Collaborative Research...So many questions, so little time.

"Typical challenges at this phase of research could be analyzing qualitative data, participant observation, and/or synthesizing findings in collaborative research."

To a certain extent, we struggle with all three of these issues, but I would weight the last most heavily. Ruben and I have collected an immense amount of rich qualititative data, and although David Biale's "dialectical relationship" between minority communities and the outside environment has provided a framework through which to interpret and analyze this information, synthesizing this data will certainly be difficult. While we have a working thesis, we are struggling to merge three elements of our project-- information on the Jewish community in Amsterdam, data collected on and from the Amsterdam Muslim community, and our own experiences (in relation to gender, the concept of insider/outsider, etc.)--into a cohesive narrative. My question concerns the "personal appendix" recommended by Mirjam and Jessica-- because Ruben and I have had such different and at times almost opposite experiences in terms of access and reception in these communities, how should we organize our impressions and responses? I feel like our reactions to the project experience enrich the paper and can be used as primary evidence to support our thesis, but how can we organize a section in our opinions sometimes contradict one another? I guess this is the quintessential question in collaborative research.

Lectures, Research, Adventures: Week 1-2

On Wednesday we first heard from Atef Hamdy about the six steps to extremism. The organization of his project was inspiring-- his original taxonomy makes me wonder what kind of creative, novel thesis Ruben and I can write. We then went to Aya Sofia and meet a new research contact, Harun Yildirim. He is the president of the Muslim Student Association of the Netherlands, and he talked about the struggles of second-generation Moroccan and Turkish immigrants to assimilate into Dutch culture and how these people are marginalized. I was surprised by the welcome we recieved, and the fact that event the bare-headed women were allowed to watch the male 2:00 prayer. After having visited other mosques, I am even more convinced that Aya Sofia is exceptionally open-armed.

Thursday we went to the Jewish Historical museum--this was a moving experience. While I was aware of the extent to which the Holocaust devastated the Dutch Jewish community, seeing pictures of Jewish life pre and post 1941 superimposed suffering individuals on my cloudy conception of WWII. Ruben and I went to the Resistance Museum, and that made me wonder about myself-- what action would I have taken under Nazi occupation? While I would like to believe I would be a resistance fighter, I wonder if the harsh reality of the situation would crush my idealism. I don't know whether I'm selfless and brave enough.

On Thursday night my purple bike was stolen, I walked out to find the lock had been somehow sodered off and the plastic part had been beaten with a crowbar, they left the tools lying around. I think thieves seized their opporunity during this big storm we had, nobody heard anything over the thunder. I console myself by thinking that it's part of the Amsterdam experience, but the reality is that I should have bought a heavy lock.

Saturday was the gay pride parade...I think in this case a picture is worth 1,000 words--inagine two hours of this:



On Monday we went to the Bilmermeer, which was a planned development in the 1970s made to be a revolution in urban/suburban planning but because of poor design, intimidating architecture, and a complex social context (Surinamese independence and the influx of migrants) became a sort of housing project. It was an eerie place, these ENORMOUS tenement buildings all in rows out in the middle of nowhere. We heard
an incredibly sad story about an El Al flight that crashed into one of the apartment complexes in the early 1990s, apparently there were so many unregistered illegal immigrants the death toll could have been anywhere from the 35 reported to hundreds people. Others in the area developed symptoms of sickness (perhaps radiation poisoning?) and the Israeli government still won't tell anyone what was in the plane. Scientists don't believe the substance was any kind of nuclear material, but I find it a little firghtening.

This week has been independent research. While I won't detail the logistics of who we've met, where we've been, and what data we've collected in these posts (see Ruben's "tracing our journey" posts, or if you're interested I have a long word document of contacts and information), I will have several posts about my own reactions to these communities. It has been a foreign experience for me.

Lectures, Excursions, Memorable Facts: Week 1

Lecture on sex work in Amsterdam... Miriam says new Christian conservative government is unsuccessfully trying to replace the Red Light District with high-end clothing botiques. Talk to guy on street about this, he confirms the story and is appalled by the plan. He thinks that legalization is the only way to ensure prostitutes have rights and advocates, and the if the Netherlands criminalizes prostitution sex workers will continue operations but will not be gauranteed the same health and safety. I agree. However, he says that he doesn't think the Red Light District will ever be shut down because most of Amsterdam is too secular and liberal, and he and most of his friends intend to "cause a fuss" if prostitution is criminalized.

Which brings up another interesting point about the Netherlands governments--apparently all political parties are too small to form a single government, so any administration is necessarily a coalition. Currently those parties in power are the Christian Democrats, some social something party, and the Christian Conservatives. Apparently the Christian Democrats tried to sign the Socialist party on board but they refused becuase of ideological divisions, so they were stuck with the Christian Conservatives who have apparently become very unpopular here (according to Street Guy).

