Proportion to Their Betweenness Centrality (Goswami, 2007) Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 42

Figure 8: A Structural Hole

Fig ure 9: Clique Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 43

Figure 10: Structural Equivalence

Network data are now analysed and visualised Comparisons among few of these softwares are through specialised software. Few of them are given below (Table 5). available for students’/researchers’ use.

Table 5: A Comparison of Commonly Used Software in SNA Description Nature Use Proprietary UCINET 6 Comprehensive social network General Academic Free analysis software Net Draw Network Visualisation software, Visualisation Academic Free associated with UCINET Pajek Program for large network General Academic Free analysis NetMiner3 Exploratory analysis and General Commercial Paid visualisation of network data Gephi Visualisation and exploration Visualisation Academic Free platform SocNetV Social Networks Visualiser Visualisation Academic Free

Conclusion SNA is particularly effective in understanding Social Network Analysis research has been complex systems, its application is being adopted in diverse academic disciplines, experimented in dynamic systems – be it social especially for solving practical problems. Since networking in web space or a weather forecast dissemination system for fishermen. This is also Misra et al. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 44 being popularly employed for better #164. Retrieved from coordination and control of organisational http://www.lrrd.cipav.org.co/lrrd24/9/amla241 environment. However, application of SNA 64.htm (accessed on 12 December 2013) needs some serious training before applying in Bandiera, O., & Rasul, I. (2006). Social real world. However, a basic understanding of Networks, and Technology Adoption in the analysis is often beneficial for functional Northern Mozambique, Economic Journal, 116: purposes. 862-902. 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Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 METHODOLOGY OPEN ACCESS Critical Observation on Methodologies of Select Doctoral Research Studies Dr Indrajit Goswami † Abstract The present article aims to critically observe and interpret the methodological deficiencies as found in randomly selected 14 doctoral theses submitted to two different universities in India. Despite their serious deviation from the expected methodological standards, all those theses were accepted and approved by the universities and scholars concerned conferred with PhD degrees. Undoubtedly, those theses kept in the reference sections at the respective university libraries would potentially misguide and mislead the future researchers. Some of the common technical deficiencies, as have been noticed, include (1) absence of careful thoughts in framing research titles, (ii) biased method of data collection, (ii) absence of logical explanation in favour of sample size and sample selection process, (iii) designing and execution of instrument for data collection, (iv) theory formulation in terms of framing of objectives, hypotheses and operational definitions etc. The article attempts to present the critical observations on case-to-case basis so that their conceptual, instrumental and procedural deficiencies and deviations are easily understood by the academicians, researchers and students. The content of this article is divided in to three broad sections. The first section deals with an introduction to quantitative and qualitative research methods and their advantages and limitations. The next section deals with the review of the selected theses followed by conclusion and suggested remedial measures. The objective of this article is purely academic and its scope is limited to enhancement of quality of future research studies in the domains and related fields. Key words: Doctoral study, Methodological deviations and deficiencies, Title of study, Researchers’ biases

† Director, Department of Management Studies, INFO Institute of Engineering, Sathy Road, Kovilpalayam, Coimbatore: 641107, Tamil Nadu, India, Email: [email protected] ©2014 Goswami. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 48 Introduction with 14 doctoral theses, selected randomly Apart from their contribution to theoretical from the reference sections of two leading development in respective subject domains, universities in Tamil Nadu, India. The objective the contemporary research in of the paper is purely academic and here an business/management studies and agricultural attempt has been made to critically observe the extension programs are expected to contribute methodology of the selected theses to substantially to ‘decision making’ in the understand the deviations from expected respective fields. In recent times, the teaching, standards, if any, in the research training, mentoring and discourses in methodologies of the selected theses. management and agricultural extension Before entering into the methodological education have developed an obsession to analysis, it seems essential to understand the ‘research’ with a perspective of their diagnostic characteristics of quantitative and qualitative and curative functions (Goswami, 2012). There methods in social research. The following is a growing trend to apply for different section presents a brief review of literature on research grants and an enthusiasm to pursue both of the methods. doctoral studies among academicians, scholars The Quantitative Method and other professionals. Several autonomous institutions and universities have been According to Babbie (2010); Brians et al. (2011); encouraging interested scholars to pursue McNabb (2008), and Singh (2007), quantitative doctoral studies through part-time mode. methods emphasize on objective Undoubtedly, such opportunities have paved measurements and numerical analysis of data the way to register for supervised research collected through polls, questionnaires or study, but evidences reveal that the expected surveys. It requires larger sample size for standard of such researches has neither been drawing conclusions and for generalisation of protected nor promoted for ensuring their findings on the target population across present as well as future relevance. different groups and communities. Hence, it is essential to scientifically explain the sample There are four main aspects of the research plan, design of tools, the validity of data and methodology: research design and strategy; statistical applications. There are certain ethical method of sampling; development of obligations of the researcher. It includes: instrument and data collection; and Reporting of unanticipated events that determining the application of statistics and occurred during data collection; Explaining how data analysis. If methodology is neglected and the actual analysis differs from the planned compromised, the results of a study could be analysis; and, Making it transparent about misleading. To some extent, we can afford the handling of missing data (Black, 1999). In limitations of a research study but never its addition, the researchers need not to be compliance to scientific principles and the very obsessive to statistical analysis and basic fundamental deficiencies in methodology. applications. They have to choose just minimal While limitations may enable the researcher to statistical procedure, which would be adequate suggest improvements in further research, for achieving objectives and testing hypotheses. methodological errors demand a complete Since data in the form of numbers and statistics review of the conceptual framework of the are one of the major characteristics of this study being undertaken and redesigning of the method, so deviation from the standard norms execution plan. Methodological errors and of convergent reasoning may dilute the very inadequacy not only mislead the results of a basic purpose and advantages of qualitative research project but weaken the basic purpose method. of research as an academic subject and mislead the entire community of future researchers/scholars. The present article deals

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 49 Limitations of Quantitative Methods validation and constant comparison (McNabb, 2008).  Quantitative data is efficient but may fail to address the contexts; Limitations of Qualitative Research  The in-depth analysis is hardly possible  Research quality is heavily dependent due to its predominant empirical on the researcher’s skills and hence may nature; not be free from researcher's personal  Due to ‘structural bias’, many times the biases; interpretation and discussion actually  Issues of anonymity and confidentiality reflect the views of the researcher can present problems when presenting instead of the participating subject findings; and (Babbie, 2010);  The process is often time consuming  It is not effective for any micro-level and findings cannot be generalised to a analysis of social and behavioural larger population. problems; and  It is unique in terms of its nature of The Review Plan replicability and repetitiveness; hence, it A total number of 14 doctoral theses, which may encourage plagiarism among awarded PhD to the respective scholars during prospective scholars, who may be 2002 to 2011, were randomly selected from interested in pursuing MPhil or PhD two university libraries in Tamil Nadu. Those studies. were studied thoroughly, especially the The Qualitative Method methodology part, by the author. Neither the scholars of those theses were contacted nor Qualitative research is often criticised as their research supervisors. Therefore, there biased, small-scale, anecdotal, and/or lacking was no primary source of data for writing this rigor. However, with this method, subjects can article. The data and descriptions as presented be examined in detail and in depth because it is in those selected theses have been used in the flexible and does not contain any structural present review. The names of the universities, bias. It provides enormous scope to use research scholars, supervisors and places researchers’ professional wisdom and including districts and cities will not be experience to plan, execute, understand, mentioned in the article to protect their interpret and discuss the issues or problems at privacy. In addition, to ensure better the individual or micro level. The reasoning and confidentiality, the titles of the studies have conclusion may not either require any been replaced with ‘area of study’. The selected quantitative measurement or calculating the theses, hereafter referred as cases, have been statistical significance. If it is carried out divided under four broad categories, such as properly, it can give us reliable, credible and ‘Market and Management Research’, ‘Market rigorous insights and information. However, in and Perception Research’, ‘Labour Market qualitative research too, there needs to be a Research’ and ‘Miscellaneous’. The way of assessing the extent to which claims are observations are presented as case-to-case supported by convincing evidence (Anderson, basis and no attempt has been made either to 2010). The validity of data is ensured by compare the merits or demerits of the cases. accurate and honest representation of the phenomena, whereas the reproducibility of the findings can establish the reliability of the study. Validity can be substantiated by a number of techniques including triangulation use of contradictory evidence, respondent

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 50 especially in behavioural science, are Market and Management Research predominantly qualitative in nature. There interviews are not to be restricted to specific Case: 1 set of pre-decided or predetermined questions Area of Study: Implications of Change and/or measurement scales. In a case study, Management Practices at a Multi-specialty the contextual details are given more Hospital importance than testing hypotheses with quantitative data (Singh, 2007). However, the Methodology study under observation failed to provide It was a case study and it used exploratory substantial discussion on ‘implications of research design. Total 96 doctors were selected change management’ in the sampled purposively as samples. A formal, structured institution. Apart from quantitative data and and standardized interview schedule was used statistical analysis, there is hardly any in depth for data collection. In the words of the scholars, discussion on any particular issue or “questions and their sequence were pre- ‘implications’. determined in advance”. The interview The research mentioned that “total 96 doctors schedule contained 163 items to be responded were selected purposively as samples”. What on different parameters such as five-point was the purpose or rationale? Not yet scale, nominal scales, ordinal scale, etc. As a explained in the method. In addition, the size of part of ‘limitations of the study’, the scholar has target population had not been mentioned mentioned that because of doctors’ busy anywhere in the thesis. Even after purposive schedule, interview could not be conducted in selection of 96 respondents, the researcher length. In addition, many doctors expressed reported some limitations in the form of unwillingness during interview. inconveniences of the respondents. Neither the Observation researcher could conduct interviews with all the 96 respondents, nor could she complete ‘Change management’ is neither a new nor an many of the interviews. The limitations she unknown area of research. There is no dearth cited included (i) busy schedule of the doctors, of literature in the domain. Just one attempt of and (ii) many expressed unwillingness to search on ‘Google’ with key words ‘change continue with the process of interviews. Firstly, management theories’ had shown 4,170,000 the researcher could have avoided meeting all results (0.24 seconds) (checked on 29-1-14 at of them in hospital or could have taken prior 07.45 pm). Theories, models, processes, etc. consent for the purpose. Secondly, she could are available in plenty to understand and plan a have avoided making so lengthy interview study in the given subject. Hardly, there is any schedule with total 163 statements to be scarcity of earlier research studies and findings responded on different measurement scales, on the similar contexts. Hence, instead of which included five-point scales, nominal identifying it as an ‘exploratory’ study, it could scales, ordinal scales, etc. Hence, the have been meaningful to accept it as a limitations cited in the methodology chapter descriptive study. Further, a case study with an were not actually the limitations of executions ‘exploratory design’ and a ‘standardized’, of plan, but the drawback and weakness of the ‘formal’ and ‘well-structured’ interview research plan itself. schedule hardly would convince anyone. Rather a well-structured questionnaire or interview Case: 2 schedule could be used in a study, where the Area of Study: Customer Relationship researcher would have clearly defined research Management and Retention objectives and questions similar to a quantitative or empirical research (Brians et al., Methodology 2011). Case studies in social science research,

