06: Search for footprints

Learning with camera phones

Fumitoshi Kato (Keio University)

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Search for footprints

A fieldworker needs not only a sensitivity to understand observable objects and events, but also a flexible imagination to think about unobservable objects and events. If you are familiarized with approaches for observing and recording, or with the idea of keeping a proper distance to the researched, let's begin to stimulate and enhance your sociological imagination.
The first practice is to imagine and reconstruct a sequence of human behavior through something observable.

Go out to the field and take a picture from the following points of view:

Record time and location of the research site as well.

  1. Somebody was there/something happened (i.e., lingering memory; footprint), or
  2. Somebody is approaching/something will happen (i.e., indication; sign)

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Be fearless and playful. Think about the flow of time embedded within things that you captured. If you think your imagination or hypothesis is a “plausible” one, why and how? What kind of knowledge and experience becomes the premise? What are the things you need to consider in order to confirm your hypothesis?

For inquiries please contact:

Fumitoshi Kato
Keio University • Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
5322 Endo Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0882 Japan
fk [at] sfc.keio.ac.jp