The unbearable lightness of blogging

So,
I think I should expand on the theme of my blog….

Last Thursday was International Women’s Day and thanks to my friend Anna, I attended a panel discussion, entitled “Women’s Rights in the age of insecurity”. The panel included, amongst others, Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, and Noerine Kaleeba, co-founder of The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) in Uganda, whose husband died of AIDS and who now lives in Malawi and is the director of the Funder’s Collaborative for Children, which helps children in Malawi grow up free from the burden of HIV and AIDS. Areas discussed included: the impact of neoliberalism on women’s rights, religious fundamentalism, stigma as a form of violence.

So what relevance is this to my blog?

Well, in September I started a Masters in Environment and Development, which, obviously, explores the issues of, yes, environment and development. And I am learning about how social issues such as politics and economics affect people’s lives, how the environment fits in to this all, globalisation, social networks, gender, community etc etc etc.

I am on a quest to become a social scientist. And with my background in science, I am finding the transition incredibly interesting. (I am also in the Geography department, which is wonderful - I've always loved maps and my dad loved geography).

Part of the masters involves research and to get us into the spirit of human observation, we had to perform a “participant observation exercise”, which involved sitting on the bus and recording what went on. (I was lucky enough to have an eventful journey as a woman fell down the stairs – oh dear, what have I become). In our methods class we are looking into such questions as what constitutes knowledge and reality, what is taken for the truth, how can research ever be objective when a human (the researcher) is involved? Epistemology, ontology etc.

So………. This blog is practice. Practice in observing MY world and recording it. Observing the actions of people around me (and my own actions) and MAYBE drawing some conclusions. And, as a lecturer of mine says “embracing the subjectivity”.

I should probably get back to that assignment that is due tomorrow, now that I have tried to justify my blog existence. Ask me in a couple of years what I am doing, I will probably be studying dentistry.