Comparative Approaches: Owners of The Sidewalk and in Search of The Paradise

My first exposure to the social science discipline in academia consisted of an introductory biological anthropology course. The subject was approached from what I originally thought to be an impenetrable logic of scientific information. This mindset ultimately set me up for failure when taking cultural anthropology courses based in theory and original ideas. I was not personally prepared to interpret ethnographic pieces, let alone the critique associated with them. It was incredibly difficult to determine what I believed was correct, since I had not had practice forming my own opinions. The only way to improve upon this was to gain exposure to ethnographic work and begin interpreting it within my own framework.

After reading a few full length ethnographies, it became easier to see patterns emerge across the various topics the pieces are about. For example, Owners of the Sidewalk and In Search of Paradise expose a dynamic theme of how an ethnographer is able to gain access to their topics, subjects and items in the field. The amount and type of access the ethnographer is able to achieve towards their projected research topics, including areas and people involved, ultimately frames their final work. How the researcher tries to compensate for lack of access can also be correlated to what kind of critique the ethnographer may receive.

Upon finishing Owners of the Sidewalk, I felt as though I knew Daniel Goldstein in an intimate way. His writing is reminiscent of Alice Goffman’s work in the regard that it takes pieces to form a coherent and emotional story. Goffman’s work is highly contested due to her perceptions while in the field, and her presentation of the work, since readers argue that her perspective- being a white woman in a black community, especially among a group of black men, can not accurately represent daily life there. Goldstein's work Owners of the Sidewalk might raise similar concerns because he appears to completely bypass the realm of women of the Cancha in his work.

Goldstein elaborates on his connections and main informant in the Chapter “Nacho” consisting of pages 25 to 32 of Owners of the Sidewalk. Goldstein is able to to gain an entry point of access to his research in the Cancha by partnering with Nacho, who can access populations that speak Quechua. Nacho is also generally more approachable than Goldstein because he is native to the area, and has a personality that compensates in areas that Goldstein lacks. This entry point of access ultimately frames his work by making it male-centric because his main point of access is through a male informant while Goldstein himself is also a male.

The chapter titled “Meet the Press,” spanning pages 42 to 45, shows how reliant Goldstein’s entire ethnography is on two men, Don Rafo and Don Silvio. These two men become the two main characters in Owners of the Sidewalk. His first point of access is his gender. Since he is male, he has access to men because he is included in this group. This is not an entirely deep level of access, so he seeks out the male leader of the fijos, Don Rafo. In chapter 7 he explains that his access to Don Silvio (a contrasting character and perspective) comes by nearly by “accident.” The meeting of Don Silvio is hardly an accident, because Don Rafo had asked him to come to the plaza as he addressed the press. It is during this event where he meets and speaks to Don Silvio, gaining yet another level of access- this time to the ambulantes of Cancha. Goldstein appears to have been satisfied with this level of accessibility to his topic of research, since these two character are the main components of his work. His access to these entities frames his narrative in Owners of the Sidewalk.

Li Zhang was enabled a much different level of access to her research. She identifies herself as a female, which allows her easier access to the female population in contrast to Goldstein's approach. Goldstein may have been able to gain access to women’s perspectives of the Cancha with more effort by adding a female assistant on his research team to help him navigate (in contrast to Nacho). Zhang’s first and most important point of access to her research does not come from the fact that she is female, however. Her entrance into her physical research area is opened because she is originally from Kunming, and because her family still lives there.

In Zhang’s chapter “Unlocking the Real Estate Machine” she describes an instance she is able to obtain information based on family connections. This description can be found in the last paragraph of page 75 and the beginning of page 76. Her large description on page 76 that follows is from an informant named Chu Shifu, who she knew exclusively because he was the independant contractor on her parents’ and sister’s homes. Without her roots and family in Kunming, Zhang would not have had access to Chu Shifu’s story. Her access to people and their stories based on connections adds a key part to her overall narrative in each chapter and the overall book.

Much later in Zhang’s ethnography, during the chapter “Recasting Self-Worth” she is describing how the institution of marriage (and subsequently divorce) relates to housing conflicts. On page 176 Zhang describes a couple that had a complex divorce settlement procedure. She met her key informant for the story at “a friend's’ dinner gathering.” This clearly shows that Zhang used her familiarity with Kunming and existing ties from her life there to further her research. Without being in such a position and having ties to the area and people of her research, her overall narrative In Search of Paradise likely would have been much different.

Daniel Goldstein and Li Zhang were able to form ideas and theories through piecing together information and creating a comprehensible idea out of their fieldwork. It is important to consider that their end narrative is not only different because of their varying subject matter and location. Both researchers were able to acquire different access and had different points of entry to resources for their research according to their respective circumstances, including gender and previous connection to the area. These circumstances ultimately framed their final work, and must be kept in mind when reading the work as well as any critique of the work. The authors cannot always control their access points, such as gender. They can also attempt to compensate for their shortcomings. After analyzing all of these factors, it allows the reader to create meaningful critique and interpret critique that may already exist. Personally, reading Zhang and Goldstein’s work allowed me to interpret the ethnographies in a meaningful way in order to form my own opinions. This is an invaluable skill that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, both inside the world of academia and while observing the city.