This contribution offers intimate insights on entering the field, establishing relationships with research participants and the use of visual methods to gather material. It builds on my work on the coexistence between the old and the new in Shanghai, spanning across multiple scales: from the structural forces that trigger and direct globalisation, migration and urban change to the processes of agency, which become manifest in individual perception, attitude and behaviour. The speed and scale of China’s urban transformation require not only the continuous questioning of established theories, but also the creative use of unconventional methods to capture ephemeral conditions, writes Deljana Iossifova

Iossifova, Deljana

The University of Manchester - Institutional Repository

The University of Manchester ResearchDoing fieldwork in Shanghai: Notes on visual methods andethnographic practicesLink to publication record in Manchester Research ExplorerCitation for published version (APA):Iossifova, D. (2014). Doing fieldwork in Shanghai: Notes on visual methods and ethnographic practices. FieldResearch Method Lab. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2014/02/17/doing-fieldwork-in-shanghai-notes-on-visual-methods-and-ethnographic-practices/Published in:Field Research Method LabCiting this paperPlease note that where the full-text provided on Manchester Research Explorer is the Author Accepted Manuscriptor Proof version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use thepublisher's definitive version.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Research Explorer are retained by theauthors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Takedown policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please refer to the University of Manchester’s TakedownProcedures [http://man.ac.uk/04Y6Bo] or contact uml.scholarlycommunications@manchester.ac.uk providingrelevant details, so we can investigate your claim.Download date:09. Jun. 2022blogs.lse.ac.ukhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2014/02/17/doing-fieldwork-in-shanghai-notes-on-visual-methods-and-ethnographic-practices/Shanghai, ChinaEditorDoing fieldwork in Shanghai: Notes on visual methods andethnographic practicesThis contribution offers intimate insights on entering the field, establishing relationships with research participantsand the use of visual methods to gather material. It builds on my work on the coexistence between the old and thenew in Shanghai, spanning across multiple scales: from the structural forces that trigger and direct globalisation,migration and urban change to the processes of agency, which become manifest in individual perception, attitudeand behaviour. The speed and scale of China’s urban transformation require not only the continuousquestioning of established theories, but also the creative use of unconventional methods to capture ephemeralconditions, writes Deljana Iossifova.This contribution builds on my previous doctoral research,Lives on the Borderland: The Sociospatial Transition of aNeighbourhood in Shanghai. Coming from an architecturebackground, I had practiced in China for several yearsbefore beginning my work on the PhD. I knew what I wasinterested in – the curious phenomenon of coexistence ofand the human experience of transformation in in-between spaces that emerge when parts of the existingcity are erased and replaced with new residentialdevelopments and their respective residents. Inretrospect, it is safe to say that I entered the fieldblissfully, ignorant of basic theoretical approaches orresearch methods in social sciences. I had yet to inventmy methods of data collection, and learn how to analyse my data and relate my analysis to the extant literature.This is an arguably difficult position to start from, but it left me advantageously unbiased and open toexperimentation.Figure 1. Screen shot showing aerial photograph with boundary around the case study area, derived from Google Maps in October 2010.Photograph:© 2010 Google Imagery, © 2010 DigitalGlobeIn early 2007, my fieldwork began with the task of identifying a suitable case study area. I chose an area north ofShanghai’s Suzhou Creek and west of the inner city. Here, there were two very different neighbourhoods adjacentto each other, separated only by a narrow street (see Figure 1). On one side, there was the remainder of a formerslum; on the other, a new-build residential development – a typical gated residential compound. My work in thefield included the visual and sociometrical cataloguing of interactions across the street between these twoadjacent areas. It also included an inquiry into what people had to say about one another and about theborderland between them. In the following sections, I elaborate on participant photography and photo elicitationinterviewing, which I used extensively to generate the data.  