Doing anthropology, culture, and the desire for privacy in public by young women

The shopping mall where I conducted my observation is called a ‘Designer Outlet’, but the food court has three affordable restaurants: McDonald’s, Chopstix and SpudULike, so people of different socioeconomic backgrounds use the food court. My observation took place between 2:00 - 3:00 PM on a Tuesday afternoon, at a table close to the entrance, facing the other tables and restaurants. It was not busy: a small number of tables were occupied by approximately 30 people. The main demographic present were elderly people, young children and middle-aged parents, with a few young adults and teenagers. My observation took place when the Covid-19 pandemic was still rife in South Wales.

Two elderly people and a middle-aged man approached a table, put their jackets over chairs and walked toward the restaurants to view each of the menus in detail, and then chose SpudULike. I noticed that surroundings, whereas most young adults and teenagers had already decided the restaurant they wanted to go to, and, if not using their phones, they tended to look down and walk fast.

One woman in her early twenties sat at a table behind a pillar (out of view from the majority of people) charging her phone and eating food from McDonald’s, which she bought once and then after approximately 20 minutes, bought again She kept her head down, glancing up occasionally to check if people could see her. She wore comfortable clothes and did not have shopping bags. This suggested that she was there to pass time, perhaps seeking refuge from a place where she cannot find privacy. Many people displayed this trait of seeking privacy in a public place: hardly any groups sat close to another group, and some people sat at tables in the corners to not be exposed.

The cleaning staff (four or five of them present) periodically cleaned and grouped together to talk. They spoke, looked around and pointed, perhaps gossiping about the different groups of people in the food court. One female pulled her face mask down while talking to express emotion. Another older cleaning lady wore a visor (she may be fully-vaccinated with less fear about the coronavirus). A female walked confidently, swinging the brush around, and swept closely to the tables even if they were occupied. She seemed to be doing easy tasks like wiping pillars and fixing the formation of chairs, trying to pass the time. The cleaning staff seemed keen to converse with other people: one female approached two women and a baby, and spoke proudly of her own 6-month-old child. The baby acted as a bridge to start a conversation.

I intend to explore ‘culture’: the organised systems of symbols, ideas, beliefs, explanations and material productions that humans create and manipulate in their daily lives. Culture includes the customs by which humans organise their physical world and maintain their social structure (International Baccalaureate, n.d.).

I will use a focus group discussion to improve my understanding of the key anthropological concept, ‘culture’. During my initial fieldwork, a young woman sitting behind a pillar in the food court sparked my interest; she appeared self-conscious as she used her phone, glancing up frequently. I plan to discover whether this inclination for privacy in public places is universal and applies cross-culturally for young women, shifting my research site to a sixth-form boarding school, composed of people from culturally and economically diverse backgrounds.

I will put a call-out for female students to sign up, negotiate a time and place to meet, and facilitate a reflective discussion which will allow participants to explain how the culture of this boarding school impacts their choices, complimenting my initial observation which gave me a broad view of the issue. I will ask open-ended questions, and try to interpret answers objectively. I chose this method in order to acquire in-depth qualitative data.

The actions of the woman I observed at the shopping mall were linked to her culturally-constructed ‘habitus’, defined as socially ingrained habits and dispositions (Bordieu, 1977). In my extension, I will examine the culture of this community, and how physical space is manipulated by students in order to maximise their perceived privacy. It will be interesting to examine how people combine elements of their home cultures and the culture of this international boarding school, to form their habits in relation to their seeking of privacy. The unstructured focus group discussion will allow me to ask questions about the participants’ home cultures and how they may modify their behaviours to suit the microculture of the boarding school.

On the 31st of March, 2022, I spoke to eight 16-18 year old females who attend an international sixth form boarding school. The tight-knit community of 350 students are well-connected through social relations; thus, privacy is hard to come by (for example, each student has three other roommates).

The young women use objects to signal that they do not want to be bothered. Some of the participants described how they use their phones when walking in public, pretending to text, or hold them up to their ears, in order to appear occupied. Additionally, participants wear headphones or put their hoods up. These actions sought to serve as a display of a purposeful barrier against unwanted disturbances. In this community with strong, interdependent social relations between teenaged peers, it may be logical for the women to use objects to signal their desire to be alone, in order to not appear unfriendly. The participants find it challenging to balance a desire for privacy while maintaining friendly relations with others.

When asked about the spatial elements of privacy, most of the participants agreed how the edges of a room feel more private than the centre. A few mentioned how sitting away from other people guarantees more privacy. Using the location of the dining hall as an example, participants described how corners of a room are especially private. Furthermore, the young women explained how the more empty space there is in a room, the less private it feels: there is more privacy in a cluttered space than a vacant one.