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 51 It was a comparative study with reference to by using a ‘structured questionnaire’. The motor insurance customers. The study used the terminologies like ‘maintainers’ and ‘enhancers’ descriptive research design and executed are not yet defined and no further description random sampling method to select 500 has been mentioned about their measurement respondents. The scholar used systematic process. sampling method for selection of insurance Case: 3 products from ten stores. In addition, the scholar has mentioned that “the target samples Area of Study: Consumer Behavior towards were accessed through survey method and the Selected Household Products survey was administered through personal Methodology interview method”. As data collection tool, a structured questionnaire was used. The two It is a descriptive study. The researcher used research objectives read as “(i)…an in-depth structured interview schedule and had taken a analysis of customer satisfaction of motor sample size of 500 consumers and 50 vendors. insurance customers and try to identify the The interview schedule was 16 pages (standard ‘maintainers’ and ‘enhancers’ of customer A-4 size with 1.5 line spacing) long with 267 satisfaction, and (ii)... ‘loyalty’ among motor questions and statements framed to collect insurance customers”. demographic data and problem specific data. It also included nominal scales, ordinal scales and Observation Likert-type 5-point scales to measure The title of the study is not free from consumers’ satisfaction, attitude and several ambiguity. Customer retention is not other attributes. something separate but an integral part of CRM Observation strategy of any company. If CRM is effective, a positive impact will be better customer There had been no specific justification retention. Hence, retention can be an outcome mentioned about how the size of sample came of CRM. It is expected that the title of any to be 550. The universe of the study was not research study, more so at the doctoral level, defined and the locale of sample collection was would be very clear, understandable and not clearly specified. In addition, the researcher focused. Even if it is perceived that ‘retention’ did not appoint or engage any field worker or has been accepted by the researcher as the interviewer to conduct interviews. It was done outcome of CRM, the title does not establish independently by the researcher. The that. Alternatively, it could be a comparison methodology adopted could raise several between ‘CRM’ and ‘retention’ status of questions such as (i) How far it would be customers at different motor insurance justified to conduct interview with a companies. However, from the methodology it comparatively larger sample size? (ii) Would it has been understood that the scholar had not be feasible and technically acceptable to yet selected insurance companies to compare incorporate a large number of questions but he had selected insurance products from /statements in the schedule? (iii) How much ten different stores. What he wanted to mean time it would take to complete an interview by ‘stores’, not yet defined. Further, there was process with a respondent? (iv) Whether no description on ‘systematic selection method respondents were comfortable to be with the of insurance products’. Similarly, the selection interviewer until the end of each interview process of respondents lacks objectivity. A process? (v) Whether respondents answered to combination of ‘random sampling, survey all the 267 questions/statement? (vi) Why method and personal interview’ does not yet vendors were included in the sample? There is make any sense. In addition, it could not hardly any explanation given in the convince about how far an ‘in-depth analyses’ methodology to satisfy the above questions. It would be possible by a descriptive method and had been indicative that the researcher was

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 52 over ambitious and hence compromised with Case: 5 the technical guidelines of scientific research. It Area of Study: Emotional Intelligence, had been apparently revealed that the Adjustment, Decision Making and HR researcher might have ‘structural biasness’ and Perception of Marketing Executives in ‘sample biasness’. Engineering Industries in Coimbatore Case: 4 Methodology Area of Study: Customer Relationship A combination of descriptive and diagnostic Management in Retailing research designs was used. The sample size was Methodology 500. The researcher formulated 55 null- The study was conducted with the customers in hypotheses for testing. A structured FMCG segment and it was based on descriptive questionnaire was used for data collection. The design. A total of 510 retailers and 1140 tool was divided in to six sections, respectively customers were selected from a district as on ‘Personal Profile’, ‘Emotional Intelligence sample size. “The entire district was covered by Measurement Scale’ (Haggerty, et al, 1989), using random sampling technique for retailers’ ‘Self Adjustment Scale’ (Sharma, 1972), ‘Family survey.” “For customers, convenience sampling Adjustment Scale’ (Hatia and Chandha, 1998), was used.” The scholar formulated hypotheses Decision Making Scale’ (Janis and Mann’s, after defining his statistical tools used in the 1997) and questions on HR activity. There were study. 120 statements spread over six sections, which included questions on personal profile. Observation Observation Similar to the last case, the research process adopted in the study contradicts to the First, the methodology of the study does not scientific guidelines of research. The ‘contents’ clearly justify the rationale behind combination page in the thesis organized the process in the of two methods, i.e., descriptive and diagnostic. following sequence: (i) introduction and design The diagnostic studies generally involve clinical of the study, (ii) review of literature, (iii) insights and analyses and so it may be conceptual framework of CRM and … (vii) inadequate, if data are collected through Bibliography and (viii) Appendix. There is no questionnaires. More specifically the diagnostic specific sampling plan mentioned in the report. observations may require a considerable degree of direct participation and intervention Neither the scholar has mentioned about how many FMCG retailers are there in the district, of the research investigator. Instead of a nor did he define the population of customers. questionnaire, an interview schedule would With these given circumstances, the selection have been a better option for conducting a of 510 retailers by random sampling technique, diagnostic study. The review of methodology of and selection of 1140 customers through the thesis reveals that it is nothing more than a convenient sampling do not make any sense. descriptive study with an over ambitious plans Either the number of sample or the process of of drawing some forced conclusions. It appears their selection is hardly free from scholar’s that the data actually reflects the view of the personal biases. In the given circumstances, the researcher instead of the respondents. There sample size might not be qualified as has been bias in deciding the sample size and representative of entire population of retailers sampling technique. There is hardly any and customers in the district. mention about how the sample size has come out to be 500. There is a universal acceptance that under normal circumstances the rate of return of duly filled-in questionnaires is not more than 35-40 percent. However, the methodology of the thesis does not mention

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 53 about how many duly filled-in questionnaires H1b: The product features have a significant have been returned and how many of them influence on the purchase of various brands of have been adequately filled to be considered a product. for final analyses. The title of the study lacks Observation focus and direction. The researcher has used many variables or attributes and has taken The study might be of contemporary them for bivariate and multivariate analyses, importance but found to be planned with but there is no operational definition given on biased choices. Objectivity is lacking in terms of each measurable variable in the report. The framing of objectives and hypotheses. The thesis does not provide any theoretical study objectives and hypotheses are narration to show or describe any possible overloaded with ambitious expectations of the interdependence of the selected variables. scholar. Selection of four different consumer durables and seven different ‘brand factors’ Market and Perception Research from each product category do not make any Case: 6 sense. The ‘brand factors’ (perceived as Area of Study: Brand and Product Features as variables) are not defined adequately. Hence, it Determinants of Purchase Intention had been difficult to understand the scope of the study. The title does not have any focus and Methodology it is very much subjective. It has not been clear An empirical study with 500 samples collected from the methodology about the selection of through snowball sampling method. The brand and products. It could be different researcher used a structured questionnaire and products of a single company or similar taken six months to complete processing of the products from different companies. The data collected from the respondents. The methodology could not transparently discuss or following three objectives were included to address the requirements. address: a) the background characteristics of Case: 7 the households who have been using the durable products, namely, mixer grinder, Area of Study: Customers’ Perception towards television, refrigerator and washing machine; b) Modern Shopping Centers assessment of the influence of brand factors Methodology such as brand heuristics, brand loyalty, A sample size of 500 customers was selected perceived quality, brand association and overall through convenient sampling method. The brand equity on buyer’s intention to purchase scholar used interview schedule as tool and branded durable goods; and c) the evaluation attempted to conduct interview, while they of the influence of product features on the were on shopping spree. One of the objectives purchase of the durable products such as mixer of the study reads, “to study customers’ ideas, grinder, television, refrigerator and washing opinions and preference towards the various machine. aspects of modern shopping centers”. The To achieve the above objectives the researcher interview schedule was too lengthy with more formulated the following two types of than 100 items or statements to respond. It hypotheses (H1a and H1b) for each product also included a five-point scale for selected for the study. They are: measurement of perception. Neither the H1a: The brand factors such as brand factors validity nor reliability of the instrument was such as brand heuristics, brand knowledge, tested nor was that any already used and brand trust, brand loyalty, perceived quality, tested scale. brand association and overall brand equity has Observation a significant influence on the purchase of The nature and scope of the problem is not yet specific brand of product. defined with specific research questions. The

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 54 constructs such as ‘perception’, ‘ideas’, for data collection from primary sources. The ‘opinions’ and ‘preferences’ are not schedule had six sections, respectively on synonymous words, hence they need to be ‘personal profile’ (included 12 items to answer), defined with certain observable or measurable ‘business profile’ (45 statements to answer), parameters. Similarly, the inclusions of words ‘entrepreneurial attributes’ (20 statements on like ‘modern shopping centers’ in the title three point scale), ‘entrepreneurial success dilutes the focus of the study. The shopping factors’ (18 items to arrange in rank order), centres may refer to anything like wholesale or ‘problems on women entrepreneur’ (16 retail markets, super market or hypermarkets, statements on five point scale) and ‘satisfaction single brand or multi-brand stores, malls etc. At of women entrepreneurs’ (09 statements on any doctoral-level study, it is expected that the three point scale). The researcher included two title of the study would be very specific, open-ended questions at the end of the purposive and one where the premise of study schedule. Total 96 null-hypotheses have been is to be made very clear and transparent. Even formulated for testing and to fulfil the study in the methodology part, nothing has been objectives. defined with objectivity. The shopping areas Observation are generally busy areas where sellers and customers are engaged in selling and buying of The title seems to be very generic and different goods or products. The modern ambiguous. It is not very much clear whether shopping malls are equipped with different the study wants to measure perception of amenities like restaurants, theatre, gaming women entrepreneurs or perception of others zones, etc. Customers may visit such places for on them. It does not clearly spell out about the a specific need or varied purposes. It could be category of entrepreneurs, i.e. whether they even difficult to approach them to talk on are first, second or third generation research. Hardly there is any logic to accept entrepreneurs. In addition, the title does not that the scholar has conducted a lengthy mention about the geographical coverage of interview (peacefully and uninterruptedly) with the study. It lacks transparency when the 500 selected customers. When the sample is researcher does not mention either the time larger and scattered, we may administer required for each interview or total time ‘questionnaire’. Alternatively, we may appoint required to complete all 630 interviews. The required number of research assistants (as researcher’s plan to conduct interview with a interviewers) to execute the plan. Why did the highly structured schedule does not find any scholar follow convenient sampling? There is no justification in the given context of the study. explanation given in the method. The All the measurement scales used in the perception may differ across genders, age schedule are framed by the researcher herself groups, income groups, etc. However, neither and their validity and reliability has not yet the objectives nor the hypotheses could make been checked. The sampling strategy is not well it clear, if scholar had any such plan to study defined and it appears to be irrational when the and measure perceptual differences across researcher claims that respondents have been groups. selected randomly. There has been no plan of stratification of the target population or any Case: 8 other type of categorization on the basis of Area of Study: Attributes, Choice of Business their urban or rural domicile, or age group or and Perception on Success of Women level of education, etc. In addition, it is quite Entrepreneurs difficult to accept that all 630-interview Methodology sessions have been conducted flawlessly with a set of 122 questions at a stretch. There is doubt It is a descriptive study. The sample size was about how long the participant-respondent will 630. A structured interview schedule was used maintain patience and honesty to respond to all

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 55 120-scale items. Moreover, it is not feasible to study and methodology fails to throw light on expect them to express freely and genuinely to measurement of performance and related two open-ended questions at the end of a so variations among small, marginal and big long interactive interview session. The farmers. All the selections in round figures, researcher has used all common descriptive such as 30, 20, 15, 300 and 600, appear to be statistics, including association and correlation intentional and purposive to make calculations tests. easier and comfortable. Either, the selection of Labour Market Research 30 milk routes from existing 37 or randomly selection of 20 cooperative societies is not Case: 9 adequately justified by any reason, logic or Area of Study: Performance of District rationale. In addition, it has been noted that Cooperative Milk Producers Federation the ‘cost of milk production’ at the farmers’ level has been ignored towards measurement Methodology of performance of federation. The study used multistage stratified random Case: 10 sampling method. Only one district was selected out of all districts where Operation Area of Study: Work-family Conflict among Flood Program-I was implemented. Out of 37 Merchandisers of Knitting Industries in a milk routes in the selected district, 30 were Selected District selected. Later selected 30 routes were divided Methodology into two blocks—one fertile block and one non- fertile block. Then 20 milk producers’ It is a descriptive study which used convenient cooperative societies were randomly selected sampling method to select 605 participant- from each block, i.e. total 40 cooperatives from respondents. A structured questionnaire was two blocks. Further, 15 members were used for data collection. The tool was divided in randomly selected from each selected to two parts. The first part had 14 questions to cooperative. As a result, the sample size came probe on demographic background of the out to be 600 (300 from fertile block and 300 respondents. The second part was a four-point from non-fertile block). All 600 respondents measurement scale with 99 statements, were interviewed personally by the researcher. distributed in to 13 sub-sections. It took around three months to complete the Observation interview process. Every convenient sampling method may involve Observation some biasness. However to make it a true non- Except sampling plan, nothing has been defined probability method of selection and to make it as a part of research method. As per the more transparent and acceptable, we need to description recorded in the thesis, the explain and justify the reason behind adopting cooperative societies are represented by small, convenient sampling method. Unless it is marginal and big farmers. However, there is no supported by a sound rationale, it remains mention about landless farmers turned milk potential for open criticism. The scholar in the producers. The selection of one district appears study could not clearly narrate the justification to be biased since rationale behind such of using convenient sampling. The variables taken for measurement and for tests of selection has not yet been mentioned. Sample size does not adequately represent the association and correlation were not clearly population of milk producers in the district. identified and defined. There is no mention Since the study was on performance of the about validity and reliability of the scale used. ‘federation’ of cooperatives, it would have been better to start the process of sampling at the level of federation, not district. Further, the