I have added excerpts from my original field notesand hope that – without the need for too much further explanation – these reflect both the advantages andchallenges of using a visual method by an inexperienced researcher in Shanghai.It felt natural to begin my work in the field with systematic visual exploration of the site. Using a randomly spacedgrid upon an aerial of the case study area to guide me, I set out to photograph each of the grid points in order toestablish a rich digital database of photographs which I would later use in photo elicitation interviews. Theresidents and workers I came across in the process were usually very curious as to who I was and what I wasdoing; this made it easy to follow-up with interview requests. However, people easily withdrew as soon as it cameto filling in formal questionnaires, let alone signing informed consent forms. Many simply could not read; othersfeared officials might be able to track them down, regardless of my reassurance that all data would be treated withutmost care and that, of course, they would remain anonymous. In order to avoid any risk of causing harm tothem, I retreated to merely requesting verbal consent and used pseudonyms for each person from start to finish.I take photos [in the old part of the study site]. I am suddenly surrounded by several people: a fewyoung guys, an older man […] and a family of three – a young woman, a young man and their littledaughter. Everybody wants to know what I am doing, so I show them the map and point at wherewe are right now, trying to explain that I am taking a picture at every point of the grid. […] Shehands it back to me: ‘我不能读’, she says – ‘I cannot read’. As she turns around and disappearsinside the little house, I am watching her, my mind working to decide whether this could possibly betrue, or if they just want to get rid of me.As I began to get to know the people in the study area, it became clear that many were rural-to-urban migrantswho spoke their own dialects and that I would need substantial help if I wanted to communicate with themsuccessfully. I was fortunate that Jaye Shen, my former Mandarin teacher with a degree in Psychology, agreed tobecome my research companion and help me to conduct over twenty open-ended, in-depth interviews withresidents on the site. She also helped me to work through the realisation that seemingly unimportant matterswould affect my perceptions and interactions with people, particularly where their lived realities were significantlydifferent from mine. For instance, it was impossible to ignore that their everyday included casual practicesdeveloped to rid themselves of rats, cockroaches and other nuisances, whereas I seemed unable to rid myself ofirrational feelings of fear and disgust. It took time and considerable effort to ignore how my body (and mind)reacted to common conditions; however, I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am to the people I worked withfor the generosity and understanding they showed.We are late about an hour for our appointment with Ms Ye. […] She appears from somewhere butseems very busy and asks us to join her upstairs. We follow her to the balcony, where she folds thelaundry whilst complaining about the bad living conditions and how much better off people arewhen they live in modern high-rise buildings. I say that I live in one of those high-rise buildings; thatit rains into the rooms there, too, and that it is cold in the winter and hot in the summer. But themoment I say these things out loud I feel stupid. We go back inside. […] We sit on the floor andwatch Ms Ye make the bed. The room is clean; there is a night pot next to the running computer. Idare to ask Jaye if she thinks that there might be cockroaches in the house; she laughs at me inresponse. I feel ignorant, again. Ms Ye looks at us as if she is unsure about what to do with us; thentells us to go downstairs and start the interview with her parents. There, we are offered food anddrink, and we have to eat as we speak. I try not to look, but as I place food in my mouth andpretend to focus on my notes, I see the cockroaches. Everywhere. On the table; on the bed; on theThe view from Mr Hu’s balcony. This used to be his neighbour’s house. Photograph: Mr Hu,April 2007floor; and climbing up my stool. I pick up my bag and hold on to it for the rest the interview, angry atmyself for my feelings.Most of the in-depth interviews we conducted were based on photographic materials:  my own and thephotographs taken by participants. In a lengthy (and not always successful) process, we had distributed a choiceof analogue and disposable cameras among residents on both sides of the borderland and asked them tophotograph the things, places and people that they regarded as generally important for their lives. I tried to keepinstructions as vague as possible in order to give photographers the freedom