http://www.syndicatemizzou.org Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:39:41 GMT en-us 40 Center for eResearch Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activity http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/images/logo.png 384 80 http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen06.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen06.m4v Larsen gathers his data through a variety of different methods ranging from ethnographic field research to content analysis and GIS. But the method he prefers is called “participant observation,” an approach in which “you go and live with the people for an extended period of time, so you can start to learn how they think and feel and act.” In fact, Larsen considers participant observation to be a base line for all the research he does because “you gain an insight by participating in the culture.” 3 Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:06:10 GMT http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen02.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen02.m4v Larsen, who started out as an undergraduate English major, found himself writing about place, a sense of place, and the identities associated with it. Seeking to understand cross-cultural variations in terms of a sense of place led him to the discipline of anthropology, and it was through ethnographic research that Larsen finally reached geography. His past research projects have involved sharecroppers in the Tennessee River Valley, who were relocated by the TVA dams, as well as with the Cheslatta, “a small Indian band in British Columbia, Canada, that had been relocated from its traditional lands in 1952 in order to make way for a hydroelectric project that was being constructed by the aluminum company of Canada.” In each case, Larsen sought to understand traditional land use practices, naming practices, and what places mean to people of different cultures. 3 Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:05:07 GMT http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen03.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen03.m4v “There is a land claims treaty process that is going on in Canada,” Larsen reports, “but generally the native people in the province of British Columbia are very dissatisfied with it because it asks them to do things in terms of Western court procedures as opposed to their own indigenous ways of knowing and establishing these things. The Cheslatta are among two-thirds of the native bands that are withdrawing from the treaty process completely--as a matter of protest and also as a matter of expediency” as they seek to join forces with other groups. As a matter of fact, the lumberyards in Columbia will likely contain Cheslatta forest products that derive from this band of 500 individuals partnering with a multi-national timber firm. 3 Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:05:30 GMT http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen04.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/larsen/ipod/Larsen04.m4v “One of the most fascinating things I discovered in the course of my research,” reflects Larsen, is that both the Anglo and Cheslatta residents seem to use scales “in which they construct their identity for different purposes.” More specifically, he notices that, generally speaking, “when an outside force comes into the area . . . they call themselves Southsiders . . ., forming this unified front” against outside firms and corporations that tend to harvest the resources and then just leave. Their collaboration proved successful in preventing a new dam from being constructed, and “their success has bred more collaboration in these coalition politics.” Yet Larsen also noticed that when that outside force is removed, “they tend to fall back into their distinct little cultural groups”—Anglo and Cheslatta. 3 Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:04:28 GMT