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 56 Case: 11 analyses’ is an inseparable part of decision Area of Study: Problems and Prospects of making in research. Hence, the researcher must Khalasi Labourers with Special Reference to a identify suitable alternative course of action as District a part of research strategy. Methodology Case: 12 This part included only the sampling plan and Area of study: Satisfaction, Prospects and sample size. No further description of research Problems of Women Bidi Workers with Special strategy, i.e. methodology in true sense, has Reference to Two Districts in Tamil Nadu been given. “Samples of 1000 labourers were Methodology selected from the district, based on the It has been revealed from the report that it was convenience of the researcher, by adopting a descriptive study, but there was no mention convenience sampling method.” A structured about the research method in the thesis. “Out interview schedule was used for data collection of four bidi-making districts two were selected from selected samples. “The samples included because more number of women workers was unorganized labourers and migrant labourers.” there. The scholar used convenient sampling The researcher used separate interview technique and selected 250 respondents from schedules for each category. each district. An interview schedule was Observation prepared and “circulated among HR Managers There is no justification about how the sample for verification”. Interview was conducted with size came to be 1000. In addition, it lacks all 500 samples in a period of three months. feasibility to accept that all 1000 respondents Observation were interviewed by the researcher within the The research process adopted in the study stipulated time period of around three months. contradicts to the scientific guidelines for social It is nowhere mentioned about the target science research. The ‘contents’ page in the population. Hence, the sample size lacks thesis organized the contents and process in credibility of being representative of a the following sequence: (i) introduction and population. No operational definitions are design of the study, (ii) review of literature, (iii) given on ‘unorganized labour’, ‘migrated overview: Bidi industry, (iv) living and working labour’ and ‘khalasi labour’. The review of conditions of bidi workers, (v) analysis and literature part is inadequate and does not interpretation, (vi) findings, suggestions and clearly describe the research terms, their conclusions, (vii) bibliography and (viii) similarities and differences. The entire process annexure. Generally, the methodology is to be of research here starts from confusions, since finally decided after working on introduction, there is no theoretical explanation given on literature review and formulation of objectives ‘problems’ and ‘prospects’. It has been revealed (and hypotheses, if required). The scholar from the analysis that it was basically a study of claimed that the sample size was not adequate satisfaction of those labourers in their but she did not mention the (appropriate or respective fields of labour. Hence, instead of approximate) population of women bidi putting the word ‘problems’ in the title, it could workers, either in Tamil Nadu or in two have been better to cite the specific research selected districts. The bidi-manufacturing problem. The researcher mentioned that process is not as organized as other inadequacy of time was one of the limitations manufacturing industries. Still it is considered of her study. Time is indeed a scarce resource; as an unorganized sector and hardly there is however, an appropriate research plan can help any HR Manager in those manufacturing units. us to estimate the required time. For example, time series designs may not consider time as constraint. It is imperative that ‘cost-benefit

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 57 Case: 13 the final sample or not. For achieving four Area of Study: Quality of Work Life and research objectives, the scholar had formulated Psychological Wellbeing among the Female seven null hypotheses and for the purpose, she Employees of Indian Private Banks had taken many researchable variables. For data analyses and testing of hypotheses, she Methodology used ANOVA, factor analysis, Karl Pearson’s It was a descriptive research study. The Coefficient Correlation, Regression analysis, t- objectives were (i) to study personal profile of test, discriminant analysis and chi-square. It has the respondents, (ii) to study their quality of been revealed that many variables were work life, (iii) to study their psychological common to both QWL and ‘psychological wellbeing, and (iv) to find out the relationship wellbeing’ but were not defined separately between QWL and psychological wellbeing. according to their scope in the respective Only 19 banks (7 new and 12 old generation measurement tools. The scale developed by banks) were selected from a district of Tamil NIOSH was arbitrarily used by the scholar Nadu. ‘Technology profile’ of the banks was the without any justification. How far the bank determinant to distinguish between ‘new’ and officials and HR managers could check the ‘old’ banks. validity of another scale? Were they adequately qualified for that? No explanation to these The scale framed by NIOSH (National Institute questions has been given in the methodology of Occupational Safety and Health, USA, 2002) chapter. As limitations of the research, the was used to measure QWL of women bank scholar mentioned that (i) “the respondents employees in Indian settings. The NIOSH’s were hesitant to fill the questionnaires”, (ii) instrument includes total 72 items (or “officials of private banks were reluctant to statements) but the researcher had taken it permit the scholar to collect data” and (iii) partially. Only 35 items were found suitable to “respondents were busy during the banking Indian situations, so she used those 35 items on hours, hence the scholar had to meet them a 4-point scale. For measurement of outside”. In the given context of the study, the ‘psychological wellbeing’, she used the scale first two limitations are irrelevant and the third developed by Carl Ryff. It had total 84 items one appears to be an inconvenience of the distributed equally in 06 dimensions. The researcher, yet not the limitation of the study. validity of this scale was checked with the help of HR managers and other bank officials. The Miscellaneous researcher received 360 duly filled-in Case: 14 questionnaires out of total 560 distributed among respondents. Only 300 filled-in Area of Study: Developing a Strategy for Tribal questionnaires were found complete and thus Development used for analysis. Methodology Observation The main objective was to do gap analysis First, all the rural-urban bias of sampled between development of tribes habituating in institutions was not addressed. While most of Andaman and Nicober Islands and their civilian the old banks were located across the district, counterparts. Three categories of respondents the new generation banks were situated in and were included in the study, viz. (i) primitive around cities. The locale of study has not yet tribes, (ii) scheduled tribes and (iii) tribal been mentioned in the method. The target development officials. The researcher purposively selected 55 (out of total 154 in population, i.e. women bank employees, is not defined. The pretest was conducted among 30 Tirur) Jarwas and 14 (out of total 38 in Dugong respondents, but there was no mention about Creek) Onges as primitive tribes and 111 whether those 30 respondents were included in Nicobarese (out of total 312 from Sawai, one of the 16 villages) as scheduled tribes. For the

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 58 third component of samples, the researcher on ‘observation’ and ‘participation’ technique”. used census method and selected all 30 officials However, there is no specific mention about available at the field level. As rationale behind any observation or participation technique sampling process, the researcher mentioned used, except a too lengthy and interactive that “keeping in view the time available, a process of interview. Even it lacks feasibility, sample of ‘180 tribes’ was fixed for the conduct when the scholar claims that she has of study”. A common ‘interview schedule’ was administered successfully such a lengthy designed and used for collecting data from interview schedule with the Jarwas, Onges and tribes as well as from the officials. For Nicobarese and got all required conducting interviews with the tribes, the data/information with the help of their scholar engaged community leaders as respective community leaders. The sample interpreters, who used to know ‘spoken Hindi selection process is not at all scientific. While language’. The schedule was divided in to three the Jarawas and Onges were selected parts. The first part included questions for purposively, the selection of Nicobarese was gathering demographic information. The done randomly from one of the 16 villages. The second part included 26 statements on population, as mentioned in the method, different three- and five-point scales for includes different age groups including measurement of attitude, involvement in children. However, the selected respondents community activities, for testing of their include only elder male and female, who were ‘cosmopoliteness’ and ‘localiteness’, etc. In in the age groups of 18 years and above, addition, it had 15 open-ended questions to including aged. No ‘excluding’ and ‘including’ probe in to their level of aspiration, social criteria have yet been defined to make the participation and intra-tribal communication sample adequately representative and valid. In etc. The third part of the schedule was addition, it is apparent that such a lengthy designed with different scales to measure interview with overloaded questions and scale awareness of tribes on their developmental items would hardly be conducted flawlessly schemes, perception of usefulness of tribal with the selected primitive tribes. development programmes, content and Conclusion strategies of selected tribal development schemes, assessment of participation of tribes, From the given premises, it is well understood reasons for effective participation and that quality of doctoral studies is being constraints in participation. In addition to 111 compromised beyond justifications. The statements on different scales, the part three scholars and their supervisors are of schedule included 65 open-ended questions proportionately responsible for such scenario. to be answered by the respondents. There is a trend of pursuing quantitative researches, more so descriptive studies, among Observation the scholars of the institutions selected for the First, the title reads like a book, not an study. In most of the cases, the process of empirical research. It would be difficult to research started from personal biases of the understand the research focus from the title. researchers in terms of their convenience of a Next to that, an elabourate list of objectives in particular ‘sample size’ and ‘sampling the thesis appears to be very much confusing technique’. It would not be an exaggerated and diluted. The blue print of research, i.e. the statement, if it concluded that most of the methodology is not yet planned adequately. theses are ‘junks’ and do not have any Neither the scholar defined the methodology substantial contribution to the respective used in the study nor did she mention about it domain of knowledge. Invariably all the anywhere in the report. In places, she has scholars do not have adequate knowledge repeatedly cited that “the study was primarily about ‘research methodology’ and scientific anthropological in nature. So she relied more temperament to pursue studies at doctoral

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 59 level. It has been apparent that they are logic, justifications and rationale are grossly ‘overambitious’ with ‘over-expectations’ from absent in the methodology of the selected their ill-conceived and technically paralyzed theses. It is needless to mention that a strong research studies. In most of the cases, the theoretical foundation is essential to design an adopted ‘tools’, either questionnaire or execution and measurement plan for an interview schedule, are unexpectedly too empirical study. None of the studies under lengthy to execute in real life situations. The review could satisfy that criteria. In most of the Similarly, for conducting the viva voce cases, the sampling process started abruptly examination the same rule is to be followed. without any adequate definition of target References population for research. Such an endeavour is seriously harmful for the entire research Anderson, C. (2010). Presenting and Evaluating community and misleading for the future Qualitative Research. American Journal of scholars, when such theses are kept on racks of Pharmaceutical Education, 74(8), p.141. reference libraries at different universities and Babbie, E. R.. (2010). The Practice of Social higher learning institutes. Are there any Research. 12E. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, remedial measures to improve the situation? Cengage Publications. Obviously there could be some feasible and alternative solutions, provided ‘the Black, T.R. (1999). Doing Quantitative Research scholars/researchers’ are granted the voice to in the Social Sciences: An Integrated Approach raise their concerns and resentments. In to Research Design, Measurement and addition, it requires interventions at macro and Statistics. London: Sage. micro levels. At the macro level, we need to Brians, C., Leonard,et al. (2011). Empirical revisit the related policy guidelines where PhD Political Analysis: Quantitative and Qualitative has been declared as the mandatory Research Methods. 8E. Boston, MA: Longman. qualification for pursuing career in academics. Gay, L.R. and Peter, A. (2003). Educational The appropriate authorities, such the education Research: Competencies for Analysis and ministries, UGC and AICTE must consider Applications. 7E. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merril prescribing a minimum requirement of 3-4 Prentice Hall. years of working experience for a candidate to qualify for a doctoral program. There must be Goswami, I. (2012). Collabourative Research in some expert committee or board outside the Management Education and its Inseparable jurisdiction of a university to decide the Bond with Social Sciences. EXCEL International eligibility of a candidate to pursue doctoral Journal of Multidisciplinary Management studies. Such committee or board may have Studies, Vol: 2 (11), pp.231-239. representation from the respective universities Hopkins, W.G. (2000). Quantitative Research and registered supervisors of the applicant. At Design. Sportscience,Vol: 4(1). the micro level, each study must be guided by at least two supervisors, where one must be an McNabb, D.E. (2008). Research Methods in expert in the subject domain and the other one Public Administration and Nonprofit desirably to be an expert or proficient in Management: Quantitative and Qualitative ‘research methodology’ and ‘research Approaches. 2E. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. statistics’. In no case, universities should allow Singh, K. (2007). Quantitative Social Research the supervisors alone to submit the panel of Methods. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE. experts for thesis evaluation. Rather, it must be About the Author the sole discretion of the university to set the panel, where the supervisors may be consulted Indrajit Goswami holds a Master’s degree in and asked to suggest few experts to the panel. Social Work from Visva Bharati University, Sriniketan, West Bengal, India. Later he

