Choose and Read Two Entries From Ross Coomber's Research

Choose and read two entries from Ross Coomber's research travel blog on spitting (scroll down the page to find travel logs - you can pick any entries from 'Mumbai Day 1' upwards). How can Elias' ideas about the Civilising Process be applied to Coomber's observations? Summarise your key points below.

"Elias 'civilising process can be applied to Ross Coomber's observation in terms of manners and behaviour such as spitting in public that is still in practice in some societies is seen as being less civilized in Elias explanation.

In his thesis Elias characterise the western society as more civilised than other societies in terms of having better manner and behaviour related to bodily propriety. The basis of this are lots of changes that were introduced regarding the feeling of shame, repugnance and embarrassment about hygiene matters such as eating, spitting, nose-blowing, urinating and defecating.

Elias examined the connection between, power behaviour, emotion, and knowledge over the time. He remarkably developed what he named process or 'figurational sociology 'and looked at the relation between the social graces and social control, concentrating on changes in social norms, individual perception and behaviour.

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As Ross Coomber explained in research travel blog on spitting in a society where there is not shame or constrain attached to behaviour its see as normal thus everybody spit no matter of their position in the society being, poor, high class people, child or elderly. There is no shame or stigma or punishment attached to such behaviour. However some places were without spittle that t means people star to slow down the spitting behaviour.

Elias was criticised for taking western society civilisation as a ideal model to explain civilisation in other societies" ( Coomber's research travel blog,) (Linklater; Mennell 2010).

Whose side are you on?

Howard Beckers 'Whose sid e are we on' and Hammersley's 'Which side was Becker on' gave us a good introduction to discussing reflexivity and bias in social research. Reflecting on your own practice during the micro-ethnography or the interview you conducted, whose side were you on? How are you going to deal with this level of subjectivity or bias in your analysis?

The authors explain how sociologist doing research into the world where they live "can find themselves caught in a crossfire"(Becker 1967).

They at some point tend to lean on one side. For example doing a research on deviance generates "great sympathy with the people studied" that can affect the research result (Hammersley; 2001. Becker; 1967).

"Reflecting on this, I can see myself in the same situation during my ethnography research because the topic belongs to our social world. My ethnography topic is "Christmas rituals" As Christmas is very popular in our society I have tried to be neutral to let the participant express their views or make comments but I was still have that interior feeling and excitement of Christmas. I felt interested in the answers as I myself celebrate Christmas.

It is possible with great effort to impartially conduct a research free of personal and political bias or judgements however a minimal bias is still there as any human being tend to have a position, it may be impossible to be totally neutral. For example if a researcher has a filling about deviant groups they are studying, they might insist on positive points about them and minimise or make fewer comments on negatives side" (Hammersley; 2001; Becker; 1967).