The Dutch people have been very kind and friendly. When Ruben and I were lost in Amstelveen, a man bought us train tickets (the electronic machines were only in Dutch) and a young girl took two transfers back into the city with us even though she lived in Amstelveen. An incredibly altruistic man biked us back to Dam Square even though he lived over twenty minutes back in the way we came. It was really touching how kind and compassionate everyone was, and an experience I will never forget.

I have noticed that people have been especially kind to me, and I think part of that doesn't have to do with the fact I support the tourism industry but rather centers around my blonde hair and blue eyes. I was originally surprised because there are supposed to be so many blondes here, but I think they are a dying breed as Amsterdam becomes more diverse and little blonde kids bring up nostalgic memories.

Human Subjects Exemption Paperwork

Purpose/Driving Questions: What is the role of religious, charismatic leadership (as delineated by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu) in encouraging particular behaviors within a congregation and forms of engagement with the larger social and political community? How do spiritual leaders mobilize their constituencies outside the bounds of the church, synagogue, or mosque? What are the roles of religious institutions and faith systems more generally in initiating/developing broader social processes?

Specific Research Question: How are various urban religious spaces in Amsterdam—namely mosques, synagogues, and churches—used, both physically and discursively, to address the issues of their respective communities and to negotiate between religious unity and metropolitan diversity?

Human Subjects Component: We qualify for an exemption under two categories: two and four. Part of our methodology includes analyzing and dissecting the materials an organization makes available for public consumption. We define “available for public consumption” as materials that is likely to be read by the external community (i.e. pamphlets, brochures, web material, and literature geared towards citizens outside the congregation) or distributed widely through various public venues. Thus, we qualify under category four.

We also intend to interview spiritual and administrative leaders in three institutions: a church, a synagogue, and a mosque. We will essentially be asking the principal leaders of these organizations the following questions:

Please briefly tell us about your congregation in terms of your:
-denomination
-history
-social community
-What activities/groups are open to members?
-community involvement

How has your location in an urban area shaped your congregation?

What do you feel is the biggest challenge posed to your community?
-How do you advise those in your congregation to approach it?

How do you define community?
-internally
-externally

We feel that these questions are broad and fair. We have been careful to design interview questions that are neither pointed nor loaded with our biases and misconceptions. Considering that the role of many spiritual leaders is to inform the larger community about their religion and congregation, we do not feel we are violating their rights as citizens nor do we feel we are asking unusual or uncomfortable questions.

Because we are not tape-recording these interviews (we plan to take careful notes) and we plan to conceal the true identity of the leaders and institutions (Pastor John Doe of Church X) in any publications or presentations of our research, we believe we qualify for an exemption under category two. We considered the possibility that these leaders could be indirectly traced if we released the denomination of the church, so we either a) will ensure that there a multiple [Lutheran] churches within the Amsterdam city limits and that our specific institutions is not easily identifiable or b) if we choose to study an institution that is easily recognizable, we will not release the denomination. We do not intend to publish any identifying characteristics (exact location, one-of-a-kind or otherwise extremely identifiable architecture, or anything unique to the organization or leader) and will maintain confidentiality and ensure the privacy of those involved.

Public Scholarship

"What if campus-based artists and humanists—connoisseurs of metaphor—took ourselves more literally? What if we took the question of democratizing the canon literally enough to enter in the joint discovery of literary knowledge with non-academics? What if we took the passion for public spaces literally enough to collaborate with municipal partners on site design? What if we took our interest in gender and genre literally enough to work with high-school girls active in the poetry slam movement?"

-Ellison

I realize that I will be offending most if not all the class when I say this, but I feel like Ellison touches on a crucial point-- knowledge and insight written by academics for academics is not necessarily the most desirable form of scholarship. I feel like many of the readings we've had so far have been just that-- theoretical, slightly esoteric, difficult to metabolize, and quite frankly not very useful outside of an academic context--because as a citizen, I'm not sure I would a) be able to understand the tactics presented, or b) be able to apply them. Exceptions include Bal, Barthes, and a few others. As Domke so rightly pointed out, the role of an academic is to study relevant social, historical, literary political, economic, biological, [etc.] phenomena to serve the public good. I am more impressed by the scholars who can take complex concepts and theories, express and explain them in the societal vernacular, and educate and mobilize the general public than I am by academics who write long, esoteric treatises dealing with a highly specific and complex theory and never make their insight available to the general public. I am not eschewing the research of those passionate about researching a single poem or a single space, but I believe there are ways in which a scholar can make their experience and thought process relevant to today's world--after all, every event, text, and process has implications for society.

"Public scholarship and hope go hand in hand. When scholars highlight opportunities for social change, we offer hope. When scholars help people to negotiate systems in ways that more fully honor their humanity, we offer hope. When scholars provide tools that allow people to take greater control over personal and cultural choices, we offer hope. And when scholars drop our detachment and adopt an ethic of engagement, we offer hope. It is this emphasis—on the belief that together we can build a better world, a more perfect union of humanity—that drives me toward public scholarship."