Goswami. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 60 obtained his Post Graduate Diplomas in HRM areas of expertise include human resource and Industrial Psychology, respectively from development, behavioural science, professional Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business and corporate ethics, CSR, Non Profit Project Management, Kolkata and NIIRD, Chennai. He Planning and Management etc. He has obtained his PhD in professional ethics in 2007 presented papers in national and international from JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University, conferences and published papers in journals of Udaipur, Rajasthan. national and international repute. Some of his He worked across different fields and target recent works have been published in Taylor and groups, including HIV/AIDS, Drug and Alcohol Francis’s ‘Practice: Social Work in Action (April, Abuse, Child Labour and other marginalized 2012); Cengage Learning (2013); Concept sections of society. He served different types of Publishing (2014) etc. He is a blessed disciple of organizations such as NGOs, Development Yogacharya Sri Swami Sadhanananda Giri. Authorities, Universities and B-Schools. His

Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014

PERSPECTIVE OPEN ACCESS Historical Myths or Mythological History: A Fresh Approach to Understand the History of Assam Dr Pranab Jyoti Sarma† Abstract This paper carries out a critical review of the trends of historical writings in Assam. The historiographical study reveals that the beginning of the historical phase was, in fact, late in the North East region. Moreover, in many of these historical writings, the importance of the local histories of the communities of the region was ignored. The author highlights the fact that a pan- Indian history for the region may not be authentic enough to understand the cultural dynamics of the complex society of the Northeast. The author also focuses on corroborating ‘proper’ historical source material for reconstructing the history of the region rather than deriving inferences from mythology and legends. However, the importance of recent trends in historiography such as selective utilisation of oral traditions, folklores and memory studies has been emphasised. An alternative and more precise periodisation of the historical phase has been provided which does not, however, project any clear marker between periods and eras but emphasises on slow and steady transformations. Importance of archaeological sources and material evidence has been kept in mind while deriving periodical divisions. Relooking at the history of the Koches, Kacharis has been emphasised. Key words: Historiography, Kamarupa, Ahom, Kachari, Archaeology, Periodisation, Chronology

† Knowledge Manager, Indian Heritage Cities Network - IHCN, Mysore, India. Email: [email protected] ©2014 Sarma. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 62

Introduction the most dominant factor of chronology (Mukhia 1998: 93). In Kashmir, which was a zone of influence While the growing boundary dispute between India of the Arab world, the historiographical trend and China was beginning to dominate the political developed somewhat independently. Likewise, the and socio-cultural relationship between the two trend of Ahom history writing was also a countries, Mao-ze-Dong once famously stated in continuation of the practice of the Tai-Ahoms in front of a visiting Indian diplomat in Beijing that it their original homeland. The fact that Indians in was difficult to discuss history with the Indians as general never had a strong historical sense needs they often clash history with mythology. Although, no re-emphasis; most of the 'past knowledge' of Mao's statement has not been recorded anywhere Indians continued in oral traditions without any and remains within the personal recollection of the definite and well-structured sense of chronology. delegate from the Foreign Ministry of India, what Although oral traditions and folklore played an Mao observed has been reinstated time and again important role, it is an irony that these are so in Indian historical writings; Indians do have a glorified and mystified that it becomes difficult at general, well-known lack of historical present time to carve out a proper 'historical' and consciousness. As has been observed by E. 'chronological' sequence out of them. Sreedharan (2000: 309): The first-ever effort of writing the Indian history The central defect of the intellectual life of came from the colonialists, when James Mill wrote the ancient Indians, in spite of the antiquity six volumes of History in 1818. Mill classified the and developed character of their entire Indian history into three distinct periods: civilization, is an almost complete lack of its Hindu, Muslim, and Civilization (under the British historical and chronological sense. rule). Mill's History relies heavily on the Keith rightly observes that despite having a rich condemnation of the Hindus and the Muslims in repertoire of literature, history is so “measurably order to highlight the significance of the British rule represented...that in the whole of the great period (Sreedharan 2000: 402–3). Mills was followed by of Sanskrit literature, there is not one writer who many colonial historians and, later, by nationalist can be seriously regarded as a critical historian” historians, who more or less followed the (Sreedharan 2000: 309). A definite exception to this chronological paradigm provided by Mill, however was the tradition of chronicling that came from changing the nomenclature to Early, Medieval, and Kashmir; the Rajatarangini of Kalhana being the Modern periods of Indian history. The fact remains most notable example. The medieval period of India that this tripartite division of Indian history has is also historically well represented, thanks to the hardly been challenged or questioned by Indian numerous chronicles written in either Persian or historians, a case which is true for Assam, too. Arabic, which have almost unanimously set the Nationalist historians like H.C. Raychaudhury, R.C. chronological order of the Islamic rule in India Dutt, R.C. Majumdar, among others, were well beginning with the Delhi Sultanate, on a firm aware of the problem of chronology of Indian footing. Perhaps another such trend of historical history and have tried to provide a holistic chronicles, although much less known in the Indian understanding of the same in their invaluable context, comes from the region of Assam in the works. All the available sources of Indian history, form of buranjis, the recordings of major political including the quasi-historical Puranas, the classical events by the Ahoms who ruled a major part of the literature, and accounts of foreign travellers, apart Brahmaputra valley for almost six centuries since from the available inscriptional evidence were the early 13th Century CE. utilised to come up with a standard chronological Nevertheless, it is important to understand that all order. The dynastic history as laid out by these three independent trends of historiography Raychoudhury (1923) became the backbone for all were not indigenous developments, but were rather future history writings. R.C. Majumdar's Cultural influenced by trends of history writing of other History of India also remains a notable contribution regions. The Islamic historiography of medieval (Majumdar 1964). The sources of Indian history, India was definitely a continuation of the trend in however, have been so exhaustively utilised that, the Arab world, wherein the notion that everything even Romila Thaper, one of the leading historians of civilized began from the coming of Islam remains India today, was forced to comment in the preface Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 63 of her revised edition of Penguin History of India, ancient name of Assam. History of the early period that it was time to understand the importance of of Assam, as known and shown by the nationalist 'other' sources of Indian history (Thaper historians, was merely the dynastic history of 1966/1976). She further emphasised that almost all Kamarupa. the sources of Indian history had already been There has been another notable trend within the exploited and brought forth the importance of nationalist trend of history writing, those by archaeological studies in order to restructure the historians not belonging to Assam but from other conceptual frameworks of Indian history and parts of India—for example, N.N. Basu (1922, 1926, culture. 1933), S.K. Chatterji (1951, 1955)—who tried to The early as well as the late history of Assam and its project the Assamese society and culture merely as adjoining areas have also been written on the basis an extension of the Ganga Valley culture, and thus of the conventional tripartite division of Indian avoided the minute differences that exist between history, and so have remained pan-Indian in its the Hindu societies of the two regions and also the approach. A detailed look into the historiographical vast differences that existed among the tribal development of Assam since the colonial time is societies of Assam. The early period of Assam's necessary here. history has been largely viewed as a Hindu history of Kamarupa, and in the light of the greater Indian Trends in Historical Writings on Assam history, a sort of a 'singular' history that has been The five-volume set of The Comprehensive History hardly questioned and challenged in any form of of Assam, edited by H.K. Barpujari, sums up almost history writing in Assam. The existence of a large all the known sources useful for the formulation of percentage of non-Hinduised tribal population, and Assam's historical past and also provides a detailed their possible role in the shaping of the history of description of the chronology that can be derived the region, has categorically been ignored in these from these sources. However, the chronology more writings. or less follows the division of history in the pan- The later period of Assam's history is well Indian division of Early, Medieval and Modern represented, thanks to the numerous buranjis. This periods. Barpujari's work is a continuation of the tradition of history writing of the Ahoms has helped trend set by the nationalist historians, and even immensely in outlining the chronological earlier by the colonialists. development of the Ahom dynastic rule of almost Among the imperialist historians, the first mention 600 years, beginning from the early part of the 13th must be made of Sir Edward Gait. His A History of Century CE. The role of the Department of Historical Assam (1906) no doubt is one of the most and Antiquarian Studies, Assam, in bringing out this important secondary sources for Assam's history, storehouse of historical source material to public and has influenced generations of scholars. Gait knowledge is immense. Many of these buranjis was, however, not free from the assumption that were edited and revived by S.K. Bhuyan, an the society at large in Assam during the pre-Ahom exemplary contribution, indeed. The other and the Ahom periods was static and the colonial kingdoms or principalities that existed during this rulers were the ones who could bring in drastic period have also been studied, although to a lesser socio-economic change. extent. For details, see Gait (1906), Gogoi (1968), Guha (1983b), etc. However, a general tendency has K.L. Barua's Early History of Kamarupa (1933) was been observed among historians, who tend to one among the first few works that developed a project this entire period of Assam's history as distinctive trend of nationalist historians in Assam. being that of the Ahoms. The importance of the Works of several other historians who followed this other two major kingdoms, that of the Kacharis in trend such as B.K. Barua (1951, 1952) and P.C. the eastern part and the Koch kingdom in the Choudhury (1959)—although important as they western part of Assam. vividly recorded the political and the cultural history of Assam with the help of the available textual The theoretical framework of the discipline of records and corroborating them with epigraphic history has undergone tremendous changes in the and archaeological records—were not free from last 50 years. Not merely limiting their views to eulogising the achievements of the three main factual claims, historians today are concerned with dynasties of Kamarupa (e.g., the Varman dynasty, a much wider range of issues. Attention has been the Salastambha dynasty and the Pala dynasty), the given to the narrative, fictional and aesthetic Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 64 aspects of history writing, while the issues have (1200 CE to the Colonization Period). There is no spread to ethical, political and ideological apparent difficulties whatsoever in following this components. A variety of non-academic ways of specific periodisation in order to understand the dealing with the past has also been tried; studies dynastic history of Assam. Problems occur when we related to memory—individual as well as group— start seeking answers to certain questions in order are among the most notable examples of such to understand the socio-cultural formation of the approaches. As the trends have been changing, the Northeast and the dynamics involved among the scope of history has also spread and various communities through various phases. multidisciplinary approaches are being considered The absence of an early historical phase is an more and more. On the importance of intriguing problem in the history of Assam. The multidisciplinary approach, Funari et al., (1999: 9) earliest written evidence of the Northeast is dated write: to the 4th Century CE, that is, the famous Allahabad There have been methodological debates Prasasti of the Gupta Emperor Samudragupta, regarding giving priority to written source where Kamarupa and Davaka are mentioned as two or material source. Such debates have independent frontier kingdoms of the Guptas. recently been undermined as a new Kamarupa was the ancient name of Assam, while multidisciplinary methodology has taken Davaka can be identified with another over. Introduction of oral history has also a kingdom/principality that existed in the Kopili– part in this. Jamuna valley, a southward extension of the Brahmaputra valley in the middle of Assam. The importance of archaeological sources, in the Archaeological excavations have so far been unable above context, thus can be considered as extremely to provide any absolute date for any of the sites of valuable and necessary for a holistic understanding historical importance, while no epigraphic records of history. Archaeological records should be from Assam can be dated beyond 5th Century CE. considered as integral to historical methodology, as Thus, with the present available knowledge, we will opposed to the general trend among historians to not be able to push back the history of Assam treat these as mere corroborative or supporting beyond 4th Century CE. Thus, it seems a evidence. Archaeological records, again by itself, do contemporary period to the Early Historical Phase not lead us to a complete understanding of the of Indian history was totally absent in Assam. Does past. Without a context, and more a historical and it mean while the northern Indian Ganga valley geographical context, archaeological records do not witnessed the second urbanisation (Gupta 1973) take us much further in our understanding. Hence, and a full-fledged development of state formation the methodology should be a cohesive one, which which culminated with the formation of the would include the existing evidence through every Mauryan Empire and spread of Buddhism even to possible theoretical approach. Whatever said and foreign countries, Assam still had a rudimentary done, the fundamental difference between phase of cultural development, more specifically a archaeological sources to those of historical lies in continuation of the early farming Neolithic period? the very nature of the records. While historical The answer is difficult to gauge at present due to records are heavily dependent on the dynastic and the lack of sufficient archaeological evidence and chronological understanding of the past, problem-oriented multidisciplinary research. archaeological remains lead us to a reconstruction of the material culture of the societies, and thus to There is not enough textual as well as epigraphic a 'subaltern' cultural history. Is it possible to carry evidence to fully understand the transition phase out such a holistic study in Assam and thus from late historical to medieval period of Assam. reconstruct the way the historical phase is looked at For convenience of explanation, historians have or viewed? This is the basic parameter that this tended to distinguish the two with the arrival of the paper seeks to examine. Ahoms in the Brahmaputra valley, in the year 1228 CE. The Ahoms came with a tradition of recording The Problem of Periodisation the important political events, known as buranjis in The historical writings of Assam have more or less local parlance, along with their expansionist zeal. followed the basic periodisation of Indian history: The buranjis provide us with authentic written Early Historical Period (600 BC to 400 CE), Late evidence to easily reconstruct the history of the Historical Period (400 CE to 700 CE), Early Medieval entire period of Ahom rule, and also of some of the Period (700 CE to 1200 CE), and Medieval Period other contemporary kingdoms. However, the lack of Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 65 evidence on the decline or dissolution of the preached his religious as well as socio-cultural Kamarupa kingdom is an intriguing problem that the messages. The role of Sankardeva in the formation historians have to face. We also do not have of the Assamese society is immense and itself is a sufficient evidence to reconstruct the phases when topic of extended research. The point that needs the kingdoms of the Kacharis, the Chutiyas, the emphasis here is that the Koch kingdom had been Morans and the Borahis, and also the kingdom of an integral part of the Assamese identity through Tripura, came into existence, and thus rely on local the medieval times, and Assamese historians so far beliefs, folktales, and even individual and group seem to have undermined or neglected its role in memory to construct any inference in this regard. In the history of Assam. such circumstances, the early medieval phase of The social set-up of Northeast India is very complex, Assam remains far from clear, although scholars so much so that the scholars have often tended to have tried to understand and explain the same in describe it as a ‘mini India’. There is paucity of data the light of archaeological evidence in the form of to examine the symbiotic relationship that must sculptural and architectural remains and copper- have been there between the Tibeto-Burmese and plate land grants. A scholarly discussion between the Indo-European populations. The process of Amalendu Guha and Nayanjot Lahiri on the pre- assimilation between the people belonging to these Ahom roots of the state formation process of Assam two major linguistic groups started quite late in this in the journal Social Scientist is notable, as both of region, and was at the early stages even during the them have tried to see the transitional phase from a latter part of 19th Century. The 1881 Census of more multidisciplinary point of view, and have Assam, which was the first exhaustive census done highlighted the differences between the tribal on this part of India, recorded the population on the subsistence pattern and the mainstream economy basis of religion and caste and revealed that many and the role these differences could have played in of the dominant communities like the Bodos and the state formation process.1 Gupta’s discussion on Karbis were still not considered to be within the the trade network of Assam also throws light on a Hindu fold (Assam Census Report, 1881, pp. 22–34; yet unexplored aspect of trade and economy and pp. 63–102; cf. Guha 1974: 107). This gives an their importance in the development of the state in entirely contrasting picture of the society as against Assam (Gupta 1991). Momin’s research on the the majority historians’ view that the society of political and socio-economic history of pre-Ahom Assam was largely Hindu that flourished as part of Assam is also notable and brings fresh light into this the Kingdom of Kamarupa. This leads us to surmise apparently dark period of Assam’s history (Momin that the historical framework that we derive from 1998). textual evidence as well as epigraphic sources has There is another problem in stating that the so far undermined the role of the tribal medieval period began with the arrival of the communities in the formation of the Assamese Ahoms. Mere availability of the buranjis cannot and society through the historical period. It has more or should not be the marker of this entire period to be less remained the dynastic history of Kamarupa. The belonging to the Ahoms. The Kachari kingdom 1881 Census reports also present an entirely existed for most part of this period as an different picture as against the popular belief that independent kingdom, always entangled in a tussle the Assamese society was unified sans religious and for supremacy with the Ahoms and sometimes even ethnic boundaries under the socio-religious the more dominant—definitely until the middle of movement (the neo-Vaisnavite movement) the 15th century. Historians, at times, tend to preached by Sri Sankardeva and later by his undermine the existence of a strong Koch kingdom followers since the 15th Century. in the western part of Assam bordering Bengal. It In such a situation, we need to re-examine the was under the patronage of Koch King Naranarayan sources of history and try to understand the many that the Vaisnavite guru Srimanta Sankardeva local histories of the various communities in Assam as well as its adjoining regions. Archaeological

