{"id":558,"date":"2018-03-23T12:14:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T12:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/?p=558"},"modified":"2018-03-23T12:15:43","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T12:15:43","slug":"haciendo-tramites-the-everyday-reality-of-fieldwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/2018\/03\/23\/haciendo-tramites-the-everyday-reality-of-fieldwork\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Haciendo Tr\u00e1mites\u2019 \u2013 the everyday reality of fieldwork"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Katy Jenkins reflects on waiting during fieldwork<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tr\u00e1mites, <\/em>only now do I fully understand the meaning of this quintessentially Peruvian activity. Having yesterday spent five hours traipsing between different local government and council offices, only now do I understand why tr\u00e1mites <\/em>are approached with such trepidation and given such weight in the Peruvian imagination. The verb \u2018tramitar\u2019<\/em> is best translated as \u2018to process\u2019, so haciendo tr\u00e1mites <\/em>is essentially submitting oneself to the bureaucratic process. In our case, this was the final stage of tr\u00e1mites<\/em> that had been ongoing for several weeks, aimed at securing permission to hold a photography exhibition in one of the main streets in Cajamarca city, Peru, on International Women\u2019s Day. So, having submitted various requests in duplicate to various different offices (should it be the mayor; the municipality; the local government, all of these or somewhere else entirely?), I spent yesterday, accompanied by my Peruvian research assistant, going between various offices searching for the elusive permiso<\/em> – would anyone actually take responsibility for granting it or would it be a request for another document, another thus far unmentioned permission to apply for, another stamp or signature to obtain? We were frequently told that the person we needed to speak to (usually \u2018el jefe\u2019<\/em>) wasn\u2019t there, that we should leave our documents and come back tomorrow, and our requests and documentation were viewed with deep suspicion. Folders were leafed through, computers consulted, colleagues summoned, brows furrowed and heads shaken. Unfailing patience and ingratiating politeness were required throughout, as any one of these officials could decide to reject our request with no reason at all. To an outsider at least, the lack of a clear logic or transparency structuring this process makes it baffling and frustrating in equal measure. Even with the benefit of my research assistant\u2019s \u2018insider\u2019 knowledge, this process seems to me arbitrary and at times impenetrable \u2013 cultural conventions, tacit assumptions and unspoken hierarchies abound.<\/p>\n

These tr\u00e1mites<\/em> have given me new insight into the, at times Kafka-esque, bureaucratic hurdles of everyday life faced by (especially poor, rural and not always fully literate) Peruvians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We visited one office of the municipality four times, the offices of the Civil Defence Authorities twice, and municipality offices in a different part of town, twice, each of these visits requiring a 15-minute taxi ride. We have stood in line to pay our fee (when we find out this is required), we have submitted proof of payment, and now today, fingers crossed, we are told the permiso <\/em>will be authorised. Our one-page letter requesting permission, itself couched in a language of extreme deference to authority and office, has become a seven-page document in duplicate, stamped and signed by, seemingly, half of Cajamarca\u2019s state apparatus. It quickly becomes clear that although we first submitted the documentation several weeks\u2019 previously, it is only by being physically present and endlessly chasing a resolution, that the tr\u00e1mite <\/em>progresses through the bureaucratic system.<\/p>\n

I was always slightly sceptical when people told me they had put aside whole days for tr\u00e1mites<\/em>, but now I understand a little of the waiting, the frustration, the powerlessness, and the process of deferential ingratiation that is required in order to (perhaps) eventually reach a favourable result<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s times like this when I wish I did research with a large NGO or organisation that would take care of these sorts of tasks. Working directly with grassroots women\u2019s organisations, themselves often marginalised from, alienated by, or simply unfamiliar with the bureaucracy of local government, makes it difficult to effectively navigate such structures as a foreign researcher. These tr\u00e1mites<\/em> have given me new insight into the, at times Kafka-esque, bureaucratic hurdles of everyday life faced by (especially poor, rural and not always fully literate) Peruvians. I was always slightly sceptical when people told me they had put aside whole days for tr\u00e1mites<\/em>, but now I understand a little of the waiting, the frustration, the powerlessness, and the process of deferential ingratiation that is required in order to (perhaps) eventually reach a favourable result, to be given the appropriate paperwork, duly stamped and authorised.<\/p>\n

This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>

<\/div>\n

And so we wait, for lunchtime today, to see if our permission is granted, or if another stage of tr\u00e1mites<\/em> is deemed necessary\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u2026Two further trips to the municipality and later the same day, just two days before the exhibition, we finally have our authorised, signed and stamped permission document in our hands!<\/p>\n

Reflecting on this experience, there must certainly be a case study in here on Weber and bureaucracy for our Sociology students! How is bureaucracy maintained and reproduced? How might bureaucracy produce particular subjectivities? How is bureaucracy experienced, navigated (and sometimes subverted) by different types of people? But for now, at least, I leave these debates to one side, the relief is immense and the exhibition can go ahead!<\/p>\n

Dr Katy Jenkins<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in International Development at Northumbria University.<\/p>\n

Twitter:\u00a0@drkatyjenkins<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Katy Jenkins reflects on waiting during fieldwork Tr\u00e1mites, only now do I fully understand the meaning of this quintessentially Peruvian activity. Having yesterday spent five hours traipsing between different local government and council offices, only now do I understand why tr\u00e1mites are approached with such trepidation and given such weight in the PeruvianContinue reading “\u2018Haciendo Tr\u00e1mites\u2019 \u2013 the everyday reality of fieldwork”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centre-for-international-development","category-research-stories","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Ih7L-90","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_3983-3210290277-1521807170214.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}