FMP/ Migrant Integration—02. Ethnographic Research at Dishoom

Sanya Thapar
7 min readNov 16, 2021

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To understand what constitutes the notion of ‘hospitality’, I began by interpreting it from different perspectives. Firstly, I read about the etymology of the word ‘hospitality’. It originated from the Latin word ‘hospes’ meaning “host”, “guest” or “stranger”. What’s more, looking up the meaning of this word in different languages offered an interesting juxtaposition.

For example,

  • The word for it in German is ‘Gastfreundshaft’ which means “friendship for the guest”.
  • In Danish, ’Gastvrijhei’ means “freedom for the guest”.
  • Whereas, in French ‘hôte’ denotes “equality between the guest and the host.”

Further, I looked into this concept through other frames of references pertaining to history, philosophy, body science and anthropology.

Image: Mind map drawn for understanding hospitality through different frames of references

The branch of science dealing with the study of body movements and gestures serving as a form of non-verbal communication is called as ‘kinesics’. There are many indicators within it such as emblem gestures, paralanguage, dressing and oculesics (eye contact). I decided to delve deeper in the analysis of kinesics when I would carry exploratory research at a public place because non-verbal signals are cues essential in building trust, rapport and clarity in an interaction.

It was important for me to remember that at this point of time, the observations that I would be making would not be to specifically examine to the interactions taking place with migrants, instead they would be applied generically to understand the dynamics of social relationships.

Philosophy of Hospitality

A salient paper in studying the phenomenon of hospitality was contributed by Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher of the late twentieth century who was posthumously conferred the honour of being “one of the major figures of the intellectual life of contemporary times” by the office of the President of France in 2004.

In 1998 in his paper ‘Of hospitality’, Derrida noted that the phenomenon of hospitality ought to contain the concept of ‘a priori’ within it, meaning that there is necessarily someone who is an other or a foreigner. This ‘otherness’ was pointed in reference to the newcomer or the guest who could be different in many ways and so Derrida identified that “for pure hospitality to occur, there must be an absolute surprise.” He further commented that in order to establish a cordial guest-host relationship, the host must recognise and respect these differences, and be prepared to embrace such surprises.

This individual moral philosophy was later contextualised to examine hospitality existing on a wider scale, between peoples and states. In this regard, Derrida argued that like unconditional hospitality, unconditional immigration by counties of the world was impossible. Yet he deemed impossibility to be ‘idealistic’ and if pushed to this extreme, it could open up possibilities of transformation.

Another postcolonial theorist, Ben Jalloun, reflected these concerns in his writings, drawing up on his personal encounters of racism faced after emigrating from Morocco to France. Jalloun (1999) said that he strongly wished to “open windows in the house of silence, indifference and fear”.

Infographic: encapsulating the key points studied from Derrida’s paper ‘Of Hospitality’

This preliminary research helped me to be prepared with what I would be needing to observe while carrying fieldwork at a chosen public place. I stood by the keyword unconditionality which helped me to discern between factors that enabled commercial hospitality from those which showed the virtue of hospitableness. The other keyword, intimacy, drove me to look for gestures and spaces for how much they signalled invitation to the guests to become involved with the host.

Field Research at Dishoom, Soho

Then, I selected a formal Indian restaurant to do this research. Dishoom in Soho is a chain of restaurants spread across the UK which specialises in Indian food from Bombay. Interestingly, it is an endeavour for preserving the old connection of food between colonial India and Britain. Now, this meant that an extra layer of intercultural communication ought to be surveyed using different indicators. I began by enlisting all the points that would provide a means of measuring hospitableness in Dishoom. Some of the ones I jotted down were:

  • Customer-staff interaction: specifying how much time was dealt at each table (before ordering, during eating and after meal), body gestures and expressions of the staff, etc
  • Interiors and spaces: seating arrangement, colours used, artefacts, fragrances and sounds, etc
  • Availability of information
  • Quotient of co-creation

Interiors

The bar section was constructed according to an open floor plan allowing free passage through space and was rendered in an earthy colour palette consisting of orange, olive green, black and hues of brown contrasted by turquoise blue of seat upholstery. The space was mostly illuminated by overhead tungsten lamps which reflected rich and warm texture on the walls.