to think about and choose what,where and who was important to them. Once equipped with their cameras, they had between several hours andseveral weeks to complete the task. Then I would meet with them to collect the films or cameras and schedule anappointment for a follow-up interview, when we would invite them to speak about the stories behind theirphotographs, their importance and meaning. With a few exceptions, participants could easily be recruited as theywere generally excited about the opportunity to do something fun and creative, something that would let thembreak away from their everyday routines; equally, they often felt thrilled about the chance to speak openly and in-depth about matters so close to their hearts. They always received a copy of their photographs, and duringinterviews, we took great care to discuss with them which photographs I would be allowed to use in presentations,publications and other outputs later on.Mr Hu appears from the house next door, holding a sizzling wok in one hand and waving at me withthe other. He knows me now, we talk. I explain the purpose of the photo elicitation exercise, heseems to understand. Finally, he takes the camera and tells me to come back later that day tocollect the film. As we speak, I see a crowd forming around us, twenty to thirty people staring at usand listening in. ‘I would like to participate, too’, one says, and I gladly hand him another camera.Others follow, and we make appointments when to meet again. [A few weeks later, we] walk intothe alley and Mr Hu appears immediately. Mr Hu lights a cigarette and disposes of the ashes on thefloor. I hand him a package containing [his photographs]. He begins flipping through them andseems very happy. Then he starts talking.They started demolition in 2004.Most of the neighbours havemoved away. Garbage is all overthe place now. Nobody takes careof it. It is hard to keep the dogfrom eating garbage. (Mr. Hu)It hurts me to see my son do thisin midst all the garbage anddebris. Different from the peoplein the gated residential compoundacross the street who have bigplaygrounds, my son has to goand rent a basketball court withhis friends, and we would have topay by the hour (Mr. Hu)This room used to be the bedroom for my parents, now it’s the living room for my family – we cookhere, eat, do the laundry. Everything. Over there [pointing at the gated residential compound], theyhave an extra room for everything. This is how it should be. (Mr. Hu)When we arrive across the street from Ms Lu’s shop [after six months], I feel my stomach crampingMr Hu’s son playing basketball in front of his home; painted on the wall is the charactermarking the house for demolition. Photograph: Mr Hu, April 2007Mr Hu cooking dinner in his kitchen/living room. Photograph: Mr Hu, April 2007Ms Lu’s little girl posing inside the gated residential compound’s garden. Photograph: MsLu, October 2007up in expectation. Will we find them? We sit down for a while to absorb what is happening. I amshocked at first becauseeverything seems to havechanged. The shops are gone. Intheir place we find three smallrestaurants, very new and wellfrequented. I am worried, but thenI see the Ms Lu’s little girl. We askabout her mother and she takesus inside the wet market. Ms Luseems excited, she says she sawus sitting on the other side and itmade her laugh: ‘Everything elsehas changed, but you are stillthere where you used to sit!’ As anoutsider, it feels strange to be theonly fixture in the neighbourhood.Her husband joins us and we areasked to follow them to their new‘house’ – one of the small spacesthat line the street, hidden behinda roller shutter. It is much smallerthan their previous place, I think,but then again, it is meant forliving only, now that they have aproper shop. We are asked to sitdown on the tiny stools thatmagically appear, and Ms Lu’shusband arrives with bottles ofcold water shortly after. I givethem the package of photographs,and we start talking.When the security guards knowyou, it’s not a problem at all to usethe park. Any time. It’s a goodplace for my daughter to play (Ms.Wu)Two of the neighbourhood kidshave been sent back to thecountryside by their parents –they had to move during therenovation and are now strugglingto find new business. It’s a pity.One of the girls even got a placeat the local kindergarten’. Twoyears later, Ms Lu had to send herown daughter back ‘home’because she could no longerafford to keep her in the city (Ms.Lu)The children of rural-to-urban migrants playing in the street between the old part andthe gated residential compound. Photograph: Ms Lu, October 2007Throughout my research, my confidence inany findings from previous stages wasvehemently shaken and ultimately eroded bydevelopments on the ground and how theyaffected the individuals, social groups andspatial territories that I had allowed myself tothink of as stable or fixed.In lieu of a conclusion, let me brieflysummarise how visual methods andparticipant photography have helped meaddress my research questions. Photographyand film are powerful tools that helpresearchers capture and analyse not onlyeveryday dynamics in urban space, but alsolong-term patterns of change. The growingvisual database that I created over timeallowed me to revisit places and identifychanges. Although it cannot replace verbal communication, photography can help bridge potential languagebarriers in that it adds a degree of universal understanding, just as it was the case for me as a non-fluentMandarin speaker working with people from all walks of life, allowing discovery and clarification. Participantphotography engages people in an act of creation, and photo-elicitation interviews often reveal stories, facts andmeanings that would otherwise have remained hidden from the understanding of a researcher. Lastly, experiencehas taught me that photography can be invaluable in the communication of results to very different audiences. Inshort, the speed and scale of China’s urban transformation require not only the continuous questioning ofestablished theories, but also the creative use of unconventional methods to capture ephemeral conditions.About the authorDeljana Iossifova is a Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC),University of Manchester. She holds a PhD in Public Policy Design from Tokyo Institute of Technology and adiploma in Architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). Before joining the Universityof Westminster to work with Jeremy Till on the project Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment (SCIBE),she was a PhD/Postdoctoral Fellow at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies (SustainableUrban Futures Programme). She has contributed to the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN) onEU-China relations around urbanisation and sustainability. As an architect, Iossifova has practiced in Europe, theUnited States and East Asia. Her research interests can be situated on the interface between the social sciences(such as social and environmental psychology, human geography and social anthropology) and professionalpractice. She holds considerable expertise regarding urban transformation of China with a special focus onmigration, co-existence, place-related identity and the experience of sociospatial transformation in Shanghai.A Note on the Research and ResultsAs noted, the contribution above builds upon my research for doctoral dissertation (Lives on the Borderland: Thesociospatial transition of a neighbourhood in Shanghai), and the project started in October 2006 and wascomplete in March 2010. The field work and research have led to a number of publications, some of which arelisted below:Iossifova, D. (2012). Shanghai Borderlands: The Rise of a New Urbanity? In T. Edensor & M. Jayne (Eds.),Urban Theory beyond the West: A World of Cities (pp. 193-206). London and New York: RoutledgeIossifova, D. (2009). Negotiating Livelihoods in a City of Difference: Narratives of Gentrification inShanghai. Critical Planning, 16, 98-116Iossifova, D. (2009). Blurring the joint line? Urban life on the edge between old and new in Shanghai . UrbanDesign International, 14, 65-83

English

Doing fieldwork in Shanghai:Notes on visual methods and ethnographic practices

LSE Research Online

Shanghai, ChinaEditor 2/17/2014Doing fieldwork in Shanghai: Notes on visual methods andethnographic practicesblogs.lse.ac.uk /fieldresearch/2014/02/17/doing-fieldwork-in-shanghai-notes-on-visual-methods-and-ethnographic-practices/This contribution offers intimate insights on entering the field, establishing relationships with research participantsand the use of visual methods to gather material. It builds on my work on the coexistence between the old and thenew in Shanghai, spanning across multiple scales: from the structural forces that trigger and direct globalisation,migration and urban change to the processes of agency, which become manifest in individual perception, attitudeand behaviour. The speed and scale of China’s urban transformation require not only the continuous questioning ofestablished theories, but also the creative use of unconventional methods to capture ephemeral conditions, writesDeljana Iossifova.This contribution builds on my previous doctoral research,Lives on the Borderland: The Sociospatial Transition of aNeighbourhood in Shanghai. Coming from an architecturebackground, I had practiced in China for several years beforebeginning my work on the PhD. I knew what I was interested in– the curious phenomenon of coexistence of and the humanexperience of transformation in in-between spaces thatemerge when parts of the existing city are erased andreplaced with new residential developments and theirrespective residents. In retrospect, it is safe to say