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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
A must-read guide to conducting qualitative field research in the social sciences
Doing Field Projects: Methods and Practice for Social and Anthropological Research delivers a thorough and insightful introduction to qualitative field methods in the social sciences. Ideal for undergraduate students just starting out in fields like anthropology, sociology, and related subjects, the book offers readers twenty instructive projects. Each project is well-suited as a standalone exercise, or several may be combined as a series of field work assignments.
From interview techniques to participant observation, kinship analysis, spatial mapping, photo and video documentation, and auto-ethnography, Doing Field Projects covers each critical area of qualitative fieldwork students are likely to encounter. Every project also contains discussions of how to execute the research, avoid common problems and mistakes, and present the uncovered data in several different formats.
This important resource also offers students:
- A thorough introduction to fieldwork, including the history of fieldwork methods, the shift from colonial to post-colonial anthropology, and discussion of fieldwork vs. ethnography
- Comprehensive explorations of getting started with fieldwork, including necessary equipment, research design, data presentation, and journal keeping
- Practical discussions of the ethics of fieldwork, including the "Do No Harm" principle, institutional approval, openness, and anonymity
- In-depth examinations of autoethnography, proxemics, mapping, recorded interviews, participant observation, and engaged anthropology
- The opportunity to conduct a complete fieldwork course using digital and online resources only
- Supporting learning material for each chapter, including a brief outline of Learning Goals and a paragraph summarizing the contents
Doing Field Projects: Methods and Practice for Social and Anthropological Research is the perfect guide for undergraduate students taking courses and programs in which qualitative field methods are central to the field, like anthropology and sociology.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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Doing Field Projects: Methods and Practice for Social and Anthropological Research
John Forrest with Katie Nelson
This edition first published 2022
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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The right of John Forrest to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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The contents of this work are intended to further general scientific research, understanding, and discussion only and are not intended and should not be relied upon as recommending or promoting scientific method, diagnosis, or treatment by physicians for any particular patient. In view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of medicines, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each medicine, equipment, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Forrest, John, 1951- author. Title: Doing field projects : methods and practice for social and anthropological research / John Forrest with Katie Nelson. Description: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021061401 (print) | LCCN 2021061402 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119734611 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119734604 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119734628 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Ethnology--Fieldwork. | Sociology--Research. | Anthropology--Research. Classification: LCC GN346 .F67 2022 (print) | LCC GN346 (ebook) | DDC 305.80072/3--dc23/eng/20220120 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061401LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061402
Cover image: Courtesy of John Forrest
Cover design by Wiley
Set in 9.5/12.5pt STIXTwoText by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India
I dedicate this work to my son Badger Forrest-Blincoe who, despite dad’s wishes for him otherwise, became an anthropologist. He is a champion fieldworker whose progress I monitor with high regard.
Contents
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface (Including a Word to Instructors)
Foreword (Including a Word to Student Readers)
1 Introduction
2 Getting Started
3 Ethics of Fieldwork
4 Research Design
5 Self-Study
6 Proxemics
7 Mapping
8 Recorded Interviews
9 Participant Observation
10 Engaged Anthropology
11 Process Documentation
12 Visual Anthropology
13 Sensory Observation
14 Performance
15 Life Histories (and Oral History)
16 Charting Kinship
17 Digital Ethnography (1) Social Media
18 Digital Ethnography (2) Online Gaming
19 Digital Ethnography (3) Human–Computer Interaction
20 Digital Ethnography (4) Online Meetings/Classes
21 Winding Down and Gearing Up
References Cited
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Blank Journal Page
Figure 5.2 Sample Journal Page
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 London Underground map 1920s.
Source
: Londonist.
Figure 7.2 Harry Beck’s first map (1931).
Source
: Londonist.
Figure 7.3 Sample Sketch Map.
Figure 7.4 Finished Map.
Figure 7.5 Original Kinsey house (1868)
Figure 7.6 Kinsey house first modification.
Figure 7.7 Kinsey house second modification (upstairs).
Figure 7.8 Kinsey house second modification (downstairs).
Figure 7.9 Kinsey house third modification (downstairs).
Figure 7.10 Kinsey house fourth modification (downstairs).
Figure 7.11 Kitchen #1 (Italy).
Figure 7.12 Kitchen #2 (Cambodia)
Figure 7.13 Map key.
Chapter 16
Figure 16.1 Standard Kinship Symbols.
Figure 16.2 Sample Kindred (Abbreviated).
Figure 16.3 Detailed kindred
Figure 16.4 Residence and Kinship in Tidewater.
List of Tables
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 Table of Tastes.
Table 13.2 Activity Log.
Guide
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Dedication
Table of Contents
Preface (Including a Word to Instructors)
Foreword (Including a Word to Student Readers)
Begin Reading
References Cited
Index
End User License Agreement
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Preface (Including a Word to Instructors)
Most of the projects in this book were originally designed for undergraduate majors in anthropology, and they have been thoroughly tested over more than 20 years of teaching them. However, they may also be useful to anyone with an interest in qualitative methods, including postgraduate students in anthropology as well as researchers in related fields. Prior to the 1980s, there was precious little interest in teaching fieldwork methods to undergraduates, especially in the United States. There were some individual instructors who took it upon themselves to teach and supervise fieldwork projects, but no overall institutional expectation that undergraduates need be trained as fieldworkers, and, in fact, there was a significant contingent within the discipline that was actively hostile to the idea of undergraduates conducting fieldwork. There was not even a uniform interest in teaching field methods to doctoral candidates in those days. Eventually seminars and field schools, such as the one created by H. Russell Bernard, set about ensuring that professional fieldworkers had a solid methodological grounding before embarking on sustained fieldwork. Such seminars produced invaluable written resources for the novice fieldworker, and they continue to proliferate. These resources are, however, geared to a level of professionalism that is unnecessary for many undergraduate projects.
Undergraduate student needs are highly varied, but, no matter what their personal and professional goals in life are, they can all benefit from having some grounding in anthropological methods. While it is typical for a biology or chemistry course to have a lab component, it is less common for cultural anthropology courses to have a methods course. This is true for a number of reasons. First, anthropological fieldwork does not happen in a self-contained laboratory. Therefore, it is not easy to supervise. Second, fieldwork can take considerable amounts of time (with much of it unproductive). Third, there are numerous ethical concerns about dealing with human subjects that have to be monitored carefully. Fourth, setting up the kind of fieldwork projects that undergraduates can productively engage in is a challenge. The last issue is the reason for this book. Undergraduate fieldwork is similar to graduate work in some ways, but not identical by any means, and should really be handled differently. Hence the projects in this volume.
This book is the product both of my own intensive professional experience as a fieldworker over a period of 40 years in the swamps of the Tidewater of North Carolina, the pueblos and Hispano villages of New Mexico, Buenos Aires and surrounds (my birthplace), and urban Cambodia (where I currently live), as well as smaller projects in England, Ukraine, Mari-El in the Russian Federation, and northern Italy, and of my experience designing and teaching a fieldwork methods course for undergraduates, which ran annually for over 20 years. I also introduced fieldwork methods into my Introduction to Anthropology course, not as a full-blown lab section akin to bio or chem lab, but as a paper requirement in the second half of the semester, where students could pick one assignment to pursue. Many examples in this book can be used in this way.
This book is designed to be a self-contained text for undergraduate instruction, but, if you are an instructor considering using these projects for your classes, either as individual exercises, or strung together as a full-blown course, you should realize that, despite the personal details and the specificity, there is a great deal of flexibility built into each exercise, and you should feel free to add and modify as you see fit. In certain spheres, such as the development of research design, it is expected that you will have your own needs and ideas, and you should treat the suggestions here as a rough template only. Most of the projects can be used on their own, although some of the later ones build on skills acquired in earlier ones, and several require the kind of planning that is, perhaps, impractical for a stand-alone exercise in a course for which a field project is only an adjunct.
Although this text is designed for use in undergraduate courses in anthropology, it is not limited to that audience. Postgraduate students may also use it to gain insight into qualitative fieldwork as a method, particularly at the beginning of their studies. Trainees in a variety of disciplines from sociology and social psychology to market research and hotel management can also use relevant projects to apply qualitative methods of investigation to their own specialties. These days, there is a common popular belief that if social data under investigation are quantified, the resultant “study” is somehow more rigorous (that is, more “scientific”) than a qualitative one. This perception may sometimes be reasonable, but it does not have to be. Qualitative investigations can be designed in a thoroughly rigorous manner, and may yield results that are more nuanced and insightful (and, therefore, more “useful”), than a strictly quantitative one. In that regard, the methods outlined in this text can be used by anyone interested in facets of social research, so that the projects can be tailored for use by people in human resources, public relations, political campaigns, workplace efficiency, and the like, where a deeper understanding of various components of the social landscape can be beneficial.
My goals as a teacher of anthropology have been student-centered from the outset. To this end, I have always valued an approach to teaching anthropological theory that addresses the crucial question of where our raw information comes from, what it looks like, and how it is used to generate theory. When undergraduates engage in fieldwork for themselves, they gain an understanding of both the strengths and weaknesses of the anthropological method. They also start to gain practical insight into explanatory modeling and theory building, which helps in their critical reading of classic texts in anthropology.
The projects in this text can be used individually as assignments in a variety of anthropology courses (including Intro to General or Social/Cultural Anthropology), or chosen units can be pieced together to form an entire qualitative methods course – for undergraduate majors in anthropology, or in allied fields where such fieldwork is applicable. There are too many projects described here for a methods class covering a 12- to 15-week term, or even a whole academic year, so a certain amount of selection is necessary. Furthermore, a number of the projects deal with topics that are not pertinent to the needs and interests of all instructors and can be omitted. My purpose is to open up as many choices as possible and leave it up to individual instructors to determine how to make use of the projects independently or woven together.
