研究方法课

没想到会在一门研究方法课上学到这么多。

没见过这么细致，热心，不辞辛苦的老师。永远推动我们想更多， 丢给我们两难的问题去考虑。在丰富的研究数据和潜在的对受访者带来的伤害的时候永远告诉我们不要伤害愿意和你分享的人。作为人类学家，在丰富夯实的专业知识和研究背景下，和贫民社区打得火热，人人都认识他，都尊敬他，都愿意帮助他。John的出现，让我看到未来自己的方向。

而把我们推出comfort zoom, 独立完成一个定性研究的项目，当初开来，多少让我恐惧，尤其是每周都要开车到了这个衰落的工业城市的贫民区，去这些低收入，有色人种家去做采访，是我从没做过的事情。可是， 当今天结束了对第11个采访对象的谈话。我真的满心感激这门课的设置。

在美国6年了，也工作也学习也出门旅行，可是，这门课让我知道， 我真的对美国， 了解太少。 曾经的那些，都是书面上的浮萍。只有人，只有和当地人的交流，参与到社区里， 才能真的懂得他们。打动我的， 并非是他们有多么善良美好， 而是，面对我的问题， 他们都愿意坦诚相告，他们的故事， 想法里， 都有矛盾的存在，复杂的情绪，因为如此， 这些真实的美国人，让我开始和这个地方有了连接，有了牵挂。就象北京一样，城市让我怀念，节食因为那些人和一起的回忆，有了温润的情感，空间才会可亲起来，丰富起来。

对街道治安，无良房东大骂，同时又带我看他院里的花花草草， 骄傲于别人夸他院里的植物漂亮的波多黎各大叔。

一生作画，颠沛流离，年收入还没有我很多朋友月收入多，却义务教孩子们花花，给我买花的南美爷爷，

拥有三个博士学位，因为去了中美洲援助，体会到水的珍贵，从此回来关注环境，教育孩子懂得珍惜自然的赐予，但同时又割舍不了高尔夫的D。

祖母的祖母是黑奴，他一生给人开车，现在考政府救济金生活， 却每月一拿到钱就交出10%给教堂，生命差点死掉，活过来以后更加坚信主对他的爱，因而要加倍回报社会的黑人爷爷。

投身社区工作，在地下室悄悄搭建录音室，把屋内屋外弄得都是绿色节能设备，同时又透露出因为这样是聪明的，有色人种不这么做因为他们觉得自己不够聪明。

告诉我之前心情低落，这几天觉得重新喜欢自己了，可以接受采访了，然后和我分享大萧条时期养成的节俭习惯，孩童时代和自然的无距离接触，自己3岁和8岁孙子对鸟的认识，带我一起看到科技，网络对现在美国儿童的影响的C。

我这个微小的研究问题，在每个人身上都能牵引出各色的故事，每一个人都是立体的，有层次的。原来我对美国人的认识是多么简单，平面。他们教会我太多。

今天两个采访之间的空隙， 我去D的办公室看了他, 没有预约，没有电话，直接上老爷爷办公室，他也乐得立刻就开始和我讨论宗教， 音乐对人们的环境态度的影响。

我要谢谢这么多平凡又不平庸的人和我分享，谢谢这门课带给我这么多超出预期的收获。

morning ideas

new players in civil society formation, China, urban cities

experts/professors-education corruption ( science/tech vs. humanity)
SMS/internet/social network website

NGOs function transformation: provide platform, promote information flow, some research, not directly fight for environmental victims. absence of big scale international NGOs (reasons) except for Greenpeace (more research and press release, less action)
many other foreign NGOs’ websites are blocked

demographically fewer mid-aged male directly involved
but the majority columnist/popular reporter/blogger , indirectly involved

paucity of human capital for NGOs in China

for younsters, gap btw college/graduate students’ expectation of a job and what they can gain from a NGO job, especially local grassroots organization.