that Ientered the field blissfully, ignorant of basic theoreticalapproaches or research methods in social sciences. I had yetto invent my methods of data collection, and learn how toanalyse my data and relate my analysis to the extant literature.This is an arguably difficult position to start from, but it left me advantageously unbiased and open toexperimentation.1/7Figure 1. Screen shot showing aerial photograph with boundary around the case study area, derived from Google Maps in October 2010.Photograph:© 2010 Google Imagery, © 2010 DigitalGlobeIn early 2007, my fieldwork began with the task of identifying a suitable case study area. I chose an area north ofShanghai’s Suzhou Creek and west of the inner city. Here, there were two very different neighbourhoods adjacent toeach other, separated only by a narrow street (see Figure 1). On one side, there was the remainder of a formerslum; on the other, a new-build residential development – a typical gated residential compound. My work in the fieldincluded the visual and sociometrical cataloguing of interactions across the street between these two adjacentareas. It also included an inquiry into what people had to say about one another and about the borderland betweenthem. In the following sections, I elaborate on participant photography and photo elicitation interviewing, which Iused extensively to generate the data.  I have added excerpts from my original field notes and hope that – withoutthe need for too much further explanation – these reflect both the advantages and challenges of using a visualmethod by an inexperienced researcher in Shanghai.It felt natural to begin my work in the field with systematic visual exploration of the site. Using a randomly spacedgrid upon an aerial of the case study area to guide me, I set out to photograph each of the grid points in order toestablish a rich digital database of photographs which I would later use in photo elicitation interviews. The residentsand workers I came across in the process were usually very curious as to who I was and what I was doing; thismade it easy to follow-up with interview requests. However, people easily withdrew as soon as it came to filling informal questionnaires, let alone signing informed consent forms. Many simply could not read; others feared officialsmight be able to track them down, regardless of my reassurance that all data would be treated with utmost care andthat, of course, they would remain anonymous. In order to avoid any risk of causing harm to them, I retreated tomerely requesting verbal consent and used pseudonyms for each person from start to finish.I take photos [in the old part of the study site]. I am suddenly surrounded by several people: a fewyoung guys, an older man […] and a family of three – a young woman, a young man and their littledaughter. Everybody wants to know what I am doing, so I show them the map and point at where weare right now, trying to explain that I am taking a picture at every point of the grid. […] She hands itback to me: ‘我不能读’, she says – ‘I cannot read’. As she turns around and disappears inside thelittle house, I am watching her, my mind working to decide whether this could possibly be true, or ifthey just want to get rid of me.As I began to get to know the people in the study area, it became clear that many were rural-to-urban migrants who2/7spoke their own dialects and that I would need substantial help if I wanted to communicate with them successfully. Iwas fortunate that Jaye Shen, my former Mandarin teacher with a degree in Psychology, agreed to become myresearch companion and help me to conduct over twenty open-ended, in-depth interviews with residents on the site.She also helped me to work through the realisation that seemingly unimportant matters would affect my perceptionsand interactions with people, particularly where their lived realities were significantly different from mine. Forinstance, it was impossible to ignore that their everyday included casual practices developed to rid themselves ofrats, cockroaches and other nuisances, whereas I seemed unable to rid myself of irrational feelings of fear anddisgust. It took time and considerable effort to ignore how my body (and mind) reacted to common conditions;however, I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am to the people I worked with for the generosity andunderstanding they showed.We are late about an hour for our appointment with Ms Ye. […] She appears from somewhere butseems very busy and asks us to join her upstairs. We follow her to the balcony, where she folds thelaundry whilst complaining about the bad living conditions and how much better off people are whenthey live in modern high-rise buildings. I say that I live in one of those high-rise buildings; that it rainsinto the rooms there, too, and that it is cold in the winter and hot in the summer. But the moment I