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Fieldwork Experience (fieldwork + experience)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

,In the Company of Men': A Reflexive Tale of Cultural Organizing in a Small Organization

GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2002
Denise Fletcher
A tale of fieldwork in a small organization is discussed in this article with a view to highlighting how social processes, cultural understandings and expressions of gender are produced during fieldwork interaction. The tale is told reflexively and retrospectively, recording an ongoing conversation about fieldwork experience. Central to the tale is discussion of how the researcher is drawn into ,culture,making' within the organization and the ways in which fieldwork interaction creates a ,space' through which organizational members engage with, work through and realize work,place values. In this article there are multiple levels of reflection. At one level it is examined how the organizational,researcher role of ,emotional nurturer' was constructed during fieldwork. At the same time some cultural insights drawn from ethnographic inquiry and intensive interviewing within the small organization are presented. The analysis is also shaped by a further layer of post,fieldwork reflection and interpretation which draws in emotional issues and expressions of gender. It is argued that a close scrutiny of fieldwork roles is important to organizational research in that it makes explicit how the researcher,,native' interaction is central to the theorizing process and how the researcher can become a participant in organizational culture,making. [source]

Ethics commentary: subjects of knowledge and control in field primatology

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2010
N.M. Malone
Abstract Our primate kin are routinely displaced from their habitats, hunted for meat, captured for trade, housed in zoos, made to perform for our entertainment, and used as subjects in biomedical testing. They are also the subjects of research inquiries by field primatologists. In this article, we place primate field studies on a continuum of human and alloprimate relationships as a heuristic device to explore the unifying ethical implications of such inter-relationships, as well as address specific ethical challenges arising from common research protocols "in the field" (e.g. risks associated with habituation, disease transmission, invasive collection of biological samples, etc.). Additionally, we question the widespread deployment of conservation- and/or local economic development-based justifications for field-based primatological pursuits. Informed by decades of combined fieldwork experience in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, we demonstrate the process by which the adherence to a particular ethical calculus can lead to unregulated and ethically problematic research agendas. In conclusion, we offer several suggestions to consider in the establishment of a formalized code of ethics for field primatology. Am. J. Primatol. 72:779,784, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

A heuristic blunder: Notes on an ethnographic situation in southwest China

ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 2 2010
Stéphane Gros
Abstract During long-term fieldwork the increasing involvement of the ethnographer in the lives of others raises a series of methodological and ethical issues. These can become even more pronounced when one is working with ethnic minorities in a socialist country. Yet, a seldom acknowledged reality of ethnographic fieldwork experience are the ,little failures' that occur along the way, alongside ethnographic blunders. I argue that these are difficult to avoid and can be part of an important learning process, oftentimes for both researcher and researched. Through the detailed description of a blunder that the author made during his research in southwest China with members of the Drung ethnic minority, this article advocates for the heuristic value of such mishaps, suggesting that one can learn a lot from accidents and unexpected events while undertaking in-depth ethnographic fieldwork. In this case, this helped to shed light on the micropolitics of Drung village life in southwest Yunnan, and the place of a ,minority nationality' in wider Chinese society. [source]

"The Other" and "The Enemy": Reflections on Fieldwork in Utah

NORTH AMERICAN DIALOGUE (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007
Julie Brugger
This paper is a reflection on doing anthropology in the United States, based on my research of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a "protected area" in southern Utah. My research focuses on the meaning and practice of democracy in the United States by examining the impact of conservation policies on rural resource users. I question why social scientists who study conservation are able to see injustices in the protected area model when applied in "the Global South," but have not aimed critique at similar processes occurring in the U.S. Reflecting on the post fieldwork experiences of scholars Susan Harding, Faye Ginsburg, and James McCarthy, I suggest that, for American anthropologists, some "repugnant others" in the U.S. represent a threatening "enemy," while in other settings, they may not be perceived in this way. I conclude by suggesting we "write democratically" in order to overcome this limitation and realize the transformative potential of ethnography. [source]

Joining the Gang and Becoming a Broder: The Violence of Ethnography in Contemporary Nicaragua

BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 4 2007
DENNIS RODGERS
The fact that anthropologists ,construct' the field in which they conduct their ethnographic research has long been recognised, but less considered are the ways in which the field can ,construct' both the anthropologist and fieldwork practices. In many ways, this process is a natural corollary of the fact that researchers must always adapt and sensitise themselves to the realities of their field locations, and more importantly, the inherently dialogical nature of ethnographