collaborative research...questions

I have now been to many squat events at which food was relevant, and my notebooks are lavishly filled with ink of multiple colors. But taking a step back and making sense of all of these notes feels to me like stuffing the comforter thing into the comforter case when it's all knotted up after being in the dryer and you're not sure which corner goes where and it's too big to spread out anywhere so you just have to grab each corner and hope you've got the alignment right, and somehow you end up with the case over your head and the comforter is all packed into one side but still manages to spill out partway and then you realize most of the case is on the floor and now you should probably go wash it again and start over.
Maybe this isn't so relevant to collaborative work, but the first question I need to deal with, I think, is how to actually organize my data and start to look at it through my framework. Maybe I should have started doing this earlier, but I was ambivalent because I was worried that my framework would unfairly influence or bias my observation. Still.
In terms of collaboration, then, say I come up with some characterization of how squatting culture is reflected through the ways that squatters relate to food. And say that both Cassie and Fiona also have some comparable sorts of characterizations in the terms of their own frameworks. But each of our frameworks is very different. Maybe we can couch our results in the terms of our common definition of culture. Even so, they might not have anything to say to each other; their conclusions might still be unconnected. Can we then just put these three characterizations next to each other and call it a research project?
I'm afraid there are so many conditions that it might still be too early to know whether these questions will be important or necessary. Maybe figuring out how to solve my first problem will make it clearer what kinds of questions will be relevant for the second problem.

they rob gas stations

Question 1: What is the gastronomy of squatting in Amsterdam?

____Attendant question: Is squatting a counterculture, or a subculture?

________Attendant question: What is the difference between a counterculture and a subculture?

________Preliminary response: A subculture is "a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture" (OED). A counterculture is a subculture that has beliefs or interests directly opposed to those of the larger culture. This doesn't address what these two terms might mean in a social research context, but it's a start. For one thing, it makes the distinction seem less consequential for a research question that doesn't address it directly.

Question 8: M. de Certeau writes that "Everyday life invents itself by poaching in countless ways on the property of others. How (a) do squatters (b) use this idea of "poaching"? How is this related (c) to the gastronomy of squatting?

(a) "How do squatters _____?" assumes that the answer to "do squatters _____?" is positive. This will need to be accounted for either by incorporating it into the question, or using earlier research to establish it in the background.

(b) "Squatters" could stand for a movement in general, or it could stand for a particular group of squatters (which has yet to be located).

(c) Either one could influence the other, or both (or neither...).

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In general, having a conceptual framework can make observation a lot easier, because it can give a picture of what one would expect to see, so then one knows what to look for, and what to look for the absence of, and can frame one's research in terms of how the image(s) observed are similar to or different from the expected or reference image(s).

For an analytic frame, I've been thinking about M. de Certeau's idea of productive consumption, or "poaching" (i.e., squatting). This, or any theoretical framework, would be useful in framing (by case) observations (of behavior and of physical traces) in terms of how well they fit this model. This frame suggests some questions I could ask about my observations: are they examples of using finished products (especially of the "larger culture") in ways that turn them into something different? In the broadest case this is pretty obvious: squatters use empty buildings and turn them into places to live. What about with respect to gastronomy? Do squatters appropriate other "products" and resources creatively to produce and consume food? Or do they acquire, prepare, and consume most of their food the "conventional" way?

The connection between this framework as applied to squatting, and the concept of gastronomy, still seems tenuous. So I'm in search of another, food-framing theory. Also, I don't know if M. de Certeau's theory is going to be common to the whole group, and it would be a good idea to have at least one overarching theory, within which the focus-specific frames could vary.

In other words, we're not finished with this part yet.

fun with formatting

_____Another thing about M. de Certeau's essay:
_____as he himself says,
_____it's not a complete framework in itself;
_____it's more of an outline for future frameworks to be made from.
_____Its biggest contribution is its emphasis of usage,
_____as opposed to only social relations and behaviors.
_____M.C. develops this usage idea further with his conception of it as a productive consumption,

_____but this is still rather domain-general.
_____This is why I need to find another framework that either gives a more specific account of squatting and/or gastronomy,

_____or else provides a more complete body of theory.
_____M.C.'s framework is really an appendage,
_____or else a meta-framework that can filter my application of other frameworks

_____--or else an inter-framework,
_____mediating between other frameworks and evidence by crossing buses.