Monday 21 July 2008

Thinking about class

I thought I better make another post.   My past few weeks have been very busy procrastinating, a thousand and one jobs you can find to do so that you don't have to transcribe! 

On a more serious note, my research has led me into the dangerous territories of class -  how does social class (whatever class may be) or background affect an individuals access to or ability to access information?    Certainly, from the interviews I have conducted thus far, all stereotypical assumptions seem to have been fulfilled.   

Pondering this issue I came across a very interesting Interview on the World at One (BBC Radio 4) with Trevor Philips head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission calling for greater fairness in the UK.  It seems that according to Philips said: 'Our growing hour glass economy is the issue of the 21st century, the division between the haves, the have nots and the never-will-haves. The great danger is that economic trends are pushing our country towards the entrenchment of greater and more divisive inequality.' 

What Philips is saying here as potentially huge implications for my research and at its early stage seems to be in full accordance.   His summary and the full PDF document can be obtained from here:  Single Equality Bill

Thursday 10 July 2008

Post Grad Conference

My time at the moment seems to be sucked up by interviews, reading and transcriptions-- oh and family...and...I am still only on the third transcription. 

The other week, I gave a presentation of my research to date at a multi-disciplinary conference of other PhD students and researchers from across the University.  This was a great opportunity to see what other people from other disciplines are up to and also see where there is overlap with what I am doing.  Certainly, a lecturer on the Health Studies course was very interested in what I am doing because of its closeness to heath information, this perhaps opening some future doors.  

So how did the presentation go?  Well on the face of it I felt I gave a good presentation, if we discount the projector failing half way through my slides and my managing to offend the 'pure' sociologists in the audience by my use of the loaded term 'chaotic lives' to describe the hard to reach poor--this cafuffle really opened my eyes.  It didn't help matters by my making a joke of it...leading to the question (in my mind), 'do sociologist have a sense of humour or are they so earnest that humour is taboo?' my personal reflection was that in this case humour is at the expense of other people therefore outlawed...   Anyway I will put that down to experience.  

PS - Does anyone know any good sociologist jokes?

Thursday 3 July 2008

Transcriptions

Ok, the research was going great until I realised how hard transcription is.  I spent quite some time on interview number one, playing it laboriously in Windows Media Player, and then RealPlayer and then QuickTime--non worked satisfactory. 

I have however, come across some free software called Express Scribe http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/ which seems to be helping.

Despite the joy of the new transcription software it is still a very long process, it is taking me around 8 hours to transcribe a 1 hour interview, hopefully I will speed-up a little.  This means that I will spend about 40 days in the next year just transcribing, that excludes coding and analysis--ouch....!

People have suggested that I employ speech recognition software, or even a real typist...or anyone mad enough to help me out; on reflection these sound like very tempting (even seductive) suggestions, yet I personally feel that I would loose out by using a quick fix.  As I transcribe I am forced to address each interview systematically and laboriously thus helping me force a fresh familiarity with each one.   So, if you read this, please remember me over the next few weeks and months as I continue to conduct interviews and then transcribe them....

PS.  If anyone has any suggestions to alternative transcription software I would be interested.