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