Importance of Body for Forming Young People Identities - Research Proposal Example

Qualitative Research: Is Body Art Important in Forming Young People Identities In Britain INTRODUCTION This research proposal presents a plan for aqualitative research assessment of the question, "Is Body Art Important in Forming Young People Identities In Britain". The proposal includes an outline of existing research, and offers a critique of this research, essentially showing what gaps exist in the current research, and how the current research will fill the gap in the current body of research. The methodology that has been chosen to answer this question will be described, including an explanation of why this methodology is the most appropriate to the present question. A Conclusions section will be presented at the end of the proposal, summarising what has been presented within the proposal. RESEARCH QUESTION As discussed, the research question to be addressed in the course of this research is, "Is Body Art Important in Forming Young People Identities In Britain". This question has been chosen because it is of interest to me personally, in terms of the art itself, but also in terms of understanding the motivations behind altering one's body through body art. The phenomena of body art is becoming increasingly popular in Western societies, and the reasons behind this increasing popularity are of interest to me, sociologically speaking; I am interested in knowing why body art is increasing in popularity and why people participate in body art, in terms of their personal histories and perspectives. The widespread nature, and long history, of body art suggests that the human body has been, and is, a canvas for the expression of cultural ideas. Body art is something universal, that is documented across all of recorded time, and as such, the reasons behind it's use and incorporation are of fundamental interest in the understanding of cultural politics and issues of self acknowledgement and representation. LITERATURE REVIEW This section will show what other research has been done, and will present gaps in the research that this current research proposal will address. A brief background and history of body art will be presented, which will introduce the work of other theorists, in terms of what they say about the links between the body and modernity, and the links between body and identity, for example. Body art is essentially art that is put on, or consists of, the human body (Brain, 1979). There are many forms of body art, including: tattoos, piercings, henna painting, branding, scarification, body painting or other, less invasive, less permanent, types of body art, for example, corseting. Many academics include other forms of body modification, such as plastic surgery, under the umbrella of body art, but this is the subject of much discussion. Others include extreme performance under the umbrella of body art, for example, mutilation on stage, or sadomasochism, or pushing the body to it's physical limits (for example, the work of Oppenheimer), but again, the inclusion of these categories of body modification under the umbrella of body art is subject to much debate. Body art has been around for centuries, with tattooed Mummies being common from the age of the Egyptians, to henna painting in India, which is centuries old. The inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific have some of the most magnificent tattooing in the world, which is known to have been practiced by them for centuries. Many other cultures, from Africa to Australia, to the Pacific islands, are known to have participated in body modification (neck stretching, ear ornamentation) for centuries. The widespread nature, and long history, of body art suggests that the human body has been, and is, a canvas for the expression of cultural ideas. Body art is something universal, across all of recorded time, and as such, the reasons behind it's use and incorporation are of fundamental interest in the understanding of cultural politics and issues of self acknowledgement and representation. The increasing trend for body art amongst Western cultures is the subject of much current research, which looks at the reasons behind it's increasing popularity. The research seems to divide the reasons behind body art's increasing popularity in to two main categories: body art as identity, and body art as a representation of modernity. Researchers such as Giddens, through his various works, including his 1991 book Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, argue that collective modernity is now seen in terms of referencing one's self, such that modernity has become a post-traditional order which is itself characterised by reflexivity at an institutional level. Through this, the self has become what he terms a 'reflexive project', which needs to be constantly sustained by a constantly revisable narrative with one's self. He argues that body art fits in with this concept of modernity, as it is a way in which people participating in this art form can revise their concept of themselves as individuals, orienting themselves within society as a whole, and reinforcing their participation within this reflexive society. Other researchers, such as Atkinson (2004) and Pitt (2003) argue that body art and modification is simply a way of expressing identity, arising as they do in socio-historical contexts, allowing individuals to identify themselves within a generalised culture through a visual representation of their ideologies and political leanings. This particular set of theories sees body art as a way of identifying oneself, i.e., one's cultural politics, within the larger societal framework. In terms of gaps in the research, the work of researchers such as Giddens, Atkinson and Pitts are very theoretical, with little relevance to any beyond those involved in the small sociological circle in which they work. In order to understand the broader relevance of this research, it is necessary to know something of the subjects of such research, so that they can be given a voice to explain, in their own words and from their own perspectives, why they participate in body art. The present work will attempt to address this gap in the research, by presenting individual case studies of, and explanations for, participation