El exceso de ruido en la comunidad

I will now conclude this methodology chapter with a reflection on my own positionality within the field and how this influenced access to informants. Gaining the trust of both local and government informants was crucial to the success of my fieldwork and in my case this was heavily influenced by the presence of my daughter, husband, research assistant, and even at times driver, in the field. Overall, relationships were made relatively easily and I acknowledge that part of this success is owed to the contribution played by each of these people.

After the arduous process of obtaining research visas and permissions, the actual process of conducting the fieldwork proved to be relatively straightforward. I came to the Dieng Plateau with my husband and then one- year-old daughter. Including a research assistant, the four of us conducted initial meetings and interactions in Dieng as we negotiated which villages and/or hamlets to focus our efforts in. Our daughter rallied much interest in the local villagers, especially with her blue eyes and blond hair, which was not a typical sight for many Dieng residents. This helped facilitate our access to people and their lives, as many wanted the boneka (or ‘doll’) to come and play in their homes.

In Indonesia it is common for researchers or peneliti, to conduct their work with the help of an assistant and solo work is unusual, especially for a bule (Westerner). By employing a research assistant I was not only seen to be contributing to the welfare and advancement of this recently graduated

assistant6_{, but I was also greatly assisted in my negotiation of important} cultural practices. Local to Central Java, my assistant was able to speak Javanese and ensure we adhered to the appropriate cultural formalities, both of which greatly facilitated the building and maintaining of relationships. Turner (2010b) argues that research assistants bring their own value judgements and belief systems to the field, just as primary researchers do. This was also my experience and stemmed in part from my assistant’s undergraduate studies in anthropology and education. At times she steered away from the main research objectives, for example, to discuss why children in the research villages were not attending school in their later years. While this mode of questioning opened up certain insights into the aspirations of the village youth, at times I felt it also bordered on accusatory, and I was concerned that it made some informants feel uncomfortable. Despite this however, the overall contribution made by this research assistant, in terms of cultural awareness and relationship building, proved invaluable to the success of my fieldwork.

While Turner (2010b) has drawn attention to the silent voices of research assistants, in Indonesia drivers also play a significant role in social relations. We often travelled between the villages using a rented car and driver. As an older man our driver was concerned with our welfare and safety, and having worked for many years in Dieng’s now bankrupt mushroom factories, took a keen interest in the research program. He would spend his time smoking

kretek7 _{with other men along the side of the road as we interviewed. Aware} that these discussions no doubt included what the bule was doing in Dieng, I was always conscious to maintain an amicable relationship with our driver. Inevitably, his social interactions also led to more interviews as we were invited into the homes of his newly found friends.

6 _{In Indonesia, newly graduated university students are typically eager to work for Western} academics as it boosts their resume and future work prospects. These jobs are also often financially rewarding in contrast with many local opportunities.

7 _{Indonesia’s domestically produced clove flavoured cigarettes.}

Cornet (2010) reflects on the beneficial impact children can have on the fieldwork process and my experience supports this claim. As Cornet (2010) also found, my identity as a mother was a more tangible point of reference for informants to understand and relate to. There was an instant commonality between researcher and informant that provided a depth to conversations, especially those held with other women. Our children played and ate together, and this was a great equaliser. Moreover, I needed their help not only as a researcher but also more importantly as a mother trying to parent in a new and different cultural environment. While I do not suggest that all relationships were equal, this arrangement did work to break down a possible perception that I was somehow an ‘international DRR expert’.

I also found that my husband contributed to the facilitation of local relationships in Dieng. Surprisingly for us, many of the men we spoke with were impressed that my husband was supporting me on this fieldwork trip and was given the opportunity to care for our daughter while I worked8_{. The} acceptance we received in Dieng possibly reflects local views that both men and women should work the land and contribute to household finances. Being a part of a standard family unit also appeared to matter to informants, and in playing this role I felt less anomalous. My husband built relationships with the husbands of the women I came to know most intimately. A geophysicist by training who has worked previously with Badan Geologi, he also proved helpful building relationships with staff from the Dieng Volcanic Observatory.

