fields of discourse - academic studies
(Relationship between economics, history, design, social sciences, religious philosophies…)

What meta-subjects form the concept of sustainability?




Translate to a set of questions/language that the community will relate to?

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Summary

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relationship between discourses and other social practices
(Holistic therapies, environmentalism, vegetarianism…)

Which social practices are playing a force in shaping sustainability?




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Summary

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discourse Procedures
(Who says what)

For example

Exclusion and inclusion - Who says what and who can reply
Division and rejection - What is being heard
True or False - How things are categorized
Culture versus nature - Divisions
Formulaic texts - Major narrative discourses
Hierarchical positions and their relationship to secondary
Age, gender, economic status


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working with communities to produce ethnographic fieldwork

I am proposing to research digital futures in communication design about sustainability. One of the methodologies I will adopt will be qualitative ethnography and my theoretical lense for this will exist in four forms. Firstly, I will systematically apply field research within the framework of two established working groups. One called ‘OAK’ and the other ‘A Community Portal for South Kerrier‘. Both working groups work in and encompass the communities of South Kerrier. Secondly, I am assuming that the actual ethnographic fieldwork will produce its own theory. For example, communities shape their own meaning and develop specialized discourses that ethnography can bring to consciousness. Thirdly, I will be applying existing academic theory about digital futures to this project. It is hard to say exactly what digital future theory I will be engaged in as theory gathered from the communities could dictate the theory I ultimately choose. Importantly, I will lastly share this micro-activity and its findings with two global list servers that I belong to. One list server comprises international mapmakers http://greenmap.org the other designers who are trained/or training in ‘design for sustainability’ http://www.o2.org. In addition to these list servers that are about sustainability, I will search for others that are dealing with such topics as the visualization of information and the building of new communities.

In order not to impose my theoretical or ideological agenda on the communities I will initially ask non-directive open-ended questions. These will be followed by descriptive structural and contrast questions.
The concepts inherent in the communities’ answers will be refined and understood through the following categories:

1. What is the communities understanding and concept of sustainability?
2. What discourses govern the communities answers?
3. How are sustainable ideas received or rejected?
4. What are the communities’ desires and aspirations for sustainability?
5. What existing sustainable schemes do the communities use?
6. Is there a will or lack of will by the communities to interact with sustainable schemes?
7. Is there a will or lack of will by the communities to access digital information?

The qualitative research will be written up and will form the dominant argument. Nevertheless some of it could be reduced into quantitative data?

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