iv.
Flâneurie
The participants in this study largely come from my own perceptive choices based on the familiar interior mythologies of Fitzroy. This is an
unapologetic insider’s perspective of a community, not an outsider’s perspective cloaked in habitually uninteresting empirical objectivity. Nevertheless I was cautious not to make the study excessively relative by jealously asserting my own subjective view of the area. Usually after
interviewing a resident, I asked who they could recommend to be interviewed next. This often took me outside my comfort zone within the community.
In this way I networked around the district going from one individual to another. I admit that this is somewhat of an intuitive methodology, but it is a methodology that tried also to record a lush local culture in a
creative and alluring way, as opposed to a scientifically controlling one. Because of the district’s acute cultural identity I cannot imagine another interviewer uncovering a substantially different representation of Fitzroy.
During the interview process I first sought to ascertain the relationship the person had to Fitzroy through establishing the institutions that they identified with. Changes to these institutions over time may have altered their
perceptions of the suburb. I was particularly interested in pursuing responses that described alterations to institutions (such as cafes or hotels) through the four hermeneutics of globalisation (culture, ideology, ethnicity, economy). Plus the character, vocation, and lifestyle of the
individuals themselves often evoked larger globalisation processes in an endearing and suggestive manner.
The interviews were regrettably short at only ten to thirty minutes long. This is just one example of how the technology available impacted upon the methodology. Recording longer interviews would have resulted in unmanageable
file sizes for current Internet delivery. In reflection, the interviews should have perhaps been three or four hours long to accommodate a much more in-depth analysis of the individual’s background (for later historical use). This will become possible with technological advances in the
near future.
However, it must be reiterated that the aim of this work is primarily to provide a conceptually and technologically innovative model of electronic scholarship in the Humanities. This model is an attempt at knowledge
construction in a new medium. Using traditional research methodologies, comprehensively designed and conceptualised to be communicated through the academic codex, in this instance is largely like positioning a ‘square peg in a round hole’ (and would detract from and even inundate this
particular PhD process).
Thus, it is worth emphasising that it is beyond the balanced offerings of this work to textually write an extended in depth analysis of the interviews in this exegetical-thesis here. The hypertextual electronic documentary of
Fitzroy that I have provided is in fact the authorial analysis.
I offer four succinct critical textual essays on the site itself to accompany the hypertextual video archive. The archive is constructed within a significant research prototype (SMAFE) and contains forty five video interviews of
almost twelve hours in total length, strategically divided (by hand) into one hundred and sixty seven smaller movies. Each of these have been categorised according to four major themes determined by one year’s emersion in books and a participatory conceptual engagement with the community
in question. This is the model of interpretation that I am offering.
The questions that I asked the participants were adapted to the circumstances of the interview. Some people were adept at speaking about globalisation (within the four larger discursive structures) whilst others were
clearly more representative of local characters or groups. Because I was covering such a broad range of age, class, education, gender, and ethnicity an open approach was germane. Within reason, I allowed the participants to lead the discussions within their understandings of negative or
positive changes within Fitzroy.
Although I tried to capture a representative grouping of people, in reality this is difficult as there is not only my own subjectivity to contend with but also no amount of coaxing can get some people to participate. Some people
were naturally shy, some just did not like the project (or did not like me) whilst others committed but did not show up at all. All the interviews that I recorded I have placed online and none have been edited in the traditional understanding of the practice.
