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CRDDS Research Data Bootcamp

Example of Data Searching Process: Cultural Appropriation of Yoga

I recently read an article called “The Whitewashing of #WhitePeopleDoingYoga” by artist Chiraag Bhakta about the cultural appropriation of yoga and the artist’s experience in critiquing that appropriation. This led me to think about how cultural appropriation of yoga might be illustrated through data.

After mentioning this to Adi, we began to brainstorm what research questions might be valuable for investigating this topic and what we would need in a dataset to answer our question. Some example questions might be:

  1. What are the trends apprecance and frequency of the term “yoga” on the web?
  2. Who owns/teaches in yoga studios in the United States? What is the ratio of Asian or BIPOC versus white yoga studio owners/teachers?
  3. How is yoga used perceived in US health sciences and wellness?

Note that none of these questions contains the term “appropriation”. For the purposes of finding data for this research, we needed to operationalize and define the concept of “appropriation” (and possibly “yoga”). We needed to consider how we might measure the concept of appropriation and define it for the purposes of a study. Some rough examples of how appropriation might be measure for each of these questions are:

  1. The frequency of appearance in English language, digital text
  2. A higher ratio of white to BIPOC studio ownership/certified teachers
  3. The redefinition and use of yoga as a health exercise rather than a spiritual/cultural endeavor

Based on the research questions and variables, we were able to start narrowing down the data we would need to investigate this topic. This also helped us know where to look for relevant data sets. Based on this example, how might you go about searching for your own data?

Group Activity: Find a data set and evaluate it based on what you have learned

  1. Write down a research interest or something you are curious about. (2-3 mins)
  2. Find a dataset that may shed light on this interest or curiosity (10 minutes)
  3. Break out rooms for discussion (15 minutes)
    • Share your question and experience in finding and evaluating your dataset
    • Include the 7 Principles in your discussion