Tasnim Afza Mredula

(1821964615)

Research Project

Unobtrusive Observation of a Neighborhood

Sociology is the systematic study of human society and culture, the formation and social
relationship that examines everyday life as an individual. Here, in this unobtrusive observation of
my neighborhood, I will be exploring the unseen details of our society and how it shapes the
lives of the residents living in this area.

To begin with, the neighborhood that will be researched in this paper is located at the north of
Dhaka city, in Uttara at sector-14. Uttara is home to thousands of people and is a very large area.
My neighborhood is located right behind the famous (famous among the Uttara residents) Zahura
Market. There is also a mosque in my neighborhood right by my house. The purpose of this
research is to see how people's attitudes are in certain places. Rules are not mentioned yet it is
underlying under the air we breathe in that people tend to follow. The observation of this
research has been done since the 25th of March till the 27th of March.

Summary:

The article written by Joshua S. Meisel speaks about the ethical terrain of experiential learning.
To begin with, in this article Meisel pivotal point was how the behavior of the researchers affects
the researchee. Here, he took his students to jail to do their research and he unobtrusively noticed
their behavior as well. According to Meisel, the teacher leading the researchers should guide
his/her students ethically. Meisel focused on different parts, for instance, the breakability of the
participants, the relatable social power of non-student participants, whether participants are
voluntary or not, duration, group size and the role of students in the activity and so on.

In the article, the advantages and disadvantages of actually being up-front in the research are also
mentioned. He mentions how everyone should be respected in their personal space and that in no
way should on take pleasure in someone else's pain, which is voyeurism. Lastly, the article talks
about how people should follow certain ethical boundaries while doing research.

Observation:
  People are quieter when they pass the mosque
 Girls usually do not opt for the mosque road
 Building owners do not go to the bazaar
 Usually, the guards or the housemaids are sent to the bazaar
 Mostly older people live here
 Most of the children of the old owners live abroad
 This neighborhood is quieter than the others
 Few numbers of children
 Mostly male children come out to play on the street
 Men are often heard to chastise women
 People speak in a lower voice when they pass the mosque

Research Questions:

1. What are the most important aspects of the physical environment of the neighborhood?
2. How do these aspects affect social interaction in the neighborhood?
3. What are the rules of conduct for the community living in the neighborhood?
4. Who enforces those rules? How are the rules enforced?
5. How are the rules circumvented or broken by the people living in this place?
6. Why mostly male children play on the street beside the mosque?
7. Why don't the building owners go to the bazaar to buy their groceries?
8. Why is this neighborhood quieter than the others?

Analysis:

My neighborhood is a moderately large area with semi-old infrastructure and newly made roads.
Even though the city municipal keeps breaking and building new roads, again and again, it is still
home to all of us neighbors. The most important aspects of the physical environment in my
neighborhood would be the mosque and the bazaar which are located right behind my building.
The mosque and bazaar are almost all the time the busiest buildings on the road. There are also
tiny stores behind the mosque walls, which is also a place where many people spend their time.

Mostly people hanging out there in these tiny stores are building guards and housemaids. Hardly
any building owners will be spotted there. A common sociological concept plays a role here
which is social class. Social class is the level of the hierarchy an individual is in society.
Building owners here in my neighborhood are the most successful businessman or doctors. They
all belong to the upper social class were hanging out in stores behind the mosque will be frowned
upon. In other words, the building owners are too rich to mix with poor people. Now being rich
does not mean that they look down on their house-help. They try to help their domestic help and
encourage their neighbors to do the same. The physical aspects do affect social interaction in a
not so subtle way at all. The people working in the mosques are seen to be always being very
respectable towards the richer class of people and not so respectable to the lower class of people.
There is clear discrimination in behavior towards the children too. A child who comes from the
upper social class is seemed to receive VIP treatment from everyone, even in the mosque where
all humans are thought to be the same.