-Domke

Domke is brilliant-- this is what frustrates me most about the academic world. What is the use of studying a phenomenon if the research is not intended to somehow improve the world? I feel like we've gotten trapped in a cycle of Marx-like "knowledge-fetishism," where instead of doggedly focusing on commodities as the object of desire we have focused on knowledge-- or perhaps the production of knowledge-- for the sake of knowledge. I have been presenting my own research at the Honors Research Colloquium, URP symposium, a conference, and several other venues these past few weeks, and I have been frustrated by the lack of "big-picture" thinking. Yes, I would agree that it's interesting to know that the color of a flower's stemen impacts its chance of being pollinated, but what implications does this have for agriculture? Even for our gardens-- can we change the color of the stemen and grow more flowers, meaning we don't need to use toxic fertilizers? Yes, it's interesting that a hit to the olfactory lobe affects cognitive processes, but does this change what we know about brain damage? It seems that many of the presenters to which I directed these questions hadn't considered the larger community, and I think that's a flaw in the academic system-- after all, what good is unapplied knowledge? Domke points out that research should be done collaboratively with the public in order to improve the world.

In terms of our project, I think that Ruben and I were very careful to choose a subject that has ripples throughout the world and we consistently focus on those implications for society. However, as to how best communicate something so senstitive to the public...Well, that's difficult. We have publicly accessible blogs, we could create something to post on youtube, we could write an article for a press source, I'm not sure how we would be able to impart the importance of this research to the larger community without offending someone.

Formulating a Question, Conceptualizing a Framework, Designing our Methodology

Driving Questions: What is the role of charismatic leadership (a la Bordieu) and specific institutions or organizations in encouraging particular behaviors and forms of engagement with the larger social and political community? How do spiritual leaders and institutions mobilize their constituencies outside the bounds of the [church, synagogue, mosque]? What are the role of religious institutions and faith systems more generally in initiating/developing broader social movements?

Specific Research Question: How do specific religious institutions (we are in the process of identifying one mosque, one church, one synagogue) encourage engagement with the Amsterdam community? What behaviors do they validate and promote (both in terms of interacting with people of different faiths and in terms of more secular Amsterdamian social behaviors like prostitution, pot, etc)?

Framework: Honestly, I don't feel like any of the frameworks fit our research project exactly (our specific church/synagogue/mosque is not necessarily a synecdoche for the larger religious organization as my peers have so clearly and correctly pointed out...) However, I feel like cultural tradition/memory can be shaped to our project is in the sense that these behaviors are deeply ingrained in and socialized into the congregations. Thinking about cultural tradition and memory in a Mieke Bal sense, she addresses ethnocentrism and ingrained cultural biases/attitudes through this framework. We are tackling a somewhat parallel issue-- ingrained behaviors and attitudes encouraged by the institution. In terms of Zwarte Piet, we would be studying the continuing drivers behind this tradition rather than its implications for society.

Methodology: Close reading and participant observation. We will close read interviews with spiritual leaders, bulletins, public materials, etc. and interpret the significance of not only the content but particular word choices and structural elements. We will observe sermons and services through our active and full participation (a la Ziesel) in them. I feel like the "secret outsider" position is unethical and marginal participation (simply sitting in a service and not engaging with the sermon and rituals [singing hymns, saying prayers, etc] does not allow us to understand the significance of the behaviors).

Telling, Showing, Showing Off and Extrapolating from Mieke Bal

In Telling, Showing, Showing off, Mieke Bal argues that racism and ethnocentrism are inherent in the layout of the American Museum. Western hegemony manifests itself in the manner in which the displays are organized--exhibits of "other" peoples and animals are shafted under and behind those from other cultures. While Mieke explicitly states that by accepting this layout as natural and refusing to engage in self-critical discourse the museum "has turned its luck into a lack," I wonder how the museum SHOULD be organized-- by remedying the juxtapostion of animals and foreign peoples, by facilitating "self-reflection" (thinking about the African peoples exhibit in particular), and by carefully evaluating underlying assumptions (for example, "the idea that wider political entities would be better than small scale political organization remains unargued"). In essence, my question is what do these theoretical concepts (self-criticism throughout the showing process rather than showing-off, careful assesment of all presumptions) look like in concrete form?

Thinking about the previous article "Telling, Showing, Showing Off" and the importance of integrating exhibits with self-criticism, I wonder if perhaps it is not better to continue the tradition of Zwarte Piet in the manner Mieke Bal has begun-- to question its underlying assumptions but still continue the practice itself. To showcase the ugliness of the tradition and yet still mark its place in Dutch society...I have been thinking about James E Young's work on Holocaust memorials (my original research project) and how these monuments or practices refresh collective memory and in fact deter a repeat event.

