Festival Research Project - Looking for participants to discuss the sexual assault initiatives in place at Burning Man!

[Dragon900x]

Hi there!
I am a student at University in England studying Events Management and I am currently writing my dissertation in my final year about sexual assault initiatives at festivals. The aim of my research is to find out whether initiatives created to tackle sexual assault at festivals are beneficial. To do this I need to investigate what is being done well and what could be done better/improved to provide recommendations to festival organisers to help create safe spaces free from sexual assault. Through my research I have discovered that Burning Man has multiple initiatives in place, such as....
• A crisis intervention team.
• Survivor advocacy centre.
• Addressing consent through the Black Rock City Survival Guide
• Videos Burning Man creates
• Announcements broadcast on Burning Man radio
• In newsletters and e-mails
• Events and workshops
• Zendo
• Black rock rangers
For my research I would like to speak to 3-4 attendees of Burning Man festival to hear how beneficial you feel the existing initiatives at the festival are. This will be through an online focus group held on Google Teams.

I aim to conduct the focus groups by the end of this month (25th – 30th January 2021), however, I am flexible on timing and can conduct focus groups dependent on what dates/times suit future participants.
An information sheet and consent form can be provided once interest is confirmed. Providing information in regard to confidentiality, data protection and the right to withdraw.
Thank you in advance! Please message with any further questions or interest to participate.

[Token]

Hi buddy,

I don’t want to dash your hopes for success but there is a long standing history with BM culture not being very keen on doing someone’s homework.

You see, one of the core principles of BM is immediacy. That more or less hints at the need for any kind of research to be done in the moment, direct observation, dust on ones ass so to speak.

The reason this is essential; it provides context, flavor, a full picture of the culture and environment.

So, unless you make the trek out and smell and taste the place, it’s gonna be lacking.

That said, let’s discuss your methods.

With a sample size of 3-4 participants, you are setting yourself for a strongly biased view of the topic your researching.

You will likely get activists participating and arguing their agenda.

You need to have allot more data so you can apply statistical methods to filter bias.

I’m not going to participate with your quest, but I will give some pointers and technical assistance.

The technical.

1. Zendo does advocate harm reduction, but their main focus is support for folks that have psychedelic drug related difficulties. It may intersect with your topic and I’m certain they get involved in such cases, but it is not their main charter.

2. BED - Bureau of Erotic Discourse - this has been the long standing grass-roots effort over the decades that deals with this topic as a charter.

The advice - and this is big so pay attention.

You have 16 years worth of posts here on ePlaya. It is a veritable gold mine of data if you know how to search for it.

Mine the data!!!

The best way to search is to use Google search the ePlaya web site.

Here are detailed directions on how to do that.

https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Google-to-S ... ic-Website

Good luck with your project.

[Dragon900x]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. One day I do hope to be able to attend Burning Man and I appreciate I will never understand the context or experience till then.

In regard to my research methods you are correct the sample size is small, however, Burning Man is not the only festival I am exploring. The aim of my research is to provide recommendations to festival organisers about what could be improved and what is working well to create safer environments for all. The reason I was hoping to reach out to the Burning Man community is because from my research Burning Man is somewhat a bench mark of how to safeguard attendees surrounding these sorts of incidents, due to the mass of initiatives I listed in my original post. Not a lot of festivals provide such extensive measures.

I definitely will be using the Google search on the ePlaya web site thanks for advice!

Wish you all the best.

[some seeing eye]

There are well-being questions on the "Burning Man Census." There is also some sort of Burning Man academics group. In the case of person crimes, generally the festival organizer distances themselves far from them as legally possible.

Personally, I would say the Burning Man community does better than most protecting individuals who are not able to give consent. But with 30% new participants per year, some don't get the message ahead of time. So you might consider the culture of the participants and how that is learned. That will outweigh organization programs.

[Ugly Dougly]

If you rely on people to volunteer information, then your report will never be impartial.

[Elliot]

Be advised: Bureau of Erotic Discourse's main website was hijacked and altered with dishonest intentions by a "disgruntled former..." some time ago, and as of a few weeks ago they still had not regained control of the site's content.
Use other channels to reach them.
Best.

[lucky420]

Be advised: Bureau of Erotic Discourse's main website was hijacked and altered with dishonest intentions by a "disgruntled former..." some time ago, and as of a few weeks ago they still had not regained control of the site's content.
Use other channels to reach them.
Best.

Well that’s just horrible, petty and mean.
Omg, that sounds like a law office ^^

[The Rod]

"Were you wronged by your former campmates?"

"Have you had your creative ideas coopted and hijacked and used against you?"

"Do you seek vindication in your ongoing struggles with your own hyper-inflated sense of self importance?"

If you answered YES to any of these questions you may entitled to compensation*! Get in touch with our unrelenting legal team at Horrible, Petty & Mean. Our years of experience fighting on and off playa means we will WORK FOR YOU in order to get you the vengeance your enemies so sorely deserve! CALL TODAY!