in body art. METHODOLOGY This section will present an outline of the way in which the research will be attempted, stating why this is the most appropriate method, using evidence from handbooks of research to support your claims. The potential problems of undertaking this kind of research will also be identified. It has been decided that a survey should be used to collect data relevant to the aims of this study. The survey, a type of non-experimental descriptive research study, does not involve direct observation by the researcher, but rather uses inferences about behavior and thinking as deduced from data collected either via an interview conducted by the researcher or via a questionnaire handed out by the researcher, for the subjects to fill in themselves and send back to the researcher once completed (Hoyle et al., 2002). Interviews or questionnaires commonly include an assortment of split-answer questions (i.e., where the answers are True/False or Yes/No) or open-ended questions (i.e., where the interviewee is able to respond freely, not constrained by one of two options, for example, in the form of free-style, short essay answers). This sort of data collection is sometimes referred to as a self-report, and is used in many social research studies. The major limitation of the survey method, however, is that it relies on a self-reporting method of data collection, and, as such, can be subject to bias through intentional deception or misunderstanding of the question, for example, all of which can lead to inaccuracies in the data. Another major flaw is that the method is simply descriptive, and not explanatory, and, as such cannot be used to offer any insights into cause-and-effect relationships, unlike direct measurements, for example, in more scientific studies. However, despite these reservations, it has been decided that a survey instrument will be used to gather information of relevance to the current research question, "Is Body Art Important in Forming Young People Identities In Britain". The survey will be designed to elucidate such information as: the reasons behind individuals' decisions to participate in body art, the reasoning behind the decision to choose the particular form of body art chosen by the individual, for example. The survey will use a combination of split-answer questioning, and open-ended questioning, to gain the maximum information possible from the individuals surveyed. In terms of finding individuals for participation in the survey, requests for participation can be posted on notice boards at the place of study, and respondents will be selected according to their responses to initial questions (for example, only respondents answering in positive to the following two questions will be included in the surveys sample: i) do you have any forms of body art - tattoos, piercings etc and ii) are you willing to participate in a sociological research study looking at the connection between body art and identity). In terms of analysing the results of the survey, once the survey has been completed, the responses will be collated, and analysed in terms of the main questions posed within the survey, which have direct relevance to the main - umbrella - research question, Is Body Art Important in Forming Young People Identities In Britain". CONCLUSION This section will present final remarks on the value of the study, and will include details of how it will be a useful contribution to the present field. As we have seen, the widespread nature, and long history, of body art suggests that the human body has been, and is, a canvas for the expression of cultural ideas. Body art is something universal, that is documented across all of recorded time, and as such, the reasons behind it's use and incorporation are of fundamental interest in the understanding of cultural politics and issues of self acknowledgement and representation. As we have seen, body art is currently increasing in popularity in Western society, and through a brief review of the relevant literature, we have seen that there are two main explanations for this in the academic literature: body art as a definer of modernity (Giddens, 1991), or body art as a definer of identity (Pitt, 2003). The current research proposal intends to fill a gap in the literature that has been identified: following a brief review of the literature, it became obvious that there is little original research which presents individual's own stories as to how and why they participate in body art. As such, the following research proposal intends to look at the research question "Is Body Art Important in Forming Young People Identities In Britain". The methodology to be utilised in the course of this research is a survey instrument, which will allow individuals to express their own sentiments as to how and why they decided to participate in body art. The survey instrument will be designed specifically for this research project, and will include split-answer and open-ended questions, so that individuals will be able to express their own reasoning and motivation behind their participation in body art. The surveys will be analysed in terms of the main research question, "Is Body Art Important in Forming Young People Identities In Britain", and it is intended that the current research project will fill the identified gap in the current sociological literature on body art. BIBLIOGRAPHY Atkinson, M. (2004). Review Symposium: Health and Body Modification. Figuring out body modification cultures: interdependence and radical body modification processes. From health: an Interdisciplinary Journal for the social study of health, illness and medicine. SAGE Publications: London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi. Brain, R. (1979). The Decorated Body. New York: Harper and Row. De Mello, M. (2000). Bodies of Inscription: a cultural history of the modern tattoo. Durham: Duke University Press. Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Gilbert, S. (2000). Tattoo History. New York: Juno Books. Hoyle, R.H., M.J. Harris, & C.M. Judd. (2002). Research Methods in Social Relations, Seventh Edition. Wadsworth. Pitt, V. (2003). In the flesh: the cultural politics of body modification. Palgrave/McMillan. Shilling, C. (1993). The body and social theory. London: Sage Publications. Read More