Media and Medium

Thinking about the easy accessibility of the internet and the professionalism of and validity lent to printed academic materials, I think the work Ruben and I plan to do in Amsterdam should be placed both a) on the internet (perhaps merely this blog) and b) in a formal academic paper setting. I can see why Mike Wesch would have chosen youtube as the most appropriate form of communicating his findings, considering his research centered around phenomena like youtube and other easily accessible, public-based sites. However I feel the subjects with which Ruben and I plan to engage-- religion and politics-- are too senstitive to ethically post our findings on such an informal and open means of communication. Thinking about the damage caused, stereotypes perpetrated, and impressions made by internet video releases like Fitna and Submission (which granted were partial and not objective research), I do not feel like a public domain or sharing medium would be an appropriate mode of communicating our research. I do however think that, considering the relevance of the interactions between religion and community, certain elements of our project deserve their airtime in a place accessible to an audience of our peers and those interested, possibly these blogs. However, for the most part I feel that an academic written form-- obviously not a book but perhaps an article or compilation of observations and insights-- is the most appropriate and ethical form of communicating our work. The conference will also be a suitable venue in which to share our study, in a place dedicated to the objective study of social phenomena rather than in the emotional public eye.

Social Movements

“Already existing church groups, clubs, special interest organizations, teams and recreational groups, community groups, PTAs, veterans and educational organizations support the development of social movements.”

DOBSON, CHARLES. Social Movements: A summary of what works. The Citizen's Handbook: A Guide to Building Community in Vancouver.

Religious beliefs, rituals, and institutions provide rich sources of inspiration for the advancement of social and political movements. What makes religion different from other sources of motivation for social movements? Just how do religious phenomena affect resource mobilization, framing, and political processes and opportunities of social movements and their participants?

“A social movement is a loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of a social goal, typically either the implementation or the prevention of a change in society's structure or values. Although social movements differ in size, they are all essentially collective. That is, they result from the more or less spontaneous coming together of people whose relationships are not defined by rules and procedures but who merely share a common outlook on society.”

"Social Movement." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

But is the initiation of a social movement necessarily spontaneous? What is the role of charismatic instigators (of which spiritual leaders are by definition) in inciting civil unrest and mobilizing their constituencies? Perhaps this "common outlook on society" is defined by a specific religion? And religion must facilitate social movements because it provides the collective-- people belong to a certain institution or organization and there is an existing social network of similar minded people with similiar goals (perhaps these goals are defined by the charismatic leader?) who are the existing collective. In Amsterdam, who are the charismatic leaders able to unite and mobilize the collective? For what "social goals?" And who constitutes the "collective" in each instance?

“Religion has long played a central role in many social and political movements. Solidarity in Poland, anti-apartheid in South Africa, Operation Rescue in the United States--each of these movements is driven by the energy and sustained by the commitment of many individuals and organizations whose ideologies are shaped and powered by religious faith. In many cases, religious resources and motives serve as crucial variables explaining the emergence of entire social movements.”

SMITH, C. (1996). Disruptive religion: the force of faith in social-movement activism. New York, Routledge.

World Concern: a Christian humanitarian organization with disaster relief and sustainable development programs in 32 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. We serve the last, the least, and the lost-- people in the displaced person camps of Sudan, people caught in the midst of political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe, those suffering under the military junta in Myanmar... I began working for this organization after hearing a sermon (given by a charismatic church leader) emphasizing Matthew 25:40, "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" The power of religious beliefs is reflected in the proliferation of religiously-motivated non-profits across the world. There are entire social movements-- in this case humanitarian work-- initiated and developed by religious beliefs and institutions. What social movements are inspired by individuals and religious communities in Amsterdam? What behaviors do religious leaders and religious texts encourage? Do religious leaders endorse political leaders? How do they create an atmosphere in which certain phenomena-- for instance, compassion, service, intolerance, hate--flourish? How do they mobilize people towards broader social movements-- what role do religious institutions have in the immigration debate? In fostering intracultural understanding or in creating divisions?

"Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives’ favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race."

Rich, Frank. 4 May 2008. The All-White Elephant in the Room. New York Times.

What effect does this have on McCain's candidacy? This church has one of the largest congregations in the world-- and Hagee has just mobilized the majority of it to vote for McCain....Look at the US evangelical Christian leaders who have inspired and furthered a social movement of conservative Christian values (abortion, gay marriage, etc.) and tied it to a larger political movement? How has this manifested itself in Amsterdam?

Continued...

Sorry guys, I didn't realize the second half of that had been cut off... And Clint, Dylan, and Julia, if you're interested my IS club is meeting next week to discuss the role of the media in facilitating democracy and the role of technology in sustaining an egalitarian society.

Architecture:

How people interact with space and how do these places incorporate and reflect the history and culture of the area in which they are built? You will study a particular site (in Jenny's case a particular shopping center) by close-reading the physical space itself, its "climate," and its inhabitants; researching the history of the location and its current uses (events, stores, people, etc.); and in Jenny's case, conducting a comparative study between two different shopping locations.

