I'm planning to write my Discourse community ethnography about the juggling community. This refers to anyone engaged in the study and practice of juggling. In blog post 10 I explained how the juggling community, according to Swales' 6 criteria, is a discourse community. To reiterate, the juggling community agrees on a specific set
of common public goals. The most important common goal is each member's personal skill development. Another goal of the juggling community is to invent new juggling techniques. A third goal of the juggling community is to make the non
juggling public more aware of what jugglers do. The juggling community has mechanisms of communication between members. Members of the juggling community are always trying to learn new types of juggling, so the most important type of communication is communications which can help a juggler to understand how a particular juggling pattern works. Face to
face communication and being able to physically see people's tricks is
the best, so if you are willing to travel the necessary distance
juggling conventions are the perfect place to communicate about juggling
with other jugglers. The internet with its capacity for showing videos as well as facilitating social networking allows for
workable communications over long distances as well. The juggling community mostly satisfies the third criteria, that participation is mainly to provide information and
feedback to each other. This information, the educational discourse can appear in all of the media that I just discussed.
The online sources dish out feedback real directly through discussion boards and the like, and in person juggling communications are even more open to feedback what with the conversational nature of such interactions. The juggling community utilizes a variety of genres in it's discourse as well. There are the two major genres
of juggling, sport and entertainment; as well as the subdivision of circus arts in the family such as diabolos, devil sticks, cigar
boxes, contact juggling, kendamas, and so on. Juggling has also developed it's own lexis through the plethora of props, trick names, and of course site swap notation. Swales' final criteria
for being a discourse community is that there are at least some members
with a wealth of knowledge in the field to share with all of the novices
and hobbyists. While the infinite nature of juggling's possibility, no one is completely an expert, but anyone who knows how to do anything that a juggler hasn't yet figured out can be a teacher.
I've been learning to juggle for the past two and a half years, and I've become more acquainted with jugglers from all over the place since I began. While attending University I
stumbled across the local juggling club and joined. Shortly thereafter I started watching juggling videos on YouTube. People
would post tutorials for juggling tricks, compilation videos featuring
various techniques, performance videos, and sport jugglers put up a lot
of their competition videos. I've attended some juggling conventions, and in doing so, I've learned a lot about juggling that I never would have even imagined possible. Now I'm the vice president of the juggling club and we are about to host a convention right here in Athens.
I figure I will be able to interview a few people at the convention for my Ethnography. Jugglers from around the globe have told us that they will be there, so I can't imagine it being terribly difficult to find a relevant voice on the subject.
I have some printouts from a few workshop that I, and some friends of mine, have attended in the past. I can look at the approaches to discourse used on them. I will also look at a few examples of video tutorials. There will also be a bit of discussion concerning the digital juggling animation programs that have been showing up on the interwebs lately. I might even try to get my hands on a copy of The IJA's magazine about juggling to look at how the more traditional use of written discourse plays out in the juggling community.
Hi Robert,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fascinating community selection for the ethnography, one that you're involved in, have a high level of interest in and access to. I think that there will definitely be room in the essay to write about your own experience as a member of the d.c.
I like how thoroughly you apply Swales criteria. Think of this as a foundation for the study you'll eventually build which will focus on a specific topic or topics within the discourse community, say on- authority or dialogue/critique or levels of membership.
The convention is a great opportunity to do interviews. When is it? We'll be working on interview questions this Thursday. The different texts you mentioned also seem like they would be good places to study how the d.c. is influencing writing/language/video tutorials. I would look at as many as you can, and then choose the ones that interest you the most and that help you gain a new understanding of how d.c.'s influence communication. Good work- you've got a great start on this and it's already pretty interesting.