While my family proved a great asset in gaining access to informants, as Cornet (2010) also found there are limitations to conducting fieldwork with children. Potato farmers finish work in the mid-afternoon, so the best discussions were held in the late afternoon and evening. At times these needed to be prematurely ended so that I could be involved in my daughter’s bedtime routine. For practical reasons, my family did not always accompany me, leading to lots of travel and reduced spontaneous opportunities to spend

8 _{These sentiments were not always reflected in the regional town of Wonosobo where my} husband and daughter in particular also spent a considerable amount of time.

time in the homes of informants in the evenings as these often had to be pre- arranged.

Once trust with informants was achieved, we were readily introduced to other informants and new modes of questioning. Informants raised issues in addition to my initial research questions and provided avenues for me to pursue them. For example, some farmers accompanied me on interviews with potato traders and certified seedling developers they knew. I was also introduced to elderly members of the community who could remember historic volcanic disasters. This process of informant selection while introducing new themes, also allowed me to triangulate some of the prior information I had gained. One close informant also told me that I should conduct a household survey to collect more detailed data. While I was already planning this approach, his statement encouraged me to promptly move forward with the survey.

We gained access relatively easily with the Dieng Volcanic Observatory and the BPBD. This was in part facilitated through my husband’s past collaboration with Indonesia’s Badan Geologi in Bandung who connected me with the staff posted in Dieng. Our initial meeting with the BPBD was smoothed over by the official paperwork I obtained from Bappeda Banjarnegara. The second in command at BPBD proved a very helpful contact and was happy for us to accompany him on his official duties. Most of these involved the overseeing of workshops, during which our presence added to the formality of the occasion. The interest we showed validated the importance of his work and so we were treated with a welcome openness.

As my fieldwork was a collaborative process, throughout this thesis I use ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ to describe how the data was obtained. ‘We’ most frequently refers to my research assistant or myself, but may also include my husband, the informants, and in a few instances our driver. However, this collaboration ended after data collection and so I am responsible for the data analysis, the writing, and the foundational knowledge claims made in this thesis.

Table 4. A summary of the informants and type of activities conducted during my data collection process. A complete list of informant details is found in Appendix 1.

Location Fieldwork activity Occupation and livelihood activities of informants

Dusun Simbar, Sumberejo Village. 42 semi-structured and unstructured interviews, survey of all 124 households, participant observation, and a

participatory workshop.

Farmers – labourers and landowners, village council officials, and small business owners.

Kepakisan Village. 20 semi-structured and unstructured

interviews and participant observation. Farmers – labourers and landowners, village council officials, and small business owners. Pekasiran Village. 7 semi-structured interviews. Farmers – labourers and landowners, and village

council officials. Various additional villages in the Dieng

Plateau (Sumberejo, Batur, Gembol and Bakal)

6 semi-structured interviews. Village council official, seed potato propagator and seller, land owners, a vegetable trader and the head of an Islamic emergency volunteer organisation (Pos

Bagana).

The Dieng Volcanic Observatory (Pos

Pengamatan Dieng), Karang Tengah. 2 semi-structured interviews. Geologists and field officials.

The District Disaster Management Agency

(BPBD), Banjarnegara. 3 semi-structured interviews and observation of official activities (primarily the running of workshops).

First and second in command of BPBD. Various district government agencies in

Banjarnegara (Bappeda, Environment and Forestry Body, Agricultural Body, BPN).

4 semi-structured interviews. Spatial planning, forestry, agricultural and administrative officers.

Indonesian Red Cross, Banjarnegara. 1 semi-structured interview. Head of the Red Cross, Banjarnegara.

Villages in the Banjarnegara district. 2 semi-structured interviews. Members of the village level community police (Linmas) interviewed while attending BPBD training events. ‘Dieng Go Green' NGO in Wonosobo. 1 semi-structured interview. NGO employee.

Spatial Planning Unit of Bappeda, Wonosobo. 1 semi-structured interview. Spatial planning officer. Centre for Volcanology and Geological

4. An overview of natural hazards in the Dieng