To be honest, it seems to me like you two have a fairly explicit research question and the ways in which you intend to research will allow you to answer it. I don't know if this is interesting to you, but in Jenny's case it seems like it would be fascinating to make one of your locations a US shopping mall (can I say mall or is it shopping center?) and compare your findings in say, Bellevue Square, to a shopping site in Amsterdam. Seeing as we have an undeniably consumerist culture and much of our public activity centers around a mall, I would think a comparison between the two sites would reflect on our societies more broadly and you could draw some insightful inferences as to the role of these consumer hubs in connecting people and communities in a place where a great amount of importance is placed on material objects and a place that doesn't necessarily have the same values. Studing Bell Square prior to leaving would also give you some practice in a familiar setting for your research methods in Amsterdam, I plan to go to a mosque before leaving Seattle and get an idea of what to expect.

Brands/Consumer Culture:

Eddy: How do stores create a unique culture that represents them, their mission, their values, and their product?
Haylee: How does does fashion create and perpetuate gender roles and identity? I think this is very interesting and especially relevant given the "idealized" portrayals of women in our media and the effects these have on young girls and women in general; I am excited to see what you find...
Katherine: How is fashion a form of self-expression? (Do you mean high-fashion or walking down the street fashion? Because if you mean walking-down-the-street fashion, it seems like you would want to incorporate interviews with people into your methodology, because analyzing their clothing and photos of them could cause you to draw incorrect inferences. For example, I asked Fiona why she wore so much black ("is it because black is a "bad-ass, hip" color?") and she was extremely offended, she simply likes the color. It seems like the self-identification part would be important, so actually asking people WHY the clothes they wear represent them and what conscious choices they make when they put on a certain outfit."

Communal Methods: Visit/close-read stores and informally interview employees (Eddy--I wonder how informative these interviews will be, seeing as marketing and brand conformance is usually determined by executives (with the help of a contracted designer of course) and then imposed on each individual shop, so while that will not be a problem in boutique stores like the image you showed us, it will pose a problem in chain stores where even the manager probably had little or no say in the company culture and the look of the store and is not necessarily able to articulate the impetus behind the decor; maybe you could also research the websites of chain stores and look at their missions and determine how the design of the shop fits with that?); analyze photographs/ads; surveys; interviews with people?

Reflection, Clarifications, Suggestions

Media and Technology:

I believe the question centered around the interaction of media and technology with one another and society at large. Methods included research of existing scholarly work, interviews with experts (who would ostensibly be news producers or consumers or academics or...? How are you defining "expert?"), and surveys and interviews to gauge reactions to and perceptions of media. Clifford suggested a case study of a particular news source, which seems like it would narrow the research subject and allow for deeper analysis and more definite conclusions, especially if you were to make a comparative study with a news source in the US.

While I realize this was not explicitly your question, I think the subject of information mediation-- or the way in which information is packaged and sold to consumers-- and the resulting implications for society (especially democratic societies) is central to the theme of media and technology. On that note, at the Provost's lecture last night someone asked Professor Migdal "How is it possible to foster democracy and increase the availability of information when all our sources [i.e. FOX, CNN] package it with a particular slant and intend for us to percieve it in a particular way?" and he responded by saying that "My only hope for the communication of information is the internet--because the facts are accessible, alternative opinions are provided, etc, and hopefully people will be informed in the most balanced possible way before taking action." I think this is an interesting distinction between media and technology, and in this case it appears the role of technology is to reign in the bias of the media... On another note, the societal implications would be an interesting concept to pursue-- whether a certain media source does or not present a biased account of events (perhaps bias could be defined by an omittance of a certain fact or the use of partial adjectives) and whether or not your interviewees percieve this slant.

While I realize that most sources (especially those from the internet) will be available in English, I wonder from which stations most Amsterdam natives extract their information. In other words, if you want to interview people on which sources they watch most frequently, it might be hard for you to analyze these yourself (I would assume most television broadcasting and newspapers are in Dutch...) And there's the fact that readers will interact differently with a source in English than one in their native tongue. That may be another layer of support for a case study of an internet source-- and I was thinking that perhaps a good way to collect your human subject pool would be to take out an ad in this source, while you would obviously get an unrepresentative sample of the population you're targeting those readers you need and whose perceptions you can gauge.

I hope I didn't distort your research questions or intended plans, when you mentioned the word society this is the research design I imagined.

Tourists vs. Natives:

How do tourists and natives differ respectively and within their own communities? By observing appearances, languages, accents, behaviors, and interactions between an individual and other people and space; participating in both native and non-native activities (musuems, coffee shops, etc.); and conducting interviews with tourists and natives your group will determine the difference between natives and tourists in the context of Amsterdam arcades.