1 sources, including excavation finds and This argument between Amalendu Guha and Nayanjot Lahiri started with the article published by Guha in Social ethnographic records, will help in reassessing this. Scientist, Vol.11 (1983a), which was followed by Lahiri’s The status of the archaeological work done so far in article in the same journal (1984). Guha’s response to the Northeast will be examined in the following in Lahiri’s review was published in the December issue of the light of its importance in reassessing the the same journal (1984). Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 66 chronology of the historical phase of Northeast stratigraphic sequence of Ambari has shown the India. occurrence of Neolithic strata below the historical phase, which could not be studied due to the rising Importance of Archaeological Records level of groundwater. The material evidence shows The new trend of Historical Archaeology focuses a rich and developed society which saw the more on ‘archaeological study of all human development of art and architecture of high skills. societies in terms of interdisciplinary theories of The pottery is uniform and does not show many material culture, but also recognises the varieties (Goswami and Roy 2006; Sharma et al., methodological distinctiveness of studying societies 2006; Sonowal 2006). It is difficult to ascertain a with written sources’ (Funari et al., 1999: 8). date for the site of Ambari merely on the Following this new Historical Archaeology, it has archaeological evidence, but can be easily surmised been felt that the historical phase of Northeast that the earliest period of the historical phase at the India, too, needs to be reviewed and analysed with site does not go beyond 4th–5th centuries CE. The a paradigm shift in terms of methodology, and the sculptural remains mainly conform to this period if traditional periodisation needs to be verified and not earlier and post-Gupta traits are apparently examined from an archaeological point of view. visible, however with minor local variations. The However, keeping the paucity of material evidence pottery cannot be dated as no comparative pottery into consideration, a modest attempt has been has been found elsewhere that has been dated. made here to come up with a possible periodisation The site of Sekta in Manipur has provided a lot of of the historical phase of Northeast, especially burial remains, which are associated with pots. The Assam. habitation site at Sekta has been destroyed and There has been three major archaeological could not be excavated. The burial site, however, excavations on sites of historical importance in the has yielded invaluable cultural material ranging Northeast—the Ambari excavation in Assam, for from urn burials to a variety of artifacts (Sharma one season in 1971 and then for three seasons from 1994: 23–26). The site of Sekta is very crucial in our 1997 to 2000; the Sekta burial site excavation in understanding of the historical phase of Northeast 1991 in Manipur; and the Vadagokugiri/Bhaitbari India, as the cultural material here shows definite excavation in 1992 in Meghalaya. Apart from the connection between people of this part of India Ambari excavation, the details of the other two are with those of mid-Ganga valley as well as from found in printed reports (Sharma 1993, 1994). The South China and Myanmar. The site is also Directorate of Archaeology of Assam has, however, significant in our understanding of the trade brought out an interim report of Ambari excavation network between India and China via the land-route (Dutta 2006), which includes published articles and of Myanmar and South China (Gupta 2006, Sarma preliminary reports on various aspects of the 2006b). historical site. Apart from these three sites, minor The site of Vodagokugiri or Bhaitbari in Garo Hills, excavations or rather section analyses have been Meghalaya is very important as it is situated in the done in some sites in the Dhansiri–Doyang valley in fringes of the Brahmaputra valley near Bangladesh, Assam (Choudhury 1994, Dutta 1995), some sites in and is very near to the famous site of Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Nagaland—all of Mahasthangarh in Bangladesh, supposedly the which have been reported in various issues of capital city of the Pundravardhana kingdom of early Indian Archaeology–A Review, published by the medieval Bengal. The site layout and the material Archaeological Survey of India. The archaeological remains also show affinity to those of work done at the site of Mahasthangarh in Mahasthangarh. Although no dates have been Bangladesh is also important in order to understand obtained from Vadagokugiri, a relational analysis the historical dynamics, owing to its strategic with that of Mahasthangarh will safely put this site geographical positioning and being contiguous to in the same period. However, we need to still the Brahmaputra valley (Alam and Salles 2001). understand the historical importance of this site as The site of Ambari, situated in the centre of far as the Kamarupa kingdom is concerned; it is not Guwahati city, has been unanimously identified clear whether this area belonged to the Kamarupa with the city of Pragjyotisa, the capital city of kingdom or Pundravardhana on the basis of the Kamarupa; although no absolute dating or any material remains. It is important to note that traits typifying artifacts have been obtained which can of Jaina influence have been observed in the prove the inferences beyond any doubt. The architectural remains of Suryapahar. However, this Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 67 needs further examination as such a finding would is time we acknowledge that history can be entirely open a new dimension in understanding the considered as facts only if we draw it with history of Assam (Shastri 2000). It is interesting to supporting evidence, not inferences.2 note that when Hiuen Tsang visited the Kamarupa King Bhaskara Varman, he observed that people of It is essential to acknowledge that the historical this country did not believe in Buddhism (or Jainism phase started late in this region as compared to for that matter) and there was no dedicated place that of the Ganga Valley. The paucity of written of worship for that faith. Jainism, even in the evidence is a clear marker when we posit this modern period, is barely present in Assam. Hence, view. The late migration of the Indo-Europeans, the claims of Jaina elements being discovered from especially the Indo-Europeans from the Ganga Vadagokugiri need a fresh look. Valley, into the Brahmaputra Valley, could be a Notable work has been done in the Dhansiri– reason why the historical phase began late in Doyang valley. H.N. Dutta of the Directorate of the region. However, that does not necessarily Archaeology has recorded many sites in the mean that the tribal populations did not have valley and has surmised the prevalence of an developments, which can be called historical. independent kingdom there on the basis of However, such a possibility also remains in the epigraphical evidence (Dutta 2000). The earliest realm of surmise due to lack of proper textual date of this independent kingdom could be as well as material evidence. In fact, the local assigned to the 5th Century CE on paleographic histories of the tribal populations in these early grounds. Sarma (2006a) carried out further years are entirely based on myths and legends studies in the valley on the premises of and thus cannot be considered as authentic settlement pattern and did a systematic historical evidence. More archaeological and recording of the available archaeological similar supporting evidence will be required to record. He, corroborating the archaeological authenticate this aspect. Hence, to properly record with literature and geography has understand and explain this period, we would identified the archaeological remains of the suggest, it should not be classified from a pan- valley to be belonging to the Kacharis, who saw Indian viewpoint. tremendous socio-cultural development before The same holds true for the classification of the the arrival of the Ahoms and became the rulers medieval period; for the available evidence do of this area much earlier, probably not suggest any major shifts or change in the contemporary to the Kamarupa kingdom, and socio-cultural set-up through the entire period had independent status for a long period. of the history of the region. The arrival of the A Chronology for Assam’s Historical Past Ahoms should not be the sole marker of dividing this phase from the earlier phase of The available evidence—archaeological as well history. Northeast India, especially the as textual—does not give a date prior to the 4th Brahmaputra Valley, saw a uniform development Century CE for the beginning of the history of in the entire period of its history. However, for Assam. Thus, from a pan-Indian viewpoint we convenience of explanation in history writing, are bound to state that the early historic period of the conventional periodisation of Indian 2 See Megill (2007) for a detailed discussion on what can history is totally absent in this part. Likewise, the be called historical evidence. Megill cautions the serious state formation process also started here in the historian about the dangers of inferences or assertion 4th Century CE only. Some scholars have tried through his critique of a 2003 American Historical Review to explain mythological inferences and tried to article by William G. Thomas III and Edward L. Ayers in relate the legends of Narakasura and which the authors claim to show “by argument” something important about the way slavery brought Bhagadatta with the earliest form of state about the American Civil War. Megill writes that contrary formation in Assam. However, it is our firm to what Thomas and Ayers claim, they “do not make an belief that the danger of using myths as argument at all.” He further argues that Thomas and historical evidence has to be acknowledged and Ayers “fail to understand what is required for something thus myths should not be considered as facts. It to be evidence for something else” (quoted in, Martin 2010). Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 68 the entire period can be classified into three may provide us with significant evidence periods, although without any characteristic (Sarma 2006a). The socio-cultural and dividing marker or events between them: economic scenario during this phase remains an area that needs further  Early phase: This phase marks the multidisciplinary research. beginning of the state formation  process, the earliest evidence of which Late Phase: The late phase of Assam’s can be found in the Allahabad Prasasti. history is marked by three important Several independent states came up in events: first, the arrival of the Ahoms various parts of the region, for instance and their gradual assimilation into the the Kamarupa kingdom in lower Assam greater Assamese society and the and the Dabaka kingdom in central consequent formation of a formidable Assam, both in the southern bank of the state in the heart of Assam; second, the Brahmaputra. Other small kingdoms or rise of the Koch kingdom in the west principalities came into existence in the and many petty principalities of the Dhansiri–Doyang valley as well as in the Bhuyas in the central region of Assam, Sadiya region in the north eastern as well as the strong existence of the corner of the valley. In course of time, Kachari Kingdom in the Dhansiri and the Kamarupa Kingdom became Kopili Valleys in the south of the powerful and controlled a large area Brahmaputra; and third the rise of the from the eastern hills to the Bay of neo-Vaisnavite religious movement Bengal, as can be known from the preached by the Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th Century CE accounts of Hiuen Tsang. This phase also saw the rise of the three main dynasties (Neog 1965) that would change the of the Kamarupa Kingdom—the socio-cultural complexion of Assam Barmans, the Salastambhas and the entirely and also influence subsequent Palas—who patronized the spread of politico-social movements such as the the Hindu religion in the valley. Moamoria Movement that eventually threatened the very existence of the  Transitional phase: The rise and the Ahom monarchy. The coexistence of gradual decline of the petty kingdoms of two powerful state mechanisms in the the Tibeto-Burman speaking west and the east eventually led to communities, more or less, cover this different landholding and revenue transitional phase of Assam’s history. systems in the two distinctive regions The rise of these kingdoms incidentally (Guha 1991). The administration of the coincides with the decline of the western part also remained under the Kamarupa kingdom, the Pala dynasty to Mughals for a considerable period in the be more precise. The Kamata kingdom 17th Century CE, which also contributed came into existence on the ruins of the to the difference in landholding and Kamarupa Kingdom, especially in the administrative systems. western part of the Brahmaputra Valley (Gait 1906). We also have a few Many parts of Assam and other adjoining areas, epigraphs of the early rulers of the until the beginning of its historical period, that is, Kamata Kingdom to support this view the 4th Century