E-book annotated outline
This is an annotated draft outline for the first DFM e-book.
Introductory section
Preface
volume editors, 1000 words. What this e-book is (audience, purpose), and how it is organized. Identify the main themes.
Why, how, and to whom dried fish matters
Derek et al. Brief words about the DFM project, how it came to be, why Derek saw it as important, how this understanding has changed since the inception of the project. Could be presented as a dialogue between Derek and someone else (Madu?); or perhaps something like the panel discussion we had at the TBTI Open House. Maybe provide a set of 4-5 questions to three “panellists” and have them prepare responses – see our WOW panel questions and transcript (which could be edited for inclusion).
Dried fish and sustainable gastronomy
Volume editors, 3000 words. Linking dried fish to foodways / cultural heritage, sustainability, and development. Combining the three pillars of sustainable development – ecological, economic, and social – plus culture and various forms of lived, sensorial experience.
Geographies of dried fish
Around 12000 words altogether. Two-page summaries from the DFM research teams: (1) Gujarat (2) Karnataka (3) Kerala (4) Sri Lanka (5) Andhra Pradesh (6) Telangana (7) West Bengal (8) Bangladesh (9) Mizoram & Manipur (10) Myanmar (11) Thailand (12) Cambodia. We can include a small map from each country and ask for information in a template format
What is dried fish?
List(s) or table(s) of major species, processing methods, and product types, including local names where appropriate.
Dried fish as commodity: describing value chains
Section introduction
Volume editors, 800-1000 words. Maybe include discussion of value chains, comparison of the various case studies, and reflection on the different ways of representing value chains?
Characterizing dried fish value chains in Kalutara and Kantale, Sri Lanka
Madu Galappaththi, Hiroshini Wadige, Ishan Indunil, Long essay, 5000 words. Suggest bringing in discussion of the research methods as well -- not just a “characterization” of the value chains, but a comment on HOW that characterization might take place.
Dried Fish Consumption in Myanmar
Sithu Lin, Ben Belton, Wae Win Khaing, Report, 5000 words. Wae Win suggests this will be rewritten as the draft report is very technical. We want to avoid this being a series of tables and graphs, but it would be nice to include discussion of what we can and can’t learn from consumption surveys, and to speak to the generative potential of quantitative research (i.e., what survey data suggest in terms of future qualitative research questions or hypotheses).
Fish fermentation in the floodplain - a photo essay
Mostafa A R Hossain, Ben Belton and Shakuntala H Thilsted, Life stories: photo essay, 500-1000 words. Image requirements: 300 dpi; include photographer and participant details for each.
Maldive Fish Processing in Southern Sri Lanka
S.A. Adikary, D.N. Koralagama, and N. Weerathunga, short essay, 3000 words. Focus on the diversity, making sense of “messy” information?
IMBeR contribution
Synthesis of knowledge/issues related to ecology, nutrition, and value chains involving small dried fish in three regions: South Asia, East Asia, South-East Asia.
Stories
Section introduction
Volume editors, 800-1000 words. How dried fish processing and trade is deeply grounded in local, personal experiences.
For each of the contributions here, suggest possible questions about voice: is the life story translated? Edited by the researcher? Is there a researcher’s commentary? It would be helpful to encourage reflection on the role of the researcher in constructing a “life story” that is not told directly by the subject to the audience but rather through an intermediary.
A woman in a strange place
Wae Win Khaing, Life story, 1000 words.
Dawn to Dusk: A day in the life of a dry fish vendor
Dr.M.Sai Leela, Interview transcript, Three thousand words
Local stories of the global Anthropocene: A one-day “adda” with the dry fishers of the Sundarbans Delta
Jenia Mukherjee and Raktima Ghosh, Essay, 3000.
Food (recipes, taste)
Section introduction
Volume editors, 800-1000 words. How can we describe the taste and smell of dried fish? What makes dried fish so valued as food?
All about 'Kapi'
Ratana Chuenpagdee, Suphakarn Traesupap, Suvaluck Satumanatpan, Short essay, 2,500 words. Suggest using strong visual evidence. Reflect on the “value” of kapi -- social, cultural, taste, etc.
Dried fish recipes
Dr. Sai Leela Modem, Grandmother's recipe, Thousand words. Recipe
Dried fish recipes with coconut milk
Koralagama D N & Hettiarachchi H A N D, Grandmother's recipe, Eight hundred words. Recipe
Let There Be Bounty Every Day
Parag Tandel (co-founder of the Tandel Fund of Archives, Mumbai) in collaboration with Sara Ahmed, Recipe and visuals, Short contribution. Very useful model for community collaboration. Interfaces with academic and non-academic knowledge.
Poems on dried fish
Compiled (and translated?) by Mahfuzar Rahman. Poetry and how it celebrates dried fish?
Co-learning (methodological reflections)
Section introduction
Volume editors, 800-1000 words. The Partnership Grant scheme is intended to foster collaboration, which we could frame as “co-learning”. What methods and tools have we used, especially in experimental ways, to help us understand dried fish?
Computer-assisted research and the construction of a "dried fish literature"
Eric Thrift with Derek Johnson, Ben Belton, and Jonah Olsen, Essay, 3000 words. Focusing on the process of working with Zotero, what it means about knowledge. Possibly bring in the opportunities for collaboration and future uses of Zotero?
Not just fish and salt: student views on dried fish research
Nova Almine, Personal reflections on the research and learning process, about 4,000 words. Nice reflexive approach – possibly try to speak to the literature on the supposed biases of the “Native Anthropologist” and, conversely, decolonization of ethnographic knowledge (“The Native Speaks”).
Researching the researchers: communication and communication effectiveness in an international project
Alexia Pigeault & Fabiana Li, Essay, 4000 Words. Likely to be a summary of the thesis. Potentially comment, more speculatively than the thesis itself allows, on how communications structure knowledge (what we study, how we represent it) and the power relations inherent within communications. Everyone in the project has a passion for dried fish – how does that come across?
Concepts (Theory, ideas)
Section introduction
Volume editors, 800-1000 words. Different theoretical frameworks and the types of value they illuminate.
Examining value from a socio-cultural perspective
Md. Mahfuzar Rahman, Essay, 2500-3000 words. See overlap with Derek’s contribution
Maimul: The story of marginality
Yeashir Arafath and Mirza Taslima Sultana. Very appropriate to DFM -- how dried fish processing and trade is entangled with socio-political and cultural identities
Amalendu Jyotishi, Prashanth R, Nikita Gopal, Ramachandra Bhatta, Priya Gupta, Holly M. Hapke, Prasanna S, Analytical narrative, 3000 words plus photographs and figures. Commentary on how standardized vs informal weights and measures structure knowledge and social relations.
SES-oriented dried fish value chain and social-ecological wellbeing of upper segment value chain actors
Sisir Kanta Pradhan, Prateep Kumar Nayak, Derek Armitage - Theory chapter. Suggest expanding the chapter by adding a commentary about how to research 'SES aspects' or one/two brief case examples from the field plus photos -- not just theory.
Transforming values: reflections on how dried fish takes value socially
Derek Johnson, conceptual reflection essay with lots of empirical illustrations from across the project, 3000-4000 words. Note overlap with Mahfuz. Could be synthesis piece for book at beginning or end.
Conclusion
Synthesis
Volume editors, 5000 words. Discuss where this all leaves us; how the e-book represents a pathway or process; reiteration of our passion for dried fish; hopes for the future. Possibilities: how we define or challenge understandings of “value”; methodological complications; the messiness of knowledge. How all of this fits within our project of making dried fish matter, surfacing its value, etc., but in very particular ways (that are not politically neutral).
