Latest on the research project
I am probably being far, FAR too ambitious with this...
Here's where I am currently at, for any who actually care.
I've been attempting to find previous work that is relevant to my area of research. What I have found has been... not much.
Most of the work I have found dealing with online society has been very general "This is what Second Life looks like," "This is what World of Warcraft looks like," "This is what Eve Online looks like." Very general overviews that have isolated out either individual issues ("Preservation of rights on corporate run MMORPGs," for example) or very broad cultural looks exploring why the general populace gets involved in them. Most of them clearly assume "Every user looks the same" in their approach, and the rest assume "there are only two types of players, rules lawyers, and rules breakers." One I just finished, in fact, insisted that Second Life is, in fact, only useful for the antisocial introverts who would be quite happy playing one-player games. I have no idea what Second Life he's been playing...
I've even asked my Advisor and the library's dedicated research staff to see if there's any key words I am missing that would suddenly unleash the research waters. They've come up pretty much empty as well. Each has another person they suggested I speak with, but they think I am going to have to bridge from general sociological research into the specifics of Micronations.
Fun fun fun.
But this means that my rough mental plan is looking like I won't have to scrap all or part of it on account of someone already having done it.
Of course, that means that the full plan is currently go. And the full plan is...
Ambitious.
Very ambitious.
In brief, what I am planning to do is take an ethnographic approach to producing a complete socio-cultural view of four micronations, to include communication flow, normative behavior, power structures, and influence, comparing and contrasting them to get a basic overview of what common things are shared, and what differences are found, giving us a good definition of what a micronation is.
For the layman, that means I plan to basically play anthropologist in four cultures at once. Sort of like attempting to study Zulu, Maori, Inuit, and Ainu by living with all four of them all at the same time.
Yeah, it's insane.
I do have certain advantages. Unlike the Zulu, Maori, Inuit, and Ainu, the four micronations I want to study will be within a mouse-click of one another. And all four will have a common root, being English speaking European/American culturally originated in their populations, even if they have created radical departures from there. Further, unlike a normal anthropologist, I will be able to change my physical appearance as well as my behaviors to better set the cultures being studied at ease.
Plus, I don't have to worry about TseTse flies or Mosquitoes.
To make things easier (hopefully) I will also be stealing an idea from Anthropology, and attempting to find someone to be a "translator" and guide for each culture. How much these people will be involved in actual data collection I don't know yet (there are a number of ethical questions involved in that question) but they will at least be able to help introduce me to basic customs and personages I would need to know.
Anyway, I'm starting to look around four for identifiable micronations (which is hard when one doesn't have a good working definition of what one is... But that's what this research is about... defining micronations.) Currently my thoughts are:
VICTORIANA/STEAMPUNK: The cultural assumptions here will be most "normative" when looked at from a current/western perspective. Because it is our cultural heritage, familiarity with the basic rules and behavior should be very rapid, allowing for easy integration, allowing me to quickly begin prying things apart and peeking inside to see how they work. I even have a target nation already picked out, I just need permission.
ARISTASIAN: Based off the concepts of Marianne Martindale as set out in her novels, Aristasia is a national/cultural concept in which there are no males, instead there are "blonds" and "brunettes." Essentially, it's a culture where women are not one of two genders, rather they are the entire species, and the genders are based around what I would think of as the Thinking (T) / Feeling (F) portions of the Myers-Briggs personality test. Blonds are Feeling types, who are highly creative dreamers in touch with the spiritual and artistic sides of things. Brunettes are Thinking types who tend to be grounded in mundane realities. Further, while one would expect an all female culture to be feminist, Aristasians reject feminist thought as an attempt to portray women as men with different organs. Instead, they highlight feminine behavior and practices, attempting to actively create a kinder, gentler society around feminine concepts of nurture and grace. I believe there is an Aristasian nation in SL, I just need to see if I can A) get permission to examine it, and B) if it is large enough in population to form the structures I self-define as being a necessary part of a micronation.
GOREAN: Based off the books of John Norman, the Gorean culture is very rigid and very much predicated on a belief that there is no such thing as equality, or migration of station. Basic values are Home, Honor, Duty, and Propriety. Power is determined by strength of will and body. It's also a very paternalistic, slave owning culture. Because Gorean micronations would, in many ways, be antithetical to current western beliefs and values (such as equality and democracy) they could serve as a strong contrast to a Victorian or Aristasian culture. Anything they do that Goreans also do are likely to be a universal trait for a micronation. I haven't found any of these yet, but I haven't gone looking. Even not looking, I encounter references to them all over the place, so I suspect this will be EASY to find.
BAKAFU/WARRING STATES: A Bakufu or Warring States period micronation would provide a good non-western contrast to the previous three, as it would be an attempt to create an idealized version of pre-Meiji Japan. The expectation is that in spite of its Japanese roots, it would still be built and people primarily by westerners, so that common language and cultural roots will make it fairly easy to integrate initially, while at the same time providing an "Eastern" ideal to compare and contrast with the other three, reducing the "Westernizing" of a definition of Micronations. I haven't looked for any of these either, but I have stumbled across feudal japanese towns in SL, so I don't imagine this will be too hard to find.
So... Anyone think I am insane yet?
I should find out more about key dates later this week, so I'll know when I need to be ready to go to an IRB and such...