CE, must have remained under (Sarma 1981). In the meantime, the the Neolithic, early farming phase. However, Chutia and the Kachari Kingdoms also the two excavated Neolithic sites in Assam, that is, rose into prominence in the eastern the Daojali Hading and the Saru-Taro, do not part of the Valley. We have paucity of present any evidence of continuity to the textual as well as epigraphical evidence historical phase. But the fact that the to reconstruct the early phases of these ‘Neolithic’/early farming phase continued Kingdoms, but archaeological sources through the historical phase in isolated pockets Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 69 can be safely put forward on the grounds of achievements of the various kingdoms, mostly oral traditions and memory of certain tribal the Kamarupa Kingdom. It is an urgent need populations in the region. In many of the tribal that a problem-oriented research be done in villages, people still refer to an old village, order to record these local histories, from which is invariably in an isolated area in the whatever source is available now. Ethnographic foothills. Some of these deserted villages may studies on these communities have been done, not be even one hundred years old. In case of but these have not been highlighted so far. certain communities like Karbi, Garo and Tiwa, Folklore is another aspect, which may lead us to people often speak about a tradition of many unknown facts of these communities. elaborate stone memorials (often Toponymical studies have also great potential misinterpreted as Megalithic stone burials), in understanding the prevalence and which they practiced till recent times but has distribution of various tribes and also the now remained only in symbolic form. Although process of social and cultural assimilation and hypothetical, it can be surmised that sections of admixture through the ages. Reviewing and people lived in isolated pockets until late into carrying out intensive investigations based on the 19th century and remained outside the earlier works like that of Peal (1879) will surely process of cultural assimilation with the Indo- provide meaningful and interesting results. Europeans for a long time. There is no recorded A Note on the Kacharis archaeological evidence to prove that these people were practising a Neolithic lifestyle. The representation of the Kacharis in the However, the fact that they lived in a history of Assam has been an enigmatic issue. community-bound social set-up and practised They have been sometimes described as the the traditions of early farming societies is makers of the Hinduised Kamata or the Koch certain. Kingdoms in the western part of Assam; while at some other, times have been associated with the In order to analyse this coexistence of Neolithic Kachari Kingdom, which ruled in a vast tract from phase with that of a highly developed State the foothills of Nagaland to the Kopili–Jamuna within the Hindu fold in the light of the nature Valley, the Dhansiri–Doyang Valley forming the of interaction between the two and the impact heart of their Kingdom. It is clear, in our current this had on the socio-cultural complexion of the understanding, though, that the western Northeast, we need to compare the distribution Kamata and the subsequent Koch Kingdoms were pattern of the archaeological sites of both the founded by the Mech or the Koch communities, cultural phases. The tentative distribution who are a Hinduised branch of the greater pattern of both these phases shows a clear Bodo community of Assam. Likewise, the Kachari demarcation though. While the historical sites Kingdom of the Dhansiri–Doyang Valley was are scattered mostly in the valley areas, the founded by the Dimasa Kacharis, another Neolithic sites have been found mostly in the community that speaks a language belonging to foothills of the mountains surrounding the the Tibeto-Burman linguistic sub-group of the Brahmaputra Valley and in some cases in the Sino-Tibetan language family, like that of the Shillong plateau (Sarma and Hazarika 2014). Bodos. At present, two important divisions However, to testify any hypothesis on this among the Kachari population of Assam can be particular issue, a detailed and multidisciplinary seen—the Bodos (plain Kachari) and the research will be the first priority. Corroborative Dimasas (hill Kachari). Both linguistically and evidence from linguistics, folklore and culturally there can be seen sharp contrasts and ethnography may also help in this. differences between these two groups at It is obvious that the recorded history of Assam, present. Yet, while referring to the Kacharis, all be it the early phase or the later phase, do not the medieval chronicles as well as the colonial speak about the population living in the hills; in administrator-historians have failed to clearly fact, it is mainly confined to the dynastic Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 70 distinguish between these two as well as the Hills. There for a time the fugitives were other Kachari communities of Assam. in comparative security…[but] their Hunter’s Statistical Account of Assam (1879) ancient foes followed them up to their new capital, and about the middle of and the 1881 Census are important in many the sixteenth century the Ahoms respects. The Census of 1881, covering the length succeeded in capturing and sacking and breadth of the Valley, recorded the communities of the greater Bodo-Kachari group Dimapur itself. (Endle 1911: 6) as separate ethnic groups. It documented 19 such communities: Bodo, Dimasa, Dhimal, That the Chutiyas and the Kacharis had separate Garo, Hajong, Hojai, Lalung, Madani, Mahalia, Kingdoms, around Sadiya and in the Dhansiri Mech, Matali, Moran, Phularia, Rabha, Valley respectively, was obviously over-sighted Sonowal, Sutiya, Saraniya, Solamiya, and Tipra, by Endle, a fact which would eventually be which formed the majority population in the established owing to the recorded chronicles of whole of the Brahmaputra Valley, followed by the the Ahoms, the buranjis. In the above Kalitas, and then the Daibagnas and the narration, Endle’s obvious confusion between Brahmanas. The Koches and the Rajbanshis the two distinct communities may create were also included in the Bodo-Kachari group, historical errors. Apart from the buranjis, not but were considered as totally Hinduised tribes. many historical accounts have been successful Most of these Bodo-Kachari communities, in bringing out individual histories of these classified in the 1881 Census, have now merged communities, a fact that needs serious with the greater Assamese speaking society, reconsideration of the present lot of historians only scantily retaining their original speech. in Assam. A concerted effort to knowing the individual The point that needs emphasis here is that the histories of the various groups of the Bodo- Kacharis (including the largest group Bodos) Kachari communities have not come into sight, were the most dominant population in the Valley at least to the knowledge of the present throughout its history. That they were once author. That apart, the colonial very influential too, can be gauged from the historiographical tradition as well the fact that most of the place and river names of nationalist historians have also failed to modern Assam continue to be that of Bodo contribute to the knowledge of the early origin. The prefix Di, meaning water in Bodo history of these communities adequately. languages and dialects are invariably used in Instead, many a historians have actually naming most of the rivers and places in Assam displayed and presented conflicting accounts (e.g. Di-bru, Digboi, Disang, Dihang, Dikhou, and have confused with the identity of a etc.). The river Brahmaputra was also earlier particular tribe to another. An example of this known as Ti-lao or Di-lao. is Endle’s otherwise brilliant account of the Kacharis—mainly the Bodos of the northern Notwithstanding the current differences among plains of Assam (1911). Endle, while drawing the various Tibeto-Burman communities, there the historical background of the Kacharis are reasons to believe that once upon a time, (Bodos in his case) have mistakenly identified such divisions were not so distinguishable. Two the Chutiyas and the Kacharis as the same characteristic similarities among these groups people. While referring to the defeat of the are conspicuous: Chutiyas at the hands of the Ahoms, Endle  All these groups speak dialects and states: languages belonging to the Tibeto- …In the end the victory remained with Burman (TB) language sub-group of the the Ahoms, who drove their opponents Sino-Tibetan Family. This takes us back to take refuge in or about Dimapur on to a single parentage to this entire the Dhansiri at the foot of the Naga group, which probably had originated in Sarma. Special Methodology Edition plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 71 the southern province of Sichuan in understand the early history of Assam as well China in the prehistoric times. as the socio-cultural development of the multi- faceted society of Assam. The Kacharis should  All these groups (barring the Bodos of not and cannot remain an enigma, but be Western Assam), until recently, used to brought into the forefront of the mainstream pay an annual homage or tribute to the historical tradition. Kesaikhaiti Gosani Temple at Sadiya. This proves a single lineage of these Concluding Remarks various tribes, a religious knot to say An authentic reconstruction of the ancient more precisely. history of Assam is as daunting task as writing a The difference between the Bodos and the unilateral history for the whole world. The Dimasas is sharp at present. Traditions, cultural composition of Assam is such that however, indicates a single root to both. They there is always a great danger of falling short in have a similar tradition of the origin of the this responsibility. There are many local universe, which speaks of a flood and the histories; as many, or even more, as there are subsequent creation of the earth. There is distinctive communities within the greater another tradition among the Bodos, which cultural fold of Assam. Unless authentic speaks of the existence of two groups, one of documentations of these local histories are which happened to cross a big river because of made, writing an all-encompassing history for some disputes. It seems probable that the Assam will continue to be difficult. Serious Bodos were the ones who crossed the river and efforts in this regard should be made a priority. settled down on the foothills of the Himalayas There is also a serious need to understand what and later were disowned by the Dimasas, who forms an evidence for history writing and what initially settled on the foothills of the Patkai, does not. Over-dependence on quasi-historical the Naga Hills and the Dhansiri and Kopili Valleys. sources such as the Puranas and the classical In all likelihood, they entered the Brahmaputra literature as well as myths will lead to nowhere, Valley through the Patkai Hill Range. but will rather create further historical ‘errors’. Unless a multidisciplinary approach is taken up This is, perhaps, the most intriguing issue, for research into the past, which will include which eventually will dominate the associated disciplines such as archaeology, archaeological and anthropological studies in anthropology, folklore and geography among Assam in the coming decades. At this juncture, others at both theoretical and the however, certain questions may arise which methodological levels, the history of Assam will may even baffle the most scrutinising minds. Is it continue to be either a ‘historical myth’ or, for possible with the current state of the worse, a ‘mythological history’. documentation, combined with a serious lack of historical sense of the tribal communities References: themselves, to draw individual histories for Alam, Md. Shafiqul and Jean-Francois Salles. each of these communities? 