I'm thinking of a reading from SIS 202 concerning honor killings and vengenance murder. It was written by an anthropologist/sociologist discussing the role of the observer in observing and studying communities, and how it will never be possible for the researcher to understand or draw inferences from their work studying the natives without communing with the natives themselves, which will never be possible without actually BEING a native of that community. Therefore, while Flannery can communicate in Dutch and you will be mimicking the daily operations of natives, I wonder if it is possible to draw appropriate and empathetic conclusions from your observations. I will bring the volume for you two on Monday, it is difficult to articulate the concept but it challenges the conventional wisdom of impartial outsider observer and discusses the need to be participatory.

Help.

Ruben and I, well, frankly...we're struggling. We have a research topic that about which we are extremely passionate and do not want to compromise the substance, but we're experiencing some "technical difficulties" formulating a specific research question and confronting the ethical restrictions.

We want to study how the interaction between religious institutions and politics, whether that be political mobilizations of people from the pulpit (through explicit calls to action or religiously-affiliated community events/involvement) or the way in which believers reconcile or construe their political and religious identity or even the way in which religious organizations use their physical space to interact with the larger community (see the last entry concerning the Western Mosque). We are fascinated by the intersection of religion and politics and feel that Amsterdam is a unique place to study this issue considering its long history of religious tolerance and intolerance and more current affairs. But within this broad framework we are unable to determine a specific question, and we have been encountering some issues while thinking about how to operationalize our subject.

Is a sermon technically public or private property? While it's clearly meant for an audience, it's technically intended to target the congregation.Same goes for religious publications. Beyond this, the social sciences are meant to be objective-- how can we analyze documents and speeches for political and social signals without drawing our own inferences? And how can we ethically question people regarding the two most sensitive issues--religion and politics? Is it appropriate to hand out blind surveys, and what kind of questions should we ask? "How do you construe your political identity: do you think of yourself as a) primarily ____ (Christian, Muslim, Jewish); b) Dutch; c) both equally; d) neither; or e) all/none of the above?" (Don't worry, we are not really thinking of using heinous questions like that, I was trying to illustrate our dilemma).

In short, we need some help. Jessica and Clifford-- what times are available on Friday?

The Western Mosque

Please refer to: The Religious/Political Significance of Physical Spaces

Thinking about the intersection of and interaction between socio-politics and religion in physical spaces (churches, mosques, synagogues) and more specifically the integration of a large Muslim immigrant population into Amsterdam (a topic I cannot seem to drop), it seems that the Western Mosque (pictured above) is a synecdoche for these wider themes. As Sunier says, "places of worship have constituted the most controversial and symbolically laden areas" with respect to religious issues--emancipation, integration, evangelism, etc. The Western Mosque was designed to combine traditional elements of Islamic worship with Dutch architectural styles in order to align itself with "the physical and social environment," and its construction was politically controversial. This mosque is more than just an example of cultural integration and the physical and spatial manifestation of politcial and social intent-- it actually stands in for a larger phenomenon of religious instutitions using their physical space to push a political and social agenda.

Internet Sources...

While doing the assigned readings, I thought that perhaps the best place to examine social interactions between site and readers and gauge reactions to Holocaust memorials and their relation to contemporary issues like the immigration debate (my research focus) would be personal blogs. However, after skimming several I realized this would not be appropriate-- they were too emotionally loaded and polemic. Instead I stuck to more mainstream sites:

Holocaust Memorials and Public Memory
Lists and discusses the Holocaust memorials and the role they play in commemorating the event, creating public awareness of the facts, and enhancing public empathy and memory.

List of Holocaust Memorials in Amsterdam
Lists and depicts existing memorials; this would be something to physcially follow up on while in Amsterdam. Basis for James E. Young-type work, I would want to gauge reactions to these.

The Virtual Jewish History Tour: Netherlands
Provides context and describes horror and scale of the Holocaust. This is an interesting social relationship to examine: how the site communicates the devastation of WWII to its viewers. This would be within the realm of my research interests...

Blog: Islam in Europe
Links to articles regarding the immigration debate in Amsterdam. Organized by topic...

Preliminary Research Interests...

Watching Fitna, I was struck by the way in which Wilders references the Dutch WWII experience as a tool to evoke an emotional response. Given the long history of the Netherlands as such a tolerant community (as Ran Hennes says,Amsterdam was known to Jews as "the City" and Murder in Amsterdam discusses theJewish synagogues built in the area) and the juxtaposition of this tolerance with the events of the Holocaust and the Dutch inability to integrate or protect the majority of its own Jews and Jewish refugees from Germany/Austria, the the Holocaust is especially relevant for the Dutch people.