*Compensation subject to the will of the untethered emotions and whims of your drug addled hippy friends. The team at Horrible, Petty & Mean make no claims to the validity of these claims and hereby release themselves of any contract, implied or otherwise binding them to take legal action on your part. At an any time legal counsel may seek to consult any number of oracle, runes, activated crystals, palantir seeing stones or commutations with the Dark Forces Below. By reading this advert you voluntarily agree to waive all rights to fair and equatable treatment by the community of burners at large, on and off-line, on and off-playa. By reading this advert you hereby agree to indemnify, release of all responsibility and hold harmless the law offices of Horrible, Petty & Mean. The law offices of Horrible, Petty & Mean are hereby under no contract or obligation to perform any services pertaining to your persecution, discrimination or otherwise unfair treatment at the hand of hippies that you chose to boof strange white powders with. This is not legal advice.

[lucky420]

"Were you wronged by your former campmates?"

"Have you had your creative ideas coopted and hijacked and used against you?"

"Do you seek vindication in your ongoing struggles with your own hyper-inflated sense of self importance?"

If you answered YES to any of these questions you may entitled to compensation*! Get in touch with our unrelenting legal team at Horrible, Petty & Mean. Our years of experience fighting on and off playa means we will WORK FOR YOU in order to get you the vengeance your enemies so sorely deserve! CALL TODAY!


*Compensation subject to the will of the untethered emotions and whims of your drug addled hippy friends. The team at Horrible, Petty & Mean make no claims to the validity of these claims and hereby release themselves of any contract, implied or otherwise binding them to take legal action on your part. At an any time legal counsel may seek to consult any number of oracle, runes, activated crystals, palantir seeing stones or commutations with the Dark Forces Below. By reading this advert you voluntarily agree to waive all rights to fair and equatable treatment by the community of burners at large, on and off-line, on and off-playa. By reading this advert you hereby agree to indemnify, release of all responsibility and hold harmless the law offices of Horrible, Petty & Mean. The law offices of Horrible, Petty & Mean are hereby under no contract or obligation to perform any services pertaining to your persecution, discrimination or otherwise unfair treatment at the hand of hippies that you chose to boof strange white powders with. This is not legal advice.

Hahahahaha
Perfect

[BBadger]

In regard to my research methods you are correct the sample size is small, however, Burning Man is not the only festival I am exploring. The aim of my research is to provide recommendations to festival organisers about what could be improved and what is working well to create safer environments for all. The reason I was hoping to reach out to the Burning Man community is because from my research Burning Man is somewhat a bench mark of how to safeguard attendees surrounding these sorts of incidents, due to the mass of initiatives I listed in my original post. Not a lot of festivals provide such extensive measures.

You really do need a larger sample set, otherwise what you're doing is basically just writing an article about this issue with a few interviews, rather than providing real "data" for a study. A "benchmark" needs to be robust and measurable, otherwise there is going to be a lot of holes and noise that makes it difficult to make any reasonable assessment or recommendations of other strategies.

You need historic data, larger sample sets, and to develop methodologies to evaluate such data. This is the core of the research and something you're going to need to work out if you're going to write a successful dissertation.

[Ugly Dougly]

Hi there!
I am a student at University in England studying Events Management and I am currently writing my dissertation in my final year about sexual assault initiatives at festivals. The aim of my research is to find out whether initiatives created to tackle sexual assault at festivals are beneficial. To do this I need to investigate what is being done well and what could be done better/improved to provide recommendations to festival organisers to help create safe spaces free from sexual assault. Through my research I have discovered that Burning Man has multiple initiatives in place, such as....
• A crisis intervention team.
• Survivor advocacy centre.
• Addressing consent through the Black Rock City Survival Guide
• Videos Burning Man creates
• Announcements broadcast on Burning Man radio
• In newsletters and e-mails
• Events and workshops
• Zendo
• Black rock rangers
For my research I would like to speak to 3-4 attendees of Burning Man festival to hear how beneficial you feel the existing initiatives at the festival are. This will be through an online focus group held on Google Teams.

I aim to conduct the focus groups by the end of this month (25th – 30th January 2021), however, I am flexible on timing and can conduct focus groups dependent on what dates/times suit future participants.
An information sheet and consent form can be provided once interest is confirmed. Providing information in regard to confidentiality, data protection and the right to withdraw.
Thank you in advance! Please message with any further questions or interest to participate.

Is your intent actually that of amplifying the occurrence of sexual assault at burning man?

[Captain Goddammit]

One of the reasons no one wants to be part of this is we know it’s going to be complete BS.
No one that hasn’t been to Burning Man ever writes about it and gets it even halfway right.
You should just make stuff up.
Who’s gonna know the difference?
It’ll come out about the same as the way you’re doing it and it’ll be a quicker and easier way to get your assignment done.