The way that I had been thinking about my research questions really transformed in the week where our blogging allowed us to explore what is interesting about our project. I think that I benefited from this exercise the most, as in the course of doing so I realized that the aspects of my research that I was most passionate about and interested in… were not well-developed in my research question as articulated in my first assignment. The first part of my two-part research question was vague and the second question was actually better suited as a secondary method of analysis to improve external validity. “… 1. [h]ow Montréal-based cultural economy sites discursively represent their commitments to local and regional economic growth in planning documents and 2. Using provincial data to find out how the cultural sector contributes to overall employment and GDP growth in Québec.” So, I reformulated my question into a more streamlined and precise question about landscape transformation at a museum and the relationship of that site to a broader urban context that was planned to represent a vision of Québécois ethnolinguistic identity that is informed by a specific nationalist ideology. I also preface my question with information about the museum, the histories that constitute it and what interests me about the sites being examined.
Being in this course and engaging with archival praxis throughout the course of my degree at the iSchool have helped me to better connect the theoretical framing of my research questions to a clear and (hopefully) well-developed methodological approach. Also, while I plan to use economic analysis primarily as a mode of verification (especially with respect to making sense of counter-examples that come up in the course of conducting textual analysis) I’ve started thinking about how it would be interesting to use textual analysis to understand how units of analysis that are associated with socio-economic phenomena are discursively represented. For instance, in major reports about sectoral growth in Québec, how is the cultural economy assessed and according to which metrics? How is that growth discussed in reports and which terms are used? Much like Scott (1998) has said, nation-states use very specific language to create normative categories and metrics to enumerate and abstract citizens; measure the impact of urban development projects that are intended to extend their territoriality; and transform these numbers into social facts. In short, I would want to apply a critical approach to economic analysis that tries to explore how governmentality is (re)produced in and through the representation and summarization of quantitative data. As I write this final blog at the precipice of concluding my experience in this course, it appears as though research questions beget more research questions and that I've identified even more areas of inquiry that I would like to explore!
Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state : how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
I'm with you on that, Bridgette. These blogs have been a great way of reflecting on our questions and ideas and for watching them evolve. The whole process feels like a domino effect because one thing leads to another that leads to another, and questions beget questions, as you say. But I think that's great, your post demonstrates that you're really engaged with your topic!
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