E-book CO-LEARNING

Name	Description	Comments	Due
SECTION INTRODUCTION: Co-learning (methodological reflections)	Key themes we identify in this section are: Power dynamics in knowledge creation (interpersonal relations; access to information/technology; institutional power); Technologies of knowledge production (what we use shapes the knowledge we produce; some technologies facilitate co-creation and reflexivity; all technologies require some skill); and Reflexivity (call for learning from ourselves, but also thinking about our own methods, their implications, etc.).		--
Computer-assisted research and the construction of a "dried fish literature" (Eric Thrift with Derek Johnson, Ben Belton, and Jonah Olsen)	Three years ago, we set out on what appeared, at the time, to be a fairly straightforward task: writing a survey of the published literature on dried fish. As we struggled to make sense of the thousands of references to dried, fermented, salted, and smoked fish returned by Google Scholar’s opaque algorithms, we found that technology had come to play a governing role in our unexpectedly formidable project. Instead of simply reading and summarizing an established body of scholarship, we were actively working to define a “dried fish literature” through the intermediary of Google Scholar, Zotero, and additional tools of our own design. In this essay, I reflect on how communicative tools and technologies shaped our reading of this literature, structuring our ways of seeing and interacting with “dried fish” as a category of knowledge.	Comments from Jessie: I have just finished reading your paper. Congratulations! As someone who has done a good deal of tinkering with our Zotero library, your paper gave me a good understanding and better appreciation of the efforts and hard work you've gone through with the database. It could be required reading for anyone who wants to use the DFM Zotero library! Presentation-wise, I think the paper has a logical flow. I smoothly followed the subthemes, from project inception down to execution. I also learned some jargon (Boolean expression!), which might be a challenge to a non-specialist audience. I wonder if this helps in the narrative on the tagging section: the processes and challenges in cleaning up the tags, as I remember all project teams were asked to do their own tagging. Managing tagging and tags might be of interest to readers who want to replicate your methods but in the context of multiple users in a big interdisciplinary project like ours. Lastly, there was a shift to single authorship in the last paragraph, which is not consistent with the rest of the paper. Comments from Ben: DFM_MEM_ebook-zotero-chapter-final-draft_BB.docx Comments from Derek: DFM_MEM_ebook-zotero-chapter-final-draft_BB_dj.docx I have made some minor edits and inserted a few additional comments.	2022-01-26
Dried fish stories: Reflections on visualizing social economies of dried fish in the time of COVID (Nireka Weeratunge, Eric Thrift)	Documentation of research findings with images and videos was an intended output of Dried Fish Matters at the scoping stage. However, COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions severely hampered the access of research teams to fieldwork sites. This short essay reflects on the collaborative process of generating stories on dried fish across six country/regional teams, by creatively combining limited material from the field with internet and social media resources. In addition to documentation, this process enabled capturing and conveying of dimensions that are not usually revealed through conventional research methods and analysis, especially sensory experiences, and cultural and symbolic aspects. The essay also discusses the technical challenges of producing a video by a predominantly social science team.	2022-02-14: Uploaded revised draft, which includes more images and a technical challenges section. E-book_NW+ET_Dried_fish_stories_Draft02_2022-02.docx 2022-01-18: Nireka suggests we could include sensoriality here. The section on reflexivity is rather brief here and it would be good if you could expand it and an additional section emphasising sensuality would enrich the essay, as there are references to sensorial experiences in a number of places. If you need to change the style of the chapter or prune down other sections in order to do this, that would be fine with me. However, if you think a standalone chapter is better, that is fine as well. 2022-01-17. Reply from Eric. I also prepared a transcript from the comments about taste and smell we collected over Zoom, with some framing text about reflexive approaches and the importance of sensoriality as a research approach. I’m not sure it fits perfectly within the text here, but perhaps we could present that as a short standalone chapter and work in a cross-reference to it here. From Nireka (to @ericthrift ): Please go through and revise as necessary before submission. A small section on technical challenges needs to be included - I left that to you as you must be having material from the presentation you did for TBTI! Additionally, an appropriate still photo (of the woman pounding the kapi sauce?) from the Thai video also needs to go in there.	--
Tastes and smells of dried fish (Stories by Gayathri Lokuge, Madu Galappaththi, Mostafa Hossain, and Nikita Gopal; Commentary by Eric Thrift)	This is a brief commentary on the "taste and smell" discussion we held over Zoom and included in the video presented at the MARE Conference.	2022-02-28: Received comments from Colleen. DFM_WRT_taste-and-smell_CranmerComments 02-26-2022.docx	2022-01-25
Researching the researchers: communication and communication effectiveness in an international project (Alexia Pigeault & Fabiana Li)	Have you ever wondered how communication happens in a research team, and how it happens when researchers have to collaborate internationally with other peers? This essay focuses on communication in the international project "Dried Fish Matters” (DFM) and offers lessons on effective communication in the context of interdisciplinary research and development projects. For this study, we looked at internal and external communication in DFM and examined the possible factors influencing communication. Based on a survey, interviews, and observation during meetings, our findings show that open-mindedness, frequent communications, and transparency are all key influencing factors that can be seen as requirements for effective communications. There are also other factors that shape communication, such as having the same definition of communication; social relationships between colleagues; the type of hierarchy in the project and in research teams; cultural differences; interdisciplinarity; personality traits; the number of languages spoken; new technologies; management issues; Global South challenges; the outcomes of the dissemination plan; and people’s thoughts on a project. An important lesson from the study is that self-analysis and introspection can help a team of researchers to work toward better communication and project outputs.	Comments from Nova: Review for DFM e-book Alexia.docx	--
Synthesis: The Dried Fish Matters E-book as Co-Learning	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).		--