In Fitna, Wilders first lingered on a "God Bless Hitler" sign and he made a point of emphasizing Muslim hatred of and violence towards Jews, which I felt drew on the collective Dutch experience in WWII and the inability to protect the Jewish people (perhaps he is suggesting that because the Dutch wereunable to save the Jewish victims of Nazism, they have an obligation to save theJewish victims of Islam? I don't want to draw unsupported inferences, I don't know whether that was his intent...) Beyond the role of the Dutch "tolerance" in the fate of its Jewish people, Wilders claims that like Nazism, Islam is an ideology to be defeated.Once again he evokes the communal memory of the terrible events of the Holocaustin order to rally support for his cause.

I am interested in researching how the media/propaganda/other sources do this--how they use the memory horrible catastrophes--specifically those of WWII, the most relevant and horrific point in Dutch history-- to rally people, especially in the context of integration/immigration issues. Itseems like a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it seems like the memory of the Holocaust should make the Dutch MORE tolerant towards minorities and religious groups, but on the other it can be used as ammunition against another group. It's especially interesting to me because as Americans were/are so physcially removed from WWII--we did not live through it and truly experience its horror-- it is not as poignant/relevant for us (although perhaps it should be) and is not a tool used to evoke emotion and memory in our media.

This is obviously a very sensitive subject, and I am not sure how I would approach it. I would want to look at media sources (papers, movieclips, commercials etc.) but I would also want to look in less (or more) direct places-- street art, the Anne Frank museum and other formal commemorations/monuments of WWII, and other places in Amsterdam I do not yet know of. I would want to somehow gauge a reaction to this sources as well from a people and nation who had experienced WWII, but I am not sure how I would do this... And ideally I would want to study how the Holocaust/WWII experience is invoked in the current immigration debate, although this may be too political...

A Methodological Approach to Recycling Receptacles

Redirect to Fiona's blog.

Fitna: Sensationalism at its Worst and Situational Irony at its Finest

Quite frankly, I found Fitna atrocious. The choice of medium-- the internet and, of all sources, live leak (the original source to which Fitna was released)-- was not appropriate for political discourse, which to me suggests that Wilders did not intend to seriously contribute to the (non) integration debate but rather to incite unrest. The politics here are inexcusable-- how far will he go to misrepresent a population and terrorize the Dutch people unnecessarily in order to win seats in the Parliament? In my opinion, Fitna was an alarmist piece of hate and fear mongering, as perhaps best exemplified by the bar graphs of Europe and the Netherlands' Muslim populations that richocheted past the top of the screen, utterly removed from any context (the fact that there has been a simultaneous increase in European population as a whole, albeit not proportional to the number of Muslim immigrants but still enough to make these statistics less alarming).

Beyond the blatant lack of context provided for many of the "facts," I felt this collection of scences was an unfair and unrepresentative sample of Muslims. Many of the verses cited in the Qur'an have counterparts in the Abrahamic religions-- in the Bible's Old Testament, for example. While Wilders' footage shows passages of the Qur'an promoting the violent killing of "the enemies of Allah and your enemies," he neglects to inform us that the Old Testament promises a war-like Messiah to destroy the enemies of God's chosen people. The "uniquely Muslim" intolerance of homosexuality, adultery, and other religious faiths as portrayed by Wilders is in fact paralleled by Christian movements across the world, and in a twist of situational irony, immediately after watching Fitna I walked into Red Square only to hear a Christian evangelical screaming "Escape is folly, the only way to God is through our Lord. Convert or burn in the eternal hell fires." I feel I could reproduce Fitna in such an alarming way with insert religion here as the subject, perhaps featuring my teen daily devotional (which in today's breif explicitly declared that "Some people believe we should allow people to worship in their own way. They are wrong. We are meant to lead people to the ways of Christ," Jerry Falwell, some crazy televangelist and the guy from Red Square today in a slandering montage of Christianity. While it would be true that these people exist and are sincere in their radical beliefs, they would be no more representative of the entire Christian population that Ahmedinijad is of Islam. Wilders is simply exploiting (and I would argue causing) a growing fear of Islamic society in the wake of 9/11 and the context of increased immigration into Europe from the Middle East.

I noticed that Fitna did not only prey upon these contemporary insecurities (immigration and other political issues) but also the collective Dutch experience, or more specifically the memory of WWII. Footage lingered on a "God Bless Hitler" sign and emphasized Islamic hatred and violence towards Jews, thus targeting a sensitive spot in recent national memory and confusing group and individual feelings of guilt (for refusing to house Jewish refugees and cooperating with Hitler) and fear of Nazism with fear of Islam. I also noted the ending analogy-- like Nazism and communism, Islam is another ideology to be condemned and eradicated. Wilders has managed to tap into a wellspring of not only current unrest but bad past experience and a communal sense of guilt and fear; I can only hope that this badly-mad alarmist montage of radical, unusual, and unrepresentative scenes is poorly recieved in the Dutch community.

