In this assignment you will do “field” research in preparation for an autopathography orautoetiography that tells the story of your personal experiences with either “bodily dys-appearance” or “social dys-appearance” or “bodily eu-appearance” and maintaining health or building up health over time. For this assignment, you will conduct field work to observe and document the coping strategies that other people use to deal with “bodily dys-appearance” and “social dys-appearance” in everyday life. In this context, seeking “bodily eu-appearance” and strategies for maintaining health or building up health are all part of taking action to prevent “bodily dys-appearance” and “social dys-appearance.”

The “field” in social scientific fieldwork is the space that the researcher enters in order to study their subjects. Your subjects are people who, like you, seek health, well-being, happiness and peace. But is it possible to find people who are capable of maintaining a constant state of health and well-being (let alone happiness and peace)? If so, where would we find them? And what are they doing to maintain health and well-being? If not, what does it look like to cope with obstructions to health and well-being involving “bodily dys-appearance” and “social dys-appearance”? And what resources do people use to cope with “bodily dys-appearance” and “social dys-appearance”?

To answer the above questions you will, FIRST, go on one or more observation “field trips” to observe and document people who are either capable of maintaining a constant state of health and well-being or coping with “bodily dys-appearance” and “social dys-appearance.” Your fieldwork will involve observing and documenting: (a) people performing coping strategies, (b) the material artifacts they use as part of their strategies and how the artifacts influence behaviour, and (c) the reactions of others who witness to the people performing these strategies.

SECOND, you will use the internet to collect stories and images depicting coping strategies that claim to be about people who are capable of maintaining a constant state of health and well-being.

Your “fieldwork report” will compare and contrast the observations you have made during your “field trip(s)” with the stories and images you found on the internet about people who are (supposed to be) capable of maintaining a constant state of health and well-being.

Be sure to compare (i) the “rules” (i.e., “obligations” and “expectations”) surrounding the performance of coping strategies you observed as similar and different to what is depicted on the internet about the lives of people who are (supposed to be) capable of maintaining a constant state of health and well-being, and (ii) what you would expect to happen as consequences to their health if people are unable to follow the rules or decide not to follow the “rules.”