Both because the world is now dominated by digital technology and because the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2019 forced many universities to switch to online resources for teaching, there are a number of ways to use this book in a socially distanced manner. There are four chapters devoted exclusively to digital ethnography (17–20) and many projects, such as those that involve interviews, contain suggestions for carrying them out online rather than in person. There is enough such material presented here that the book can be used exclusively as an online tool if the need arises.
Chapters both before and after the projects themselves analyze the history of fieldwork in anthropology in Europe and North America, pointing out the pros and cons of the method, as well as underlining certain pitfalls and biases that can easily (and unwittingly) creep in. These chapters also investigate the complex process of writing field notes themselves, as well as problematizing the numerous ways – good and bad – that field notes have been, and can be, converted into finished ethnographic writing. My intention in these chapters, as well as in the projects themselves, is to give instructors scope for further discussion with their students concerning the importance of the fieldwork method in anthropology, along with consideration of the numerous debates that continue to surface regarding its reliability and utility.
Throughout the projects presented here there is an awareness that the fieldworker is the instrument of field study, in the same way that a telescope is the instrument of astronomy or the microscope of microbiology, and I have made an effort to incorporate self-analysis and self-reflection on the part of the novice fieldworker in the process of data collection whenever possible. Such self-awareness is also reflected periodically in some of my project descriptions by way of highlighting how critical it is for the accurate interpretation of the results of fieldwork to understand the personal biases and interests of the person gathering the data. To that end, I often include my own field notes and project data as examples, as well as those of my former students, as I do when I am teaching. I hope these examples can be used as springboards for instructors to incorporate their own experiences into their teaching of these projects, rather than as replacements.
I would like to thank a number of colleagues for insightful comments during the preparation of this manuscript, including Shaka McGlotten, who helped with the chapters on digital ethnography, as well as Alasdair Clayre of UNIMAS Kuching, James Peacock, UNC Chapel Hill, and former students Janette Yarwood, and Elisabeth Jackson. I would like to give special thanks to all the anonymous reviewers of the many versions of the manuscript over the years who have helped enormously in shaping the work into what it is today. Their help has been invaluable.
Foreword (Including a Word to Student Readers)
When I was first asked to join this book as a supporting author, I was delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to such an innovative text. I had already reviewed a draft of the book and was impressed by the variety of field projects it contains as well as the depth by which each exercise is presented. I have been a college anthropology instructor for over 15 years and have written about qualitative methods and teaching and learning in anthropology textbooks and through my work as a founding member and Associate Editor of the Teaching and Learning Anthropology Journal. John (whom I personally refer to as Juan Alejandro – his birth name) is a number of years my senior and has the experience of a full life and career as an anthropologist and professor behind him. His own research background is varied and rich. His depth of knowledge and experience complements my passion for pedagogical accessibility and relevance. You will find that the exercises in this volume likewise represent these qualities. They are comprehensively classroom-tested and are engaging.
There are a number of fieldwork books in print, but none quite like this one. This text is designed for students, or others, with an interest in learning qualitative anthropological fieldwork methods, regardless of whether they intend to pursue a career in the social sciences. Through straightforward introductory exercises to more complex research approaches, you will learn step by step how to craft and execute research using qualitative fieldwork in a professional manner. Regardless of whether you have previous fieldwork experience or are new to qualitative research, you can gain valuable skills through these projects.
As you will learn, conducting ethnographic fieldwork at the undergraduate level has not always been supported historically within cultural anthropology. For many years, faculty were discouraged from teaching research methods, in part because they feared ethnographic research could not be conducted well without extensive advanced training. Yet in the past 20–30 years this trend has begun to change. Juan and I firmly believe learning to conduct fieldwork early in one’s academic career is extremely important. By learning fieldwork skills, you will likely gain far more than the ability to operationalize research techniques. You will learn, for instance, to use your senses of bodily perception to notice, observe, describe, and analyze a wide range of social and cultural phenomena around you. You will come to appreciate what you uniquely bring to fieldwork and other social contexts. You will recognize the ways that people interact with the space and objects around them in their physical environment. You will learn how to interview others and find meaning in their narration. You will learn from others by participating in the same activities they do. You will use numerical data, digital environments, and performances as ways to see seemingly ordinary activities in extraordinarily different ways. In sum, you will learn to think like an anthropologist.
I suspect you will carry many of the skills and perspectives you learn through the projects in this book with you throughout your future career and life. As I tell my students, anthropology is one of the few disciplines that intersect with nearly every other field of study or area of practice. Whether you study business, become a lawyer, go to medical school, work in construction, or take a job as a stockbroker or deep sea diver, you will find ways that fieldwork can help you in your work.
The work of being a human embedded in a cultural environment studying other humans and cultures can be challenging. But mostly, it is exciting. Best of luck to you on your fieldwork journey!
Katie Nelson, PhD