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BOOK REVIEW OPEN ACCESS Mystical Survival: The Geography of the elements of Tolerance and Pluralism. They Infinitely Near make up the distilled essence of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The author who cites Dr Paulo Barone Raimon Panikkar little further into the voyage Pilgrims Publishing, Varanasi, 2012, 113pp. INR of spiritual discovery deftly acknowledges this. 250/-, Paper, ISBN 978-81-7769-994-4 The sub title of the book ‘Geography of the Infinitely Near’ is no riddle after the reader Dr Anuththaradevi Widyalankara† manages the introduction. At this point I “Ekam sat vipraha bahudha vadanti” willingly succumb to the temptation of quoting “Truth is one. The Sages call it by many names.” Walter Benjamin, “memory is not an instrument for surveying the past but its [The Sanskrit hymn, Rig Veda I.164.46] theater. It is the medium of past experience, This timeless dictum of the Rig Veda was just as the earth is the medium in which dead resonating in my mind with a peculiar cities lie buried. He who seeks to approach his insistency as I waded through this small book own buried past must conduct himself like a written by Dr. Paulo Barone undoubtedly for a man digging" (Benjamin, 2006: 17). very large purpose. I use ‘wade through’ with a Dr Paulo Barone commutes between two cautious delight. This little book of 113 pages human settlements - Milan and Varanasi. Milan has a long title The Mystical Survival: The is a thriving metropolis with a history of Geography of the Infinitely Near. It is a memorable encounters with science, art and collection of nine essays based on papers literature. Varanasi is the human habitat of presented by Dr. Paulo Barone at academic ‘spiritual luminance’ and is the oldest living city conclaves in and out of India. in the world and the spiritual capital of the The nine essays taken together constitutes a Indian subcontinent - home to three great painstaking effort to map a cohesive or perhaps religions Hinduism Buddhism and Jainism. a more pronounced direction ‘along I should be forgiven for not traversing all the interrupted paths and intermittent times territory that the map-maker Paulo Barone towards mutant places which seem to be solid discovers and marks. As he himself states in the and then reappears as gaseous part of a special introduction “the unpublished map of this geography which is not marked on current singular territory, to be drawn up, must go as maps’, his words (synopsis). far as to almost be confused with it. It’s Dr Paulo Barone, in his role as a map maker and mapping out begins from the most unthinkable explorer of eternal truth, ageless wisdom and and remote localities, in the small marks of universal values known to us as ‘Sanathana each person; it proceeds by replacing their Dharma’, identifies two core values for deeper primitive borders (personal histories) by means excavation through his memories and of distant images…” (p.12). He concludes the experiences: Tolerance and Pluralism. introduction with reassuring words: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism - the three Much as it is variable, I remain great religions that sprang from the deepest convinced that the map is recesses of the Indian subcontinent are oriented in only one direction. uncompromising in their adherence to the core It is searching out Benares, the nebulous heart of things, our singular golden parasol. It † Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University of is a passing map. (p.12) Colombo, Sri Lanka, Email: [email protected] ©2014 Widyalankara. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Widyalankara. Special Methodology Edition Plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 75 Why in search of Benares in the city of however is the home to the principle of non- Varanasi? To each of us Benares offers a contradiction (p. 31). different idea, a brighter promise and a new In the first essay “Vishva Darpana: East West experience. The waters of the Ganges can be Atlas, Notes on the Image of the World/ the tranquil or turbulent. The sun rise over the Rest” (pp. 13-24), he dismantles Rudyard eternal city remains neutral to the prayers Kipling. Instead of attempting to make the offered from ancient ‘Ghats’. The thousands of twain meet the author makes it a confluence. In shrines on the high banks of the river will this essay his lament or rather his diagnosis of remain impassive while one seeks to discover our predicament finds a natural setting in Existence, Consciousness and Delight or what bustling Milan and in sedentary Varanasi with the sages called ‘Sachithanada’. remarkable ease. He writes ‘we allow meaning Paulo Barone embarks on his journey in search to inherit only in the accurate gesture of a of a mystical survival after making this rather handshake or expression in some one’s eyes complex proposition in his introduction. In it, and still suffer the affliction of a general sense he also makes a reference to Edward Said’s of exile’ (p.32) . landscape in ruins remark albeit in passing. It is The author is deeply influenced by Raimon no exaggeration to call it the city of the past, Panikkar. I am no avid reader or follower of this present and the promise of the future. It is great Indo Spanish savant. Yet, navigating the indeed the city of eternity and continuity. rapid currents of the author’s tireless Then why does the author Paulo Barone see a reasoning, I was compelled to discover Panikkar landscape of ruin in it? (p.08). Then he afresh. It was not in vain. He is matchless on proceeds to discover a second image of a the subject. He says “philosophy could be ‘compelling cherry flower about to fade and a understood as the activity by which man third image as described by the poet Bharevi in participates consciously and in a more or less Lotus pollen (Bharavi, Kiratarjuniya, Verse, 39). critical manner, in the discovery of reality and The ruin, the falling flower and the golden orients himself within the latter” parasol according to the author makes an (Panikkar,2000: 1-3). indivisible ‘triptych-ruin’. In this triptych, he In this essay, he makes some startling discovers the elements that make up the discoveries. He refers to ‘illusions produced ‘original machine’ (p.08). The author despite when only a moment is extracted from a the tortuous path taken arrives at a pivotal complex process and rendered absolute while point where he abandons the Eurocentric the rest is obscured’ (p.15). This essay does not perspective of the landscape – ‘a visual make easy reading. The complex thoughts are dimension of space’. presented in equally complex lines. Yet, your The Benares he is in search of is a ‘singular patience is soon rewarded. He begins the essay golden parasol’ that cannot be reduced to with a peg on James Joyce’s Ulysses where visual dimensions. The City of light and the Joyce uses the since famous phrase “light fountain of Hindu philosophy regard itself as a crumpled throwaway”. The author decides that luminous space. Its luminosity exemplifies it is an “appropriate image of the contemporary wisdom. It eradicates the darkness of world” (p.13). It is no easy journey but it has ignorance. In this luminous space sin cannot be exciting prospects. Walter Benjamin and James washed away in the Ganges or by prayer Joyce are invoked arriving at life liberated offered from the Ghats and Shrines. ‘Jeevanmukta’ (p.19). The ‘crumpled Immortality is possible only through wisdom throwaways’ become ‘remainders’, and the and understanding. The City of light is not reasoning is intricate. To see the Irish writer visible in darkness. The City of eternal wisdom and the Jewish Marxist in the luminous setting through which the river of life meanders of Varanasi is fascinating. As the author through does not defy the laws of physics. It concludes, “[i]t is a specially made ‘empty jar, Widyalankara. Special Methodology Edition Plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 76 an Atlas dedicated only to ‘remainders’ capable Appreciation of Tagore’s refrain in the Danish of holding them without asking anything of school that Andersen’s stories provide an them in a semi liberated, semi redeemed adequate education requires me to provide a state”. To exhibit Barone suggests that “the synopsis of the story The Flax by Hans Christian East-West Atlas must work like a laboratory” Andersen. Started with a small incident and (p.19). passing through long but interesting dialogues, The essay ‘Dagdhabijabhava: The State of the the ballad was finally over [The Flax, (1849) Burnt Seed” (pp. 25-38) begins with a http://hca.gilead.org.il/flax.html]. Just as what description of a visit by Rabindranath Tagore to Hedge Stake warned. When the flames died a Danish School. Tagore, it is said, had invisible elements danced over the embers. exclaimed, “Why do you teach so many Wherever their feet touched, their footprints, subjects? One would suffice: Hans Christian the tiny red sparks, could be seen on the ashes Anderson” (p. 25). of the paper. However, the tiny invisible beings cried, “The ballad is never over! The children Tagore was a creative giant at ease with could not either here or understand that. Just Western culture. He had a deep insight into as well. Children should not know everything” Western poetry and science. He was a (p. 28). remarkable Indian sage who combined the best of East and West and a human repository of In my review I take pains to provide the ancient and modern knowledge. He held his synopsis of Andersen’s story The Flax as it is own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the necessary for me to explain how I understand then emerging principles of quantum Tagore’s mind when he announces that Hans mechanics. The author Barone speculates on Andersen’s stories as providing a wholesome the reasons for Tagore’s admiration for the education. The fables in the Panchatantra (re- Danish writer of fairy tales. Hans Christian print 1991), the stories in the Jathaka Mala (re- Andersen is the acknowledged father of the print 2003) and the Fairy Tales of Hans modern form of fairy tales. He was absolutely Andersen (re-print 1993) all provide a great enchanting due to his extraordinary gift for pool of accumulated wisdom that constitutes a noticing and depicting the whimsical and the perennial philosophy. They are all adventures in wishful that mesmerised children and captured the human story. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan says the imagination of adults. of Tagore “in interpreting the philosophy and message of Rabindranath Tagore we are The author speculates, “It would indeed be nice interpreting the Indian ideal of philosophy, to think that Tagore had once read one of religion, and art, of which his work is the Anderson’s fairytales and had been struck by a outcome and expression” (Radakrishnan, 1919: sudden, pervasive enchantment, of the sort 12-15). generally reserved for children, whom he never forgot. Tagore might be said to have devoured Here, I must digress. In order for me to Anderson’s fairytales” (p. 25). appreciate the thesis of Paulo Barone I must take this avenue of citing an extract from the He picks the term ‘devour’ from an observation famous conversation between Tagore and made by Walter Benjamin in his “A Glimpse Einstein. The conversation between these two into the World of Children's Books”. Hans eminent scholars was central to the nature of Andersen’s ingenious story of ‘The Flax’ reality. Jathaka Stories, Fables of the becomes a commentary that is emblematic of Panchatantra and Hans Andersen’s fairy tales the violent fragmentation that characterises are all part of the human entity which the reality in which we live. Then with according to Tagore is “depending for its reality remarkable conviction he asserts that, “it also upon our consciousness” (Conversation accurately represents the ever increasing speed between Einstein and Tagore, New York Times, with which modernity has managed to dissolve August 10, 1930). ancient rhythms and structures” (p. 27). Widyalankara. Special Methodology Edition Plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 77 In next essay ‘The Ant-hill Fraternity’ (pp. 39- for no other reason than that mankind is less 44), the author uses the formation and rich in offspring” (Grennan, (Tr.) (1997) functioning of the Anthill the abode of the Leopard’s Selected Poems, ‘La Ginestra’). The industrious ants to present a world view. He task of philosophy (filosofia dolorosa ma vera) commences the discussion by a reference to is to educate humanity first to openly recognize the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi's the ills of life and then to mitigate them composition 'La ginestra' or broom plant. through participation in the culture of time. It is According to the author, the poet Leopardi the message encoded in ‘La Ginestra’ (the considered the broom plant as the only form of Broom Plant). Leopardi calls for a great alliance life surviving on the slopes of Vesuvius, which of all human beings a ‘social chain (social destroyed a human civilization that was catena) that unites all against the brute force of Pompeii and Ilocano in 79 AD. Leopardi wrote nature. Leopardi refuses the idea of Divine the poem while residing in a villa on the hillside Providence and all the silly ideas of his proud of Vesuvius. It was to be his moral testament as and simple century. Our author Barone a poet. La ginestra ("The Broom Plant") is impressed with this philosophical view contemplated by the poet as the flower of the encapsulated in the La Ginestra but locates his barren slopes of the volcano. It describes thought somewhere in explaining the illusive desolation and the poet alternates between nature of edifying visions. enchantment and melancholia of a starry night. Barone says the analogy with the anthill is well It describes the nothingness of the world, the known in India. He cites Brahmavaivarta Purana orphaned man and his precarious existence and Krisnajanma Khanda as remembered by the capriciousness of nature. These are not Heinrich Zimmer in his Myths and Symbols in intended intentional evils but are continuous Indian Art and Civilization (1972). In the and constant. This commentary is followed by Upanishads we discover Indra swollen with his thoughts on mankind, history and nature. pride. He decides to build a palace that will The hapless plant Ginestra lives on in testify to his great powers. However, the desolation typical of the Vesuvius without construction drags on. The head carpenter surrendering to nature. Here it personifies the discovers that this would take a life-time. ideal man