Middle-aged, huge pressure

that explains why most of the experts/activists are retired authorities– they are experienced, well-informed, no connection and constrains any more, do what they think is right.

Which China are you talking about

When we are talking about China, which one do you mean? The rural or urban one?

Being far-flung and diversified, China is composed of two distinctive parts. These two brothers share a lot of things in common. Urban and rural people are under the same sky, breathe the same polluted are and are ruled by a single party. Other than that, they are tagged with different identity, which causes various facets in education, life style, ways of thinking and behavior.

The difference is also reflected in the formation of civil society, In other words,  how they handle environmental problems.

Urban: organized, educated, property owners, from young to the old, negotiation, proactive to act, to connect with NGO and media, comparatively easier approachable to government

Rural: underprivileged, very limited access to upper level government, long way to petition,  treated with violence, pressure to lose land and income, out of media or NGO’s sight, wait for help

Example: Waste incineration project in Beijing and Guangzhou, dam project migrant, cancer village, coal ash victims…

Same thing also applied to the mitigation policy for climate change. When the government officers argue that the per capita COs emission is only 1/5 of the american people. The rural residents are abducted. A recent report states that the capita CO2 emission in Shanghai is double the amount of NYC. The seemingly lower per capita emission is merely the outcome of huge population. Farmers, the majority of Chinese people, only release tiny amount of GHG during their daily life. They seldom travel, use laptops or air-conditioners. They eat local food, purchase small amount of domestic goods.

Those people  live in a humble way while they are repeatedly mentioned to support the construction of giant-scale of power plant project and China should be allowed to waste energy. Shut your mouth up, the malign scientists and administrators. What an easy thing for you to blablabla in metropolis.

Sense of Integration

To become an environmental studies researchers, there are pros and cons of immersing myself in the doctoral program. One disadvantage is that I may sometimes be lost in the data collection or literature review, which are indispensable steps in doing research but may blur the emotion or inspiration to tackle the problem.

An effective prescription is to read some of my friends’ articles. Those folks are mostly environmental reporters. They are passionate about their career, compassionate for those underprivileged groups, diligent to investigate environmental affairs and learn new knowledge. From them, I always gain a sense of affiliation. I am not alone when I think of them. None of us will quit our responsibility.

Only if one is truly faithful about their works, he/she can bring out such power of influence. Thanks, my friends!

cycled effect

I plan to start my research in two topics as a trial to see whether they are potential research topic for my future thesis.

In order to make the research more practical and feasible, I need to narrow down the specific region and environmental problems. It always starts from an abstract and general question. One of the key point to determine the scope is data resource. It’s inevitable that researchers are more apt to choose the places with accessible complete and updated data as the field. On the contrary, the cities that in lack of transparent and accurate official data release would be more likely given up due to the accumulating difficulty of conduct research.

This makes me question how to manage a city, from the perspective of government officers, how to make their job easier?

Apparently, no one or not any tiny group of people can be specialists of everything. They do need to utilize the rich resource of professional researchers brains. It’s a win-win situation that the government will reach optimal policies more efficiently and the intellectuals  can enjoy the feeling of being respected, which will motivate them to contribute more to the social development.

In that case, the more open a government is , the more convenient it will be for the expertise to do research and deliver their wisdom and knowledge to the policy makers. Then a lot of research outcomes can be turned into real horsepower to promote the development but not a stack of paper putting on research committee’s desk.

However, realistically, the efficient way might not be the easier way. bureaucracy is a natural attribute attached with all government. In the eyes of many Chinese governors l, the researchers are possibly their foes who usually pick mistakes and creat troubles. Once the attitude is toned to an opposite position, thing would become rough for both sides.

some side note that might worth more thinking.

I am not leaving

or forget about this place.
School started. Words are streaming down from my brain, but wait a second, i need to let it flow slowly and think it well.
just came to say i am back and will start writing again! yeah！