Anthropologist Jesse de Leon shares some of his results from his field work among Filipino bloggers and their expression of Filipino identity on blogs.
He found five major categories of Filipino bloggers: Cosmopolitans, the Philippine Elite, Im/migrants, Second Generation Diasporic Filipinos, and Younger Filipinos in the Philippines. They blog about different topics. The way he used linking in his research has especially caught my attention. You somehow express your identity the way you use links on your blog.
Jesse de Leon writes:
Second Generation Diasporic Filipinos rarely link to blogs written by the preceding groups nor leave comments. More than the other groups, these Filipino bloggers discuss race and ethnicity. Im/migrants also discuss such things, but these topics seem especially relevant to the Second Generation, judging by how much they blog about race and ethnicity. I’ve noticed the same in my interviews.
Finally come Younger Filipinos in the Philippines. Generally, they don’t link to blogs written by Second Generation Diasporic Filipinos, even though they’re the same age and often have similar interests. They’re far more likely to link to blogs written by the other groups.
>> read his whole post on Sarapen
He has also published his first outline of his thesis. Very impressive. I wish I was so organised… (sometimes at least…)
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You know, I’m still not entirely comfortable with being called an anthropologist. Not that I object, it’s just that I’ve always been simply a student and there’s no fixed boundary that separates the non-anthros from the anthros. At what point can you unself-consciously put “anthropologist” on your business card? Not that anthropologists have badges they must flash to prove their identities (or business cards for that matter), but I’ve always wondered about this. If you’re an undergrad majoring in anthro, are you an anthropologist? What if you’re minoring in it? What if you’re someone in social work who does ethnography and is extensively trained in anthro?
Linking behaviour for me is basically a sign of who you consider your peers; had I a larger sample I could have probably done cluster analysis to identify the different groups.
As for being organized, in many ways I’m actually like a swan: I look serene and on top of things on the surface, but underneath I’m actually paddling like mad just to keep moving. I think I project an aura of self-assurance that hides my inveterate procrastination. For instance, I set myself the goal of either reading another article or writing another page today, but here I am typing this long comment on your blog. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s almost time for my favourite tv shows, and when they’re done it’ll be midnight, so I have to go to bed. Total work done tonight: 1 book returned, 1 chapter half-read, and several recipes downloaded to try out later this week. Trust me, I don’t feel organized on this end.
By the way, something’s up with your recent comments thing on the sidebar, I certainly didn’t leave 7 comments on this post.
Oops, sorry to post again, I forgot to tell you that I’ll be switching hosts soon. I haven’t decided which one to go with yet, but I’m getting too much spam with edublogs.
Thanks for your comments! Concerning your academic identity, I’ve had similar thoughts before graduating. But sometimes I call people “anthropologists” in order to tell “he’s not a sociologist” or so.
Yes, I know there’s something wrong with the recent comments. It’s a (temporary) bug somewhere deeper in the system.
I forgot I wanted to comment on your post on switching hosts and recommend buying a webhosting package (incl domain name) and installing WordPress or whatever yourself (very easy).
I am not a anthropologist but am interested in socio-linguitics which is a related subject. As an applied linguist, i have taught English to migrants and have seen firt-hand their struggles to adapt and eventually find employment in their chosen country.
So I have developed my own blog for migrants at http://www.migrantsguide.blogspot.com/ which discusses the issues migrants face and some solutions to overcoming their barriers.