saythese things out loud I feel stupid. We go back inside. […] We sit on the floor and watch Ms Ye makethe bed. The room is clean; there is a night pot next to the running computer. I dare to ask Jaye if shethinks that there might be cockroaches in the house; she laughs at me in response. I feel ignorant,again. Ms Ye looks at us as if she is unsure about what to do with us; then tells us to go downstairsand start the interview with her parents. There, we are offered food and drink, and we have to eat aswe speak. I try not to look, but as I place food in my mouth and pretend to focus on my notes, I seethe cockroaches. Everywhere. On the table; on the bed; on the floor; and climbing up my stool. I pickup my bag and hold on to it for the rest the interview, angry at myself for my feelings.Most of the in-depth interviews we conducted were based on photographic materials:  my own and the photographstaken by participants. In a lengthy (and not always successful) process, we had distributed a choice of analogue anddisposable cameras among residents on both sides of the borderland and asked them to photograph the things,places and people that they regarded as generally important for their lives. I tried to keep instructions as vague aspossible in order to give photographers the freedom to think about and choose what, where and who was importantto them. Once equipped with their cameras, they had between several hours and several weeks to complete thetask. Then I would meet with them to collect the films or cameras and schedule an appointment for a follow-upinterview, when we would invite them to speak about the stories behind their photographs, their importance andmeaning. With a few exceptions, participants could easily be recruited as they were generally excited about theopportunity to do something fun and creative, something that would let them break away from their everydayroutines; equally, they often felt thrilled about the chance to speak openly and in-depth about matters so close totheir hearts. They always received a copy of their photographs, and during interviews, we took great care to discusswith them which photographs I would be allowed to use in presentations, publications and other outputs later on.Mr Hu appears from the house next door, holding a sizzling wok in one hand and waving at me withthe other. He knows me now, we talk. I explain the purpose of the photo elicitation exercise, he seemsto understand. Finally, he takes the camera and tells me to come back later that day to collect the film.As we speak, I see a crowd forming around us, twenty to thirty people staring at us and listening in. ‘Iwould like to participate, too’, one says, and I gladly hand him another camera. Others follow, and wemake appointments when to meet again. [A few weeks later, we] walk into the alley and Mr Huappears immediately. Mr Hu lights a cigarette and disposes of the ashes on the floor. I hand him apackage containing [his photographs]. He begins flipping through them and seems very happy. Thenhe starts talking.3/7The view from Mr Hu’s balcony. This used to be his neighbour’s house. Photograph: Mr Hu,April 2007They started demolition in 2004. Most of the neighbours have moved away. Garbage is all over theplace now. Nobody takes care of it. It is hard to keep the dog from eating garbage. (Mr. Hu)Mr Hu’s son playing basketball in front of his home; painted on the wall is the charactermarking the house for demolition. Photograph: Mr Hu, April 2007It hurts me to see my son do this in midst all the garbage and debris. Different from the people in thegated residential compound across the street who have big playgrounds, my son has to go and rent abasketball court with his friends, and we would have to pay by the hour (Mr. Hu)4/7Mr Hu cooking dinner in his kitchen/living room. Photograph: Mr Hu, April 2007This room used to be the bedroom for my parents, now it’s the living room for my family – we cookhere, eat, do the laundry. Everything. Over there [pointing at the gated residential compound], theyhave an extra room for everything. This is how it should be. (Mr. Hu)When we arrive across the street from Ms Lu’s shop [after six months], I feel my stomach crampingup in expectation. Will we find them? We sit down for a while to absorb what is happening. I amshocked at first because everything seems to have changed. The shops are gone. In their place wefind three small restaurants, very new and well frequented. I am worried, but then I see the Ms Lu’slittle girl. We ask about her mother and she takes us inside the wet market. Ms Lu seems excited, shesays she saw us sitting on the other side and it made her laugh: ‘Everything else has changed, butyou are still there where you used to sit!’ As an outsider, it feels strange to be the only fixture in theneighbourhood. Her husband joins us and we are asked to follow them to their new ‘house’ – one ofthe small spaces that line the street, hidden behind a roller shutter. It is much smaller than theirprevious place, I think, but then again, it is meant for living only, now that they have a proper shop.We are asked to sit down on the tiny stools that magically appear, and Ms Lu’s husband arrives withbottles of cold water shortly after. I give them the package of photographs, and we start talking.5/7Ms Lu’s little girl posing inside the gated residential compound’s garden. Photograph: MsLu, October 2007When the security guards know you, it’s not a problem at all to use the park. Any time. It’s a goodplace for my daughter to play (Ms. Wu)The children of rural-to-urban migrants playing in the street between the old part andthe gated residential compound. Photograph: Ms Lu, October 2007Two of the neighbourhood kids have been sent back to the countryside by their parents – they had tomove during the renovation and are now struggling to find new business. It’s a pity. One of the girlseven got a place at the local kindergarten’. Two years later, Ms Lu had to send her own daughter back‘home’ because she could no longer afford to keep her in the city (Ms. Lu)Throughout my research, my confidence in any findings from previous stages was vehemently shaken andultimately eroded by developments on the ground and how they affected the individuals, social groups and spatialterritories that I had allowed myself to think of as stable or fixed.6/7In lieu of a conclusion, let me briefly summarise how visual methods and participant photography have helped meaddress my research questions. Photography and film are powerful tools that help researchers capture and analysenot only everyday dynamics in urban space, but also long-term patterns of change. The growing visual databasethat I created over time allowed me to revisit places and identify changes. Although it cannot replace verbalcommunication, photography can help bridge potential language barriers in that it adds a degree of universalunderstanding, just as it was the case for me as a non-fluent Mandarin speaker working with people from all walksof life, allowing discovery and clarification. Participant photography engages people in an act of creation, and photo-elicitation interviews often reveal stories, facts and meanings that would otherwise have remained hidden from theunderstanding of a researcher. Lastly, experience has taught me that photography can be invaluable in thecommunication of results to very different audiences. In short, the speed and scale of China’s urban transformationrequire not only the continuous questioning of established theories, but also the creative use of unconventionalmethods to capture ephemeral conditions.About the authorDeljana Iossifova is a Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC),University of Manchester. She holds a PhD in Public Policy Design from Tokyo Institute of Technology and a diplomain Architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). Before joining the University ofWestminster to work with Jeremy Till on the project Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment (SCIBE), shewas a PhD/Postdoctoral Fellow at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies (Sustainable UrbanFutures Programme). She has contributed to the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN) on EU-China relations around urbanisation and sustainability. As an architect, Iossifova has practiced in Europe, the UnitedStates and East Asia. Her research interests can be situated on the interface between the social sciences (such associal and environmental psychology, human geography and social anthropology) and professional practice. Sheholds considerable expertise regarding urban transformation of China with a special focus on migration, co-existence, place-related identity and the experience of sociospatial transformation in Shanghai.A Note on the Research and ResultsAs noted, the contribution above builds upon my research for doctoral dissertation (Lives on the Borderland: Thesociospatial transition of a neighbourhood in Shanghai), and the project started in October 2006 and was completein March 2010. The field work and research have led to a number of publications, some of which are listed below:Iossifova, D. (2012). Shanghai Borderlands: The Rise of a New Urbanity? In T. Edensor & M. Jayne (Eds.),Urban Theory beyond the West: A World of Cities (pp. 193-206). London and New York: RoutledgeIossifova, D. (2009). Negotiating Livelihoods in a City of Difference: Narratives of Gentrification in Shanghai .Critical Planning, 16, 98-116Iossifova, D. (2009). Blurring the joint line? Urban life on the edge between old and new in Shanghai . UrbanDesign International, 14, 65-837/7

Doing fieldwork in Shanghai: Notes on visual methods and ethnographic practices

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