The image makes an attempt to represent the various strands of my work and practice:

Creative Ethnology

Ethnology is a form of interdisciplinary cultural-anthropological research and practice that seeks to understand the manifold, diverse and creative ways human experience manifests - how we, as humans, make life meaningful. It could be described as the study of how communities make sense of themselves to themselves in particular places. The central methodology is fieldwork, underpinned by an ethics of mutuality, care and reciprocity - bearing witness to the experience of others. The idea of a ‘creative ethnology’ implies a creative practice and places emphasis on active engagement and change-making informed by critical scholarship.

Often the focus of ethnological work is our relationship with the past and how we make sense of it in the present. Historically, ethnology has been closely associated with its sister discipline of folklore — the collection and study of traditional culture, local knowledge, cultural memory and creative expression, such as the work undertaken at the School of Scottish Studies Archives. In more recent years, particularly in a European context, ethnologists have been engaged in investigating and negotiating questions of cultural identities, belonging and sustainability.

There are many points of commonality too between a creative ethnology and the school of radical human ecology in a Scottish context; they draw upon many of the same critical and cultural wellsprings and share an emphasis on active engagment and change-making. Both value human relationships, emotional connections, recognise the diversity of human experience and understand the importance of our ecological connection to local place.

More than other humanities and social science fields, ethnology is rooted not just in a national and regional context, but, crucially, in the local milieu. The ethnologist’s motto is ‘Dig Where You Stand,’ a phrase adopted from from the Swedish Gräv Där Du Står (Lindqvist 1978) The idea has its origins in the adult education movement, encouraging public participation in research in local history, particularly worker’s history. As human ecologist Alasdair McIntosh has written, ‘If any of us dig deep enough where we stand, we will find ourselves connected to all other parts of the world’ (Soil and Soul, 2004).

Of course, each and every place has its own story to tell, with its beginning in the physical layers of landscape and later built up by the human layers of cultural memory and creativity. As creative ethnologists, our invitation is to explore that story, that sense of place: to dig into these layers, to notice connections from the past to the present and into the future, and to find the resources with which the story can be expressed creatively and collaboratively.

One of the main aims of cultural-ecological thinking is to bring forward the many and diverse forms of knowledge and culture that have been overshadowed by dominant cultures and narratives - of empire, of colonialism, the hegemony of globalisation. Fieldwork has always played a vital role in this decolonial practice, collecting and creating a cultural memory for the future.

Rather than drawing on the creativity of the sociological category of ‘the artist,’ there is a sense too in which we must become artists ourselves by ‘liberating the ethnological imagination’ (Kockel 2008). This appeals to an expanded anthropological notion of art: the power of the human to transform and be transformed in as part of a constant, creative process.

There is creative potential in finding synergy with other fields — whether music, writing, theatre or visual and other arts or sciences. For others still, ethnology in practice speaks to the need for an activist orientation, engaging in change-making work. Many ethnologists consciously engage in different forms of cultural and political work – for example, in radical community education, consciousness raising, advocacy and social change – working with alongside communities, transforming ideas into collective action.  

With an emphasis on drawing global insights from consciously situated perspectives, a creative ethnology is an attempt to hold the global and the local, thinking and action in engaged praxis that looks towards the future.

Fieldwork

In the most general sense, fieldwork is the process of collecting information about people, cultures and natural environments ‘in the field.’ It’s a term used to describe research methodology across the arts and sciences.

In community settings, it has particular associations, most commonly perhaps with oral history and folklore. This involves recording first-hand testimonies and personal narratives from people in everyday situations, as well as their cultural expressions in the form of songs, stories, crafts, and other lore. These recordings not only form an important archival resource for future generations, but also feed directly into our contemporary work within communities.

Community oral history is increasingly popular, and there are countless projects as varied as the communities themselves – each bringing new perspectives, challenging our view of the past as well as giving voice to those people excluded from traditional historical records. Not all recordings of people talking are considered oral histories, however. ‘Oral History’ proper is a specific discipline which involves collecting first-hand evidence of the past. It needs to be recorded, documented and archived to professional standards to make sure that recordings are preserved and made accessible for future generations.

“Documenting these vernacular expressions is key to uncovering the unique facets of local identity and the connection of people to place; hence, the collecting of folklore and oral histories is a means to create excellent resources for promoting a community’s engagement with and its confidence in its local culture.” Local Voices

In the field of folklore, there is a long tradition of fieldwork and collecting that, in Scotland, goes back to at least the 18th century. It changed character as technology advanced, revolutionised by sound recording in the early 20th century, and with the digital media of our time, there are new possibilities in relation to what UNESCO calls ‘intangible cultural heritage,’ living culture, or ICH.

Fieldwork has always played a vital role in culture - for example, collecting knowledge and material before it is lost, creating a collective cultural memory for the future.

An iconic example in the Scottish context is the ethnological fieldwork of Hamish Henderson, pictured here with the Traveller Ailidh Dall Stewart (1882–1968) up in Sutherland in the 1950s. He collected songs, stories, beliefs, practices, social history. Much of this fieldwork is now available digitally via the online archive resource Tobar an Dualchais or the Kist O Riches, which contains tens of thousands of field recordings.

As well as oral histories, fieldwork can take the form of first-hand testimonies, reminiscence, conversations, short reflections and impressions. Used creatively – in its audio/video form or transcribed into written text or otherwise – fieldwork can - and has - formed the basis for research projects, community heritage projects, consciousness raising work, art installations, theatre performance, films, radio shows, podcasts and multimedia music projects. This is really what creative ethnology is all about.

Henderson talked about ‘the Carrying Stream’ – a metaphor which speaks to the idea of a living flow of culture that stretches into the past and flows on into the future, a constant source available to and necessary for artists of all kinds to ‘remake and renew’ the culture. Each generation has the potential to create new meaning in dialogue with what has come before. Henderson is an interesting example too because his fieldwork also fed into the wider Folk Revival movement during his time, into various forms of activism and community action as well as the Worker’s Education movement.

Current ideas on co-production and citizen fieldwork and are part of a legacy that began with workers education and community action. The idea of ‘dig where you stand’ has its origins in the adult education movement, encouraging public participation in research in local history, particularly worker’s history. Citizen fieldwork is about giving people the tools to collect information from the people we or they know in our own place, locality or community. It is sometimes described as ‘self-collecting’ or ‘own collecting.’

Citizen fieldwork challenges popular perceptions of fieldwork as ‘salvage work,’ that is, setting out to capture the last fragments of something before it is lost. Fieldwork isn’t necessarily about folklore or the past - it can be about our contemporary lives and stories. It’s about reflecting back a diverse, living culture. The primary aim is to recognise, affirm and celebrate the value and diversity of local culture, an approach that has the potential to be both transformative and create a deeper and more lasting legacy in communities than traditional fieldwork by an individual.

As cultural activist Arlene Goldbard has written (2006), a strong through-line in community cultural work through the decades has been to add human-scale information and meaning by collecting and sharing local voices, in the form of first-person testimonies. It’s about bearing witness. Reflecting on the power of oral history in communities in this context, she reflects, ‘fieldwork is relationship building. It builds confidence, capacity and connective tissue.’ It can bring generations together. It can uncover connections that cut across time. Fieldwork can create space for a plurality of voices to be heard, especially those who have been excluded, aspiring to what Goldbard calls the condition of ‘full cultural citizenship’:

“ ...everyone feels at home in their own communities. All heritages are honoured for their contributions to the collective culture. Difference is embraced as a source of richness and wisdom. And wanting to know each other takes the place of fearing the other.”