Malawi Journals Project (MJP), 1999-2015

The Malawi Journals Project provides a unique perspective on a contemporary epidemic in Africa. Begun in 1999, when HIV incidence and prevalence peaked, it tracked contradictions between survey data and qualitative data. After the first round of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) (ICPSR 20840), in 1998, the researchers had a great deal of data about the composition and structure of local social networks in which rural Malawians talked about AIDS. They had not; however, learned much about the content of the social interactions--what people said to each other, rather than to interviewers, about AIDS or their strategies for avoiding infection and death--and even less about the wider everyday interactions that shaped responses to the epidemic. In 1999 Susan Watkins instituted "The Malawi Journals Project" as a complement to a longitudinal survey that she was conducting in rural Malawi. At that time, Malawians were suffering and dying from a major AIDS epidemic. After the first round of the survey, she found evidence of social desirability bias. For example, when survey interviewers asked men under age 35 how many sexual partners they had, the typical response was that they had only one sexual partner, their wife. In the context of Malawi, as well as other African countries; however, a man with only one partner was so unusual that his survey response was not believable. Watkins thus developed a new approach to data collection: learning what men and women said to each other rather than to an interviewer. After the first round of the survey the researchers had a great deal of data about the composition and structure of the social networks in which rural Malawians talked about AIDS. They had not; however, learned much about the content of the social interactions--what people said to each other, rather than to interviewers, about AIDS or their strategies for avoiding infection and death--and even less about the wider everyday interactions that shaped responses to the epidemic. Thus, the researchers improvised by commissioning 10 high school graduates, both men and women, who had worked for the survey to be participant observers as they went about their daily routines. They were to pay attention to what their peers said about the AIDS epidemic in their informal social networks, such as walking to a funeral or drinking at a bar, and to write the conversation word for word in a private space. If they overheard anything concerning AIDS, they were to make mental notes of what people said and did, and then write their recollections word-for-word in commonplace school notebooks that evening or soon thereafter. The notebooks were given to a local intermediary who mailed them to the researchers. In 2005, Watkins invited a colleague, Adam Ashforth, an ethnographer who had conducted research in Malawi, to join the Malawi Journals Project More than 1,000 journals have been written since 1999, each approximately 12 single-spaced typed pages, and each usually covering several different conversations or incidents. Since there are frequently several people conversing, the reader can overhear, at second hand, several thousand people. Twenty-two journalists (9 females, 13 males) have contributed to the corpus of texts, with three (two males, one female) contributing very frequently, 13 frequently, and six only occasionally. The diarists wrote in English, a language learned in school, and used parentheses or carets to set off their explanatory comments or untranslatable expressions in the local language. The handwriting and repetitions suggest they often wrote rapidly. We have retained locutions that reflect local adaptations of English. English is taught in Malawian public schools starting in Standard 5, equivalent to U.S. fifth grade, and has become somewhat indigenized. For example, to be sexually promiscuous is to be "movious" and one who has multiple partners is said to be "moving around," an Anglicization of a Chichewa expression, woyendayenda, derived from the earlier association of multiple partners with migrant labor. The naturalness with which the journalists adapt English to Chichewa, chiYao, or chiTumbuka linguistic forms means that their English is somewhat closer to local languages than is the standard English in which a Canadian, British or American ethnographer might translate local languages. In our pu

马拉维期刊项目呈现了非洲当代流行病的一个独特视角。该项目始于1999年，正值HIV感染率和发病率达到顶峰，其旨在追踪调查数据和定性数据之间的矛盾。在1998年进行的马拉维家庭与健康纵向研究（MLSFH）的第一轮调查（ICPSR 20840）之后，研究人员积累了大量关于当地社会网络构成和结构的数据，这些网络中农村马拉维人讨论着艾滋病。然而，他们并未深入了解社会互动的内容——人们相互之间而非对访谈者所谈论的关于艾滋病或避免感染和死亡的策略——以及更广泛的日常互动，这些互动塑造了对疫情的反应。1999年，Susan Watkins在马拉维农村进行的一项纵向调查的基础上，设立了“马拉维期刊项目”。当时，马拉维人正遭受着严重的艾滋病流行病之苦。在调查的第一轮之后，她发现了社会期望偏差的证据。例如，当调查员询问35岁以下的男性他们有多少性伴侣时，典型的回答是他们只有一个性伴侣，即他们的妻子。然而，在马拉维以及其他非洲国家，只有一个伴侣的男性如此罕见，以至于他的调查回答难以令人信服。因此，Watkins发展了一种新的数据收集方法：了解男性和女性相互之间而非对访谈者所说的话。在调查的第一轮之后，研究人员积累了大量关于农村马拉维人讨论艾滋病的社交网络构成和结构的数据。然而，他们对社会互动的内容——人们相互之间而非对访谈者所说的关于艾滋病或避免感染和死亡策略——以及塑造对疫情反应的更广泛的日常互动的了解却甚少。因此，研究人员临时聘请了10名曾在调查中工作的中学毕业生，包括男性和女性，作为参与观察者，他们在日常活动中记录所见。他们需关注同龄人在非正式社交网络中关于艾滋病大流行的讨论，如参加葬礼或酒吧饮酒，并一字不漏地在私密空间中记录对话。如果他们听到任何关于艾滋病的言论，他们需在心中记录人们所说所为，并在当晚或之后不久将回忆以一字不漏的方式写入普通的学校笔记本中。笔记本被交给当地中介，由他们邮寄给研究人员。2005年，Watkins邀请了一名同事，Adam Ashforth，一位曾在马拉维进行研究的民族学家，加入马拉维期刊项目。自1999年以来，已撰写了1000多份日记，每份大约有12页单倍行距打印，通常涵盖几个不同的对话或事件。由于经常有多个人在交谈，读者可以间接地听到数千人的对话。22名记者（9名女性，13名男性）为文本库做出了贡献，其中三人（两名男性，一名女性）贡献非常频繁，13人经常贡献，6人偶尔贡献。日记作者用学校学到的英语书写，并用括号或箭头标出他们的解释性评论或无法翻译的当地语言表达。笔迹和重复表明他们经常快速书写。我们保留了反映当地英语适应的措辞。英语从标准五年级开始在马拉维公立学校教授，相当于美国五年级，并已部分本土化。例如，性行为放荡被称为“movious”，有多个伴侣的人被称为“moving around”，这是对齐切瓦语表达“woyendayenda”的英语化，该表达源于多伴侣与流动劳动力的早期联系。记者们自然地将英语适应齐切瓦语、chiYao或chiTumbuka语言形式的能力意味着他们的英语与加拿大、英国或美国民族学家可能翻译的当地语言相比，更接近当地语言。在我们的研究中……