Image: illustrating the bar area

Artefacts

An accent wall was devoted to showcasing a collage of quirky advertisements from colonial Indian era, such as the one where a denture was the centrepiece in an advertisement for treatment of Pyorrhea. This indicated pride of people in their nation and their intention of sharing rapport of closeness with others by incorporating humour.

Image: emerald wall with the photo of a denture

Another distinctive artefact found at the restaurant was the idol of Lord Ganesha, placed at the entrance. It replicated a sanctum of Hindu temples found at entrance reserved exclusively for Ganesha who is regarded as the ‘guardian of thresholds’.

Image: idol of Lord Ganesha placed at the entrance

Material Design

Bi-lingual logo in Hindi and English along with cordial language used in menu and cookery book that said “from Bombay with love” express warmth, inviting people from other cultures to relish their hospitality.

Image: illustrating different brand peripherals

Performance Staff

It was observed that there the personal space between customers and the staff was not so much, thereby informing readiness to listen. Research demonstrates that the performance staff is seen to be of equal or greater value to customers than the food itself (Crang, 1994) and plays an important role in producing hospitality spaces (Lugosi, 2006).

Image: illustrating staff interactions

The staff serving food at tables were dextrous, busily climbing down and up the stairs from the kitchen. Two men fetching big trays containing several dishes performed diligently as one served the food and the other talked to people while holding the trays.

Image: illustrating body language of the staff
mage: illustrating staff performance

At one table, a chef was beckoned to explain food science to a couple who were intrigued by a recipe. Another chef in the open kitchen was devotedly trying to produce froth between two cups of masala chai.

Image: illustrating gestures and expressions

Thick Description

Besides visual journalling, I jotted down a small paragraph to serve as a thick description for what I was observing all the while being in the restaurant.

Page: Thick description 1 of 2
Page: Thick description 2 of 2

Feedback

Due to an unexpected medical emergency, I could not be present on the day of delivering the pecha kucha styled presentation in class. However, I later showed it to Alaistair, Wan and Tiffany before going on our summer break. Alaistair suggested to add in a layer of criticality while writing down the analysis of what I observed in Dishoom. For the same, he mentioned reading about Christopher Alexander’s article on environmental psychology and William Wentworth’s paper ‘co-creation of spaces’. Anway, all of them appreciated the illustration work I had done and encouraged to tone down it a bit in fairness to save time. They also commended on the use of varied methods (AEIOU, artefact analysis, gestural drawings and thick description) to depict environmental observations.

For the next steps, Tiffany and Wan recommended to focus on one specific connector over which cultural exchange could take place.

References

Denham, M.A. and Onwuegbuzie, A.J. (2013) ‘Beyond Words: Using Nonverbal Communication Data in Research to Enhance Thick Description and Interpretation’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 12(1), pp. 670–696. doi:10.1177/160940691301200137.

Jacques, D. (1999) ‘Hospitality, Justice and Responsibility: A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida’, in Kearney, R. and Dooley, M. (eds) Questioning Ethics: Contemporary Debates in Philosophy. Routledge, pp. 65–83.

Kuschnir, K. (2016) ‘Ethnographic drawing: Eleven benefits of using a sketchbook for fieldwork’, 5, pp. 103–134. doi:10.12835/ve2016.1–0060.

Laurier, E., Whyte, A. and Buckner, K. (2001) ‘An ethnography of a neighbourhood café: informality, table arrangements and background noise’, Journal of Mundane Behaviour. Edited by S. Schaffer, 2(2), pp. 195–232.

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Sanya Thapar
Sanya Thapar

Written by Sanya Thapar

MA User Experience Design at the University of Arts, London