who rejects illusions about himself Surely, Indra must be persuaded to be a little and does not plead for help from the heavens. modest in his dreams of grandeur. He consults Leopardi is not well known in the English- Brahma, the God of Creation. They decide on a speaking world. Yet, he certainly could enter strategy. A mysterious person appears one day the ranks of the greatest enlightenment period and Indra proudly proceeds to show the guest thinkers. He perceives the flower of a broom around. The visitor is impressed and declares plant growing on the arid slopes of the volcano that it is the finest abode any Indra has ever Vesuvius as confrontation with the delusions of built. Any Indra? Indra was confused. I am the his time, which believed in a ‘magnificent only Indra. Am I not? The visitor obviously a progressive fate’ – and those who failed to messenger from Brahma the creator points to a recognise the malignity of Nature towards procession of ants walking in orderly formation humans. Paulo Barone reads another over the palace floor. "Those ants," the dimension to his poetry. He believes that the messenger says, "are all former Indras!" It is the 19th century poet was concerned and way of the world. A god in one life time can be commented on the extreme ease and rapidity reincarnated as an ant in another. One must with which things vanish and the relentless avoid being too comfortable in one’s own fragility to which they are subject and the esteem as one never knows as to what kind of illusive nature of edifying visions. Leopardi in karma one is building upon in the present life. his poetry refers to tribe of ants, carved out of Buddhist texts too have relied on the soft soil, with vast labour. The poem gives a symbolism of the Anthill. There is an anthill sense of a ‘concluding remark’ saying that “it’s Widyalankara. Special Methodology Edition Plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 78 burning day and night. A Brahamin directs West philosophy encounters. He deals with another person Sumedha “Take your tool, what he calls the ‘emblematic case of Hegel’ (p. Sumedha and dig.” (Vammika Sutta, Majjhima 46). Hegel was no student of Hindu Philosophy. Nikaya, 1, 23). As they dig deep he comes His views are confined to his review of Wilhelm across a door-bar, a frog, a forked path, a von Humboldt's lectures on the Bhagavad-Gita strainer, a tortoise, a butcher’s knife and at the academy of Sciences, Berlin in 1827. chopping block, a piece of meat. They throw Humboldt praises the Gita as the greatest, most these findings away and dig deeper. They finally beautiful, and philosophical poem in all known find a cobra. The Cobra is not harmed but literatures. For the purpose of this review of treated with honour. They are baffled by these Paulo Barone’s book that deals with East West findings. At the behest of a deity (Devata) the concept of God and Man let us see how the riddle is referred to the Buddha. The Gita and Hegel visualised and interpreted God. enlightened one unravels the riddle. The Ant In the Gita, Krishna is God incarnate. Krishna, is Hill is the body. The Brahmin is the Arahat. The one (and many), supreme, infinite, all- Knife denotes wisdom. The digging is the effort. encompassing, all-pervasive omnipotent , the The door bar is ignorance. The fork in the path beginning less and endless, immortality and is doubt. The sieve is the five mental death being and non-being and beyond neither hindrances; the tortoise is the five aggregates being nor non-being source of all and of clinging. The butcher’s knife and the especially of all that is excellent, personal, self- chopping block represent the fivefold revealing, in-dweller in human beings saviour pleasures of sense. The piece of meat is lust of sinners, the guardian of eternal sacred duty, and delight. The Cobra is the Arahat Monk destroyer and dissolution. God is the universal (Vammika Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya, 1, 23). The father, mother, friend, lover, grandfather. God Anthill the product of effort to overcome is manifest in nature and mind, as the adversity, consistency in application to life, sustaining life force, a teacher, illuminating the commitment to ethical conduct by the entire field. miniscule insect that is oblivious to its own existence has captured the imagination of both Hegel does not subscribe to this conception of the oriental and occidental exponents of god. If God is to be truly infinite, truly human frailty and human endurance. unlimited, then God cannot be ‘a being’, because ‘a being’, by definition is already In the essay ‘White of India’ (pp. 45-58), the limited by its relations to the others. But if God author enters exciting territory- the impact of is not a being’, what is God? If finite things fail India. Here it must be stressed that in his to be real, what it is to be depends on the impatience to unburden himself of the vast relation to other finite things? (Lauer, 1983: 37- array of observations, inferences and 40) Hegel’s God performs something akin to determinations of his subject he does not what is traditionally understood as ‘creating’. seriously consider the limited faculties of the However, as the Hegelian ‘creating’ takes place reader to fully grasp his message. The language throughout time, rather than only ‘in the and the construction of thoughts can at times beginning’, it finds itself consistent with what be arduous. He writes “by far the majority of astrophysics and biology informs us about the the numerous accounts of the impact of India universe (Lauer, 1983:39). Thus, even Karl (which is the East, but is definitely much more, Marx- the atheist can describe Hegel as an and East which is never really India, but always inspirational guide. much less) reveal a common trait. While the overarching message is discerned, the reader These are random meanderings in which I feels a sense of helpless despair that nags the found myself immersed when trudging along mind. What if the conjecture is incorrect? That the 113 pages that Paulo Barone has produced. said Paulo Barone should be seen as a serious It is indeed the sum of a lifelong quest of explorer of the 18th and 19th century East- discovery. Paulo Barone in his Mystical Survival Widyalankara. Special Methodology Edition Plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 79 offers a revelatory prism through which to view Lauer, Quentin, (1983), Hegel’s Concept of God, the present situations, conditions and in overall New York: Suny Press. the current and evolving conceptions of human Marianoff, Dmitri. “On the Nature of Reality: thought and interactions. This is an exciting Albert Einstein in Conversation with journey for the initiated and a rather mystical Rabindranath Tagore”, Extracted from "Einstein journey for the uninitiated such myself. I am and Tagore Plumb the Truth: Scientist and Poet glad that I read it. I look forward to an amplified Exchange Thoughts on the Possibility of its version where he explains his wanderings shall Existence without Relation to Humanity", New we say as Hans Anderson tells a story to York Times, August 10, 1930. children. Owens, Lily (ed.) (1993), The Complete Hans References Andersen’s Fairy Tales, New York: Gramercy, Benjamin, Walter (2006), ‘Excavation and Avenel. Memory’, in Berlin Childhood Around 1900, Panikkar, Raimon (2000), “Religion, Philosophy Harvard: Belknap Press of Harvard University. and Culture”, Polylog, V, Germany Bhāravi (1885), Nārāyaṇa Bālakṛishṇa Godabole Radakrishnan, S. (1919), Philosophy of & Kāśināth Pāṇḍurang Paraba, (eds.), The Rabindranath Tagore, London: McMillan & Kirâtârjunîya of Bhâravi: with the Commentary Company Ltd. (the Ghaṇtâpatha) of Mallinâtha, Nirṇaya- Sâgara Press. Sarma, Visnu. Panchatantra, (Tr.) (1991), G.L. Chandiramani, New Delhi: Rupa & Company. Bickersteth, G.L. (Text, Translation and Commented), (1923), The Poems of Leopardi, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New York: New American Library. Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, (2005), (Tr.) Bhikku Nanamoli and Bhikku Bodhi, USA: Grennan, Eaman. (Tr.) (1997), Leopard’s Wisdom Publishers. Selected Poems, Princeton: Princeton University Press. The Flax, (1849), Haksar, A.N.D. (2003), Jathakamala: Stories http://hca.gilead.org.il/flax.html from the Buddha’s Previous Births, New Delhi: Zimmer, Heinrich. (1972), Myths and Symbols in Harper Collins India. Indian Art and Civilization, Princeton: Princeton Heidegger, Martin (1996), Being and Time, University Press. 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Publication Watch. Special Methodology Edition Plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 PUBLICATION WATCH OPEN ACCESS Hi Readers, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FY/FY39 In this special issue on methodology, we bring 300.pdf you the news of resources on methodology that 7. Guion, Lisa, A., Diehl, David, C. and is available free in the internet. These include McDonald, Debra Triangulation: on-line resources, e-books and journal articles. Establishing the Validity of Qualitative The following are the free resources: Studies, University of Florida, IFAS Extension, 1. A Guide to using Qualitative Research http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FY/FY39 Methodology, 400.pdf http://fieldresearch.msf.org/msf/bitstre 8. Hannan, Andrew Questionnaires in am/10144/84230/1/Qualitative%20rese Education Research, arch%20methodology.pdf http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resine 2. Chereni Admire (2014). Positionality and d/QUESTS/index.htm Collaboration During Fieldwork: 9. Hayes, Denis Case Study, Insights From Research With Co- http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resine Nationals Living Abroad, Forum: d/Case_study/casest.htm Qualitative Social Research, 15 10. Heath, Helen and Cowley Sarah (2004). (3),http://www.qualitative- Developing a grounded theory research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view approach: A Comparison of Glaser and /2058/3717 Strauss, International Journal of Nursing 3. Caretta, Martina Angela (2014). Situated Studies, 41, 141–150 knowledge in cross-cultural, cross- 11. Hohmann, Ulrike Quantitative Methods language research: a collaborative in Education Research, reflexive analysis of researcher, http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resine assistant and participant subjectivities, d/Quantitative/quanthme.htm Qualitative Research, http://www.diva- 12. Hussein, Ashatu (2009). The use of portal.org/smash/get/diva2:734525/FUL Triangulation in Social Sciences LTEXT01.pdf, doi: Research: Can qualitative and 10.1177/1468794114543404 quantitative methods be combined?, 4. Fletcher, Amber J. and http://jcsw.no/local/media/jcsw/docs/jc Marchildon,Gregory, P. (2014). Using sw_issue_2009_1_8_article.pdf the Delphi Method for Qualitative, 13. Jick, Todd,D. Mixing Qualitative and Participatory Action Research in Health Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Leadership, International Journal of Action, Qualitative Methods,13, http://faculty.washington.edu/swhiting/ http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/inde pols502/Jick.pdf x.php/IJQM/article/view/19025/16138 14. Mannay, Dawn (2010). Making the 5. Fahie, Declan (2014). Doing Sensitive familiar strange: can visual research Research Sensitively: Ethical and methods render the familiar setting Methodological Issues in Researching more perceptible, Qualitative Research, Workplace Bullying, International 10(91), 91-111 Journal of Qualitative Methods,13, 15. Niglas, Katrin Quantitative and http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/inde Qualitative Inquiry in Educational x.php/IJQM/article/view/19018/16139 Research: Is There A Paradigmatic 6. Guion, Lisa, A., Diehl, David, C. and Difference Between Them? McDonald, Debra Conducting an In- http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/docume depth Interview, University of Florida, nts/00001487.htm IFAS Extension, Publication Watch. Special Methodology Edition Plus Miscellaneous, Space and Culture, India, 2014 Page | 81 16. Nolas Sevasti-Melissa (2011) Chapter 2 Grounded Theory Approaches, In N.Frost (eds.) Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology-Combining Core Approaches (pp.16-43). London: Open University Press 17. Olsen, Wendy Triangulation in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Can Really Be Mixed, http://research.apc.org/images/5/54/Tr iangulation.pdf 18. Papathanassis, Alexis and Friederike Knolle (2011). Exploring the adoption and processing of online holiday reviews: A grounded theory approach, Tourism Management, 32, 215-224, http://202.120.224.199/picture/article/ 179/bc/0c/ca58cbde4e718fcb4f835a0bf 9b7/bba035aa-a0bc-42a8-87ba- 715d9df1360c.pdf 19. Tracey, Sarah, J. (2013). Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell http://www.atibook.ir/dl/en/Others/Ed ucation/9781405192026_qualitative_re search_methods.pdf 20. Woods, Peter Qualitative Research, http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resine d/qualitative%20methods%202/qualrsh m.htm 21. Wiles Rose , Coffey,Amanda, Robison, Judy and Prosser, Jon (2012). Ethical Regulation and Visual Methods: Making Visual Research Impossible or Developing Good Practice? Sociological Research Online, 17 (1) 8 10.5153/sro.2274