The concept of culture can be applied to this data in order to understand how these female students navigate the social structures of the boarding school. It could be argued that these individuals seek out privacy as means of dealing with the absence of privacy caused by the structure of this boarding school. In a culture where social relations are highly valued, it appears difficult for these female students to uphold norms and cultural expectations of being friendly whilst maintaining some amount of privacy in public. These tendencies, such as the inclination to sit at the corners of a room rather than the centre, may be part of socially-ingrained habits that constitute one’s habitus.

I have noticed the value in combining two or more methods to approach the broad topic of ‘culture’ holistically. I employed the method of non-participant observation to acquire a broad snapshot of people in a natural setting. For my second fieldwork, I held a group unstructured focus group discussion to gain a deeper insight into the topic, yielding rich, valid data.

Non-participant observation was a helpful research method to use: I gained a broad perspective by watching people navigate the food court. The focus group’s unstructured discussion was beneficial in uncovering why people act the way they do - for example, in understanding how and why privacy is sought after by female students in public. Because the discussion was unstructured, I asked follow-up questions and delved into the topic. This method is often used by feminist researchers because it aims to remove the power imbalance between the interviewer and focus group. Thus, my research method aligned with my topic of interest which is focused on culturally-created differences between genders.

Both methods provided challenges in terms of reliability. In relation to the non-participant observation, it was difficult at first because I was overwhelmed by the number of people and possible areas of further inquiry. The reliability of the research may have been restricted as I struggled to observe people’s movements while taking notes. Observational data may also vary between anthropologists; due to selectivity, another researcher may have chosen to focus on an entirely different area. Regarding the unstructured focus group discussion, one difficulty I encountered was due to the fact that many focus group members were acquaintances of mine. Although it was useful that rapport was pre-established, it appeared that these friends wanted to help me by signing up; this may represent an ethical issue as the participants felt obliged to participate, and wanted to do me a favour. The reliability of my findings may also have been hindered, as, if another anthropologist was to repeat the study, people belonging to a different social group may have signed up. Additionally, the unstructured focus group discussion may not be reliable, as each discussion is unique. This group of my acquaintances may also not reflect the beliefs and opinions of the wider school community. In the future, to ensure reliability and representativeness, it may be better to use random sampling to acquire participants who do not particularly know me, or each other. 

Non-participant observation may have limited validity as I was unable to ask people why they were acting in such a way. Nonetheless, I was able to see their natural behaviour first-handedly, ensuring high validity. The unstructured nature of the focus group discussion allowed the participants to tell their own stories and speak for themselves, which ultimately led to high validity. However, the reliability of unstructured focus group discussion may have been affected by the ‘social desirability effect’ - the way in which participants may perhaps modify their true answers to the questions in order to appear socially desirable (Callegaro, 2018).

There may have been methodological challenges relating to the key concept, culture. Behaviours are easy to notice; however, the cultural factors influencing a person’s behaviour cannot be deduced easily, especially by someone an outsider. With regards to the woman in the food court, I may have been explaining her actions through my own cultural lens or bias. Concerning positionality, I believe that elements of my identity may have influenced the data. Perhaps I would not have paid attention to the woman in the shopping court if I had not identified or empathised with her. Demographically, I could be considered a member of the group of participants since I am also a female aged 16-18, attending this boarding school. Participants’ answers may have also been affected by aspects of my identity such as my English language proficiency, class and nationality. In addition, the fact that I find this topic personally relatable motivated me to carry out the research. Yet I realised that it may be more reliable and objective, in some cases, to examine a social group that I have no connection to.

My research has improved my understanding of the concept of ‘culture’. Before taking IB Social and Cultural Anthropology, I had the pre-conception that culture referred solely to material productions and the arts (music, literature, theatre, visual art), relating to a country. My fieldwork helped me understand that culture does not have to be associated with a particular country. There are cultures within cultures, such as subcultures and microcultures: my field-work site, composed of students and teachers from all over the world, is an example of this. Additionally, culture is fluid, and is expressed through objects and symbols.

The methods aided my understanding of this concept because I was able to firstly observe how culture affects behaviour, and secondly, explore the reasons how and why in discussion. I realised how people can embody their cultures through the concept of ‘habitus’. I have witnessed how people interact with their space, in ways which I realise are often dictated by their culture, be that relating to gender, religion, nationality, or any other subculture that a person is a part of.

Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a theory of Practice. New York, NY - Cambridge University Press.

Callegaro, M. 2008. Social Desirability. In - Paul J. Lavrakas Editor, 2008. Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods, Thousand Oaks, CA - Sage Publications, Inc. pp. 826 Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412963947.n537 (Accessed - November 5, 2022).

International Baccalaureate (no date) DP anthropology, International Baccalaureate®. Available at -

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/individuals-and-societies/social%20-and-cultural-anthropology/%20(Accessed -%20October%2026,%202022).