Here's where I am currently at, for any who actually care.
I've been attempting to find previous work that is relevant to my area of research. What I have found has been... not much.
Most of the work I have found dealing with online society has been very general "This is what Second Life looks like," "This is what World of Warcraft looks like," "This is what Eve Online looks like." Very general overviews that have isolated out either individual issues ("Preservation of rights on corporate run MMORPGs," for example) or very broad cultural looks exploring why the general populace gets involved in them. Most of them clearly assume "Every user looks the same" in their approach, and the rest assume "there are only two types of players, rules lawyers, and rules breakers." One I just finished, in fact, insisted that Second Life is, in fact, only useful for the antisocial introverts who would be quite happy playing one-player games. I have no idea what Second Life he's been playing...
I've even asked my Advisor and the library's dedicated research staff to see if there's any key words I am missing that would suddenly unleash the research waters. They've come up pretty much empty as well. Each has another person they suggested I speak with, but they think I am going to have to bridge from general sociological research into the specifics of Micronations.
Fun fun fun.
But this means that my rough mental plan is looking like I won't have to scrap all or part of it on account of someone already having done it.
Of course, that means that the full plan is currently go. And the full plan is...
Ambitious.
Very ambitious.
In brief, what I am planning to do is take an ethnographic approach to producing a complete socio-cultural view of four micronations, to include communication flow, normative behavior, power structures, and influence, comparing and contrasting them to get a basic overview of what common things are shared, and what differences are found, giving us a good definition of what a micronation is.
For the layman, that means I plan to basically play anthropologist in four cultures at once. Sort of like attempting to study Zulu, Maori, Inuit, and Ainu by living with all four of them all at the same time.
Yeah, it's insane.
I do have certain advantages. Unlike the Zulu, Maori, Inuit, and Ainu, the four micronations I want to study will be within a mouse-click of one another. And all four will have a common root, being English speaking European/American culturally originated in their populations, even if they have created radical departures from there. Further, unlike a normal anthropologist, I will be able to change my physical appearance as well as my behaviors to better set the cultures being studied at ease.
Plus, I don't have to worry about TseTse flies or Mosquitoes.
To make things easier (hopefully) I will also be stealing an idea from Anthropology, and attempting to find someone to be a "translator" and guide for each culture. How much these people will be involved in actual data collection I don't know yet (there are a number of ethical questions involved in that question) but they will at least be able to help introduce me to basic customs and personages I would need to know.
Anyway, I'm starting to look around four for identifiable micronations (which is hard when one doesn't have a good working definition of what one is... But that's what this research is about... defining micronations.) Currently my thoughts are:
VICTORIANA/STEAMPUNK: The cultural assumptions here will be most "normative" when looked at from a current/western perspective. Because it is our cultural heritage, familiarity with the basic rules and behavior should be very rapid, allowing for easy integration, allowing me to quickly begin prying things apart and peeking inside to see how they work. I even have a target nation already picked out, I just need permission.
ARISTASIAN: Based off the concepts of Marianne Martindale as set out in her novels, Aristasia is a national/cultural concept in which there are no males, instead there are "blonds" and "brunettes." Essentially, it's a culture where women are not one of two genders, rather they are the entire species, and the genders are based around what I would think of as the Thinking (T) / Feeling (F) portions of the Myers-Briggs personality test. Blonds are Feeling types, who are highly creative dreamers in touch with the spiritual and artistic sides of things. Brunettes are Thinking types who tend to be grounded in mundane realities. Further, while one would expect an all female culture to be feminist, Aristasians reject feminist thought as an attempt to portray women as men with different organs. Instead, they highlight feminine behavior and practices, attempting to actively create a kinder, gentler society around feminine concepts of nurture and grace. I believe there is an Aristasian nation in SL, I just need to see if I can A) get permission to examine it, and B) if it is large enough in population to form the structures I self-define as being a necessary part of a micronation.
GOREAN: Based off the books of John Norman, the Gorean culture is very rigid and very much predicated on a belief that there is no such thing as equality, or migration of station. Basic values are Home, Honor, Duty, and Propriety. Power is determined by strength of will and body. It's also a very paternalistic, slave owning culture. Because Gorean micronations would, in many ways, be antithetical to current western beliefs and values (such as equality and democracy) they could serve as a strong contrast to a Victorian or Aristasian culture. Anything they do that Goreans also do are likely to be a universal trait for a micronation. I haven't found any of these yet, but I haven't gone looking. Even not looking, I encounter references to them all over the place, so I suspect this will be EASY to find.
BAKAFU/WARRING STATES: A Bakufu or Warring States period micronation would provide a good non-western contrast to the previous three, as it would be an attempt to create an idealized version of pre-Meiji Japan. The expectation is that in spite of its Japanese roots, it would still be built and people primarily by westerners, so that common language and cultural roots will make it fairly easy to integrate initially, while at the same time providing an "Eastern" ideal to compare and contrast with the other three, reducing the "Westernizing" of a definition of Micronations. I haven't looked for any of these either, but I have stumbled across feudal japanese towns in SL, so I don't imagine this will be too hard to find.
So... Anyone think I am insane yet?
I should find out more about key dates later this week, so I'll know when I need to be ready to go to an IRB and such...