Not that signboards are hanging in every corner of the road, but there are certain codes of
conduct that are followed by everyone living in this neighborhood. For instance, women were
often seen to take the other longer route to the bazaar instead of the shorter and more convenient
route right beside the mosque. It is kind of frowned upon when a woman with covering her head
passes by the mosque. Often in the chit-chats of the bazaar, it is said that woman is chastised by
the people working in the mosque. Ironically, it is only applicable to women of the lower class
because as it seems that these men passing bad comments do not hold the audacity to say
anything about the upper-class women. I also observed that mostly male children are playing on
the road beside the mosque. These children come from privileged families for sure, but
patriarchy seems to find its way here too. The female children were seemed to discourage to play
on the road beside the mosque for safety reasons. Parents think it is safe for their daughters to
play on the road but it is safe for their sons. Not that I can blame patriarchy entirely here, but it
seems that people do not trust their daughters with 'hujurs' around. But people do not question
anything around here; it is as if they have accepted this as their reality. Berger and Luckmann's
social construction of reality takes place here, which is, we present ourselves in a way that
society wants. For example, everyone sees this discrimination among children; the disparity
between their genders and the disparity between their classes, but no one points any finger here.
People want to be blind here and live their lives as if this is their reality. There is no police
officer here for us to make sure that we adhere to the societal rules, yet the residents living in this
neighborhood seem to comply with the rules lain through the social norms. The reality of our
lives here has been constructed socially by the older generations. People strictly abide by these
rules. To name a few would be, talking in a lower voice when at the mosque, talking loudly at
the bazaar, not letting women go to the bazaar unless it necessary and so.

As mentioned before, the unannounced rules here are followed strictly in my neighborhood. And
if someone younger or new breaks any rule they are explained that in a sort of logical way by the
older residents living here. Through rigid observation and overhearing conversations from other
people, I have also noticed that my neighborhood is quieter than the surrounding neighborhood.
This may be because there are lower numbers of children living here. Mostly the residents living
here are in their 40s-50s or even more. Their children live abroad and they depend on their house
helper to live. Even though people are working for them 24/7, the owners feel a bit hesitant to
accept the house help as their own, and vice versa. This is where another sociological factor by
Emile Durkheim comes up. It is a social fact the richer class of people will hardly ever treat their
servants more than that because of their social egos. For instance, I have seen that the building
owners agree to send their maids to the bazaar to fetch for groceries but the same owner will not
let her daughter play on the road beside the mosque. In a way, it shows that my neighborhood is
only concerned about the safety of privileged girls and not anyone else's.

Lastly, one more sociological concept that has been seeing constantly is Bordieu's capital. Which
is, the more one has assets, and the more one holds a powerful position in the neighborhood.
From the way the servants are treated it can be said that the building owners own them and
captivate them in their ways. For instance, the maids and other servants depend on these owners
for their livelihood; they are bound to listen to their owners in every way.

Limitations:

Given that the pandemic, coronavirus, is still ongoing there were many limitations that I have
faced while doing my unobtrusive observation. One of the major drawbacks was not being able
to go out and see all these social interactions upfront. Rather I had to seat in my balcony and
observe everything. It was kind of difficult to overhear the conversation of the roads from the
first floor. Because I was not allowed to leave the house for the virus situation, a lot of the
observations are from my dining table conversations. Strangely enough, mosquitoes have also
been a huge limitation in my observation. Given that the mosquitoes appear more in the
evenings; my mother did not allow me to stand in the balcony after 5:30 p.m., which is why I
could not observe what happens in my neighborhood after 5:30 p.m. Lastly, because my house is
right beside the mosque, while I was standing in my balcony I observed a lot of the people who
work in the mosque would look at me in a different gaze, which has made me feel
uncomfortable.

Conclusion:

To conclude this research paper, it can be said that when we observe the society around us we
can see all the sociological concepts that have been researched by the greater sociologists like
Marx, Weber and so on. My neighborhood is no different than all the other societies combined.
There are biases, prejudice and everything else that Berger and Luckmann, Durkheim and every
other sociologist has discovered and spoken against.

Through this research paper, I can easily assume that people are snobbish when they have more
capital than others, though some use their extra capital for their society to enhance, others don't.
Because of this unobtrusive research, I have found out that there so many unnoticed rules and
regulation that I follow and that others follow too, and how my neighborhood and I have
accepted these biases and prejudice as our reality, sadly.