Who Superimposed Order? Shirley's Blog in Time and Space

Like last week I was surprised by the results of the blog analysis. While attempting to determine what sense of order was inherently present or purposefully imposed in Shirley's blog, I realized I could not differentiate between the Shirley's order and Emily's order. Was I correctly interpreting Shirley's use of space and content breaks as her intended order, or was I superimposing an order of my own in an attempt to understand the blog in my own mind?

"Trusting my skills of observation to inform what I saw in the blog content," I found the structure of Shirley's blog at once predictable and peculiar. The socially-mandated aspects of blogging and constructing space and order followed a consistent and logical pattern, and were thus predictable. Examples include the blog titles, which encompassed almost every aspect of the post as a form of social courtesy or socially-constructed norm that writers must indicate their subject in a headline (Bijlmermeer + Exploration + Lectures or Interview + Exploration Wonders, in which the addition signs immediately stand out as an indication that in Shirley's mind, these subjects are linked within the post), the use of paragraphs to clearly demarcate different topics (and the use of spaces in between those paragraphs to clearly demarcate and spatially seperate the text itself, further emhasizing to the reader the distinctness of each subject), the use of bullet points to breifly outline ideas rather than jamming unrelated observations into a single blob of text (and furthermore the space in between these bullet points), and the use of a single phrase and a colon before these bullet points to establish the context for the reader. I wonder the extent to which Shirley made these spatial and formatting choices intentionally (to clarify the content for the reader), and which aspects of formatting were not choices at all but rather unconscious conformation to socially constructed norms (as I notice I have thoughtlessly done now by seperating these paragraphs).

What I found peculiar is the chronological and topical mixture Shirley used to order the content within her posts. She usually began by detailing the early events of the day, but rather than adhere to a strict chronological order (at 3 we counted head scarves, at 4 I met this man, at 5 I interviewed this woman), it seemed that certain events as subjects led better into other events as subjects (at 3 we counted headscarves, I later interviewed a woman about her headscarf, I also met a man today about a completely different subject). I'm not sure this example made sense, but the point I'm trying to communicate is that Shirley's order is not necessarily time-oriented but rather she allows one subject to flow into a similar one. I think the reason she always begins with the earliest activity is due to a social norm of blogging, that the order of events is easier for a reader to interpret chronologically.

Close Reading Surprise...

Close reading is peculiar-- what at first seemed like a perfunctory "check-in" email from a research team manager now appears to be slightly aggravated. I percieve a sense of irritation in the clipped sentences and punctuation (her "See you Wednesday. " seems less friendly and more matter-of-fact than a "See you Wednesday!") and her "Sound good?"seems short and harsh in comparison to the longer, alternate "Does this sound good?" I also note how the sign off comes immediately after a question-- obviously she is not asking us if this sounds good because she wants an answer, she is asking either for added emphasis (this is how it is, it better be ok with you now) or in attempt to make the message more student friendly.

The phrase "forty minutes should be adequate most weeks" strikes me immediately. Obviously she does not believe forty minutes will be enough time, as denoted by the "SHOULD" (as opposed to "will"), the "ADEQUATE" (vs. "plenty"), and the qualifier "MOST WEEKS," which indicates that there will be weeks in which we do not finish in the allotted time. Following this she adds that "when we need to go over into the noon hour those who have other obligations can leave early." The word "NEED" jumps out at me, these two phrases subtly scream (is that an oxymoron?) that the time slot is too small.

This phrase brings up a second issue with the word "those." It seems to be a deliberate attempt not to incriminate any individual (as opposed to "Emily can leave early") and yet expresses her displeasure by its stiffness and formality. Instead of directly addressing each of us with the word "you," she has chosen the word "those," which signals distance. This sentence also includes the phrase "other obligations," an interesting choice of words. I now wonder what constitutes an obligation in her eyes? Another class? A doctor's appointment that could be rescheduled? A lunch I've planned with a friend before recieving this email?

I also note the bolding of the meeting times and the way she has including the two zeros after 12:00 rather than 12 or the word noon. I feel this double emphasis (the bolding and the detail of the numbers) conveys a sense of exasperation and a sharp insistence that we understand the times and the restrictions these start and end times place on our meeting...The way in which she writes it, it appears every minute in between 11:20 and 12:00 has a particular significance and should be maximized.

Another formatting issue is the way she has spaced the "See you Wednesday" from the rest of the email. The content of the message is essentially over with the "Sound good," is the purpose of the Wednesday comment a) to remind us that we do in fact need to meet on Wednesday (thus further emphasizing the fact that our meetings start this week); b) to indicate that the "Sound good?" was rhetorical and she does not want us to answer it, we will be seeing her Wednesday and that is final; or c) to fulfill some societal norm of politeness, or the idea that every message needs a sign-off? Or is it possible the intention of that phrase was all three of the above?

In a way I now feel like this interpretation is oversensitive. Perhaps this was a routine logistics email, and dissecting it I lost the context and focused on unintentional slants in the writing. But I must say, it's interesting how noting the formatting and certain word and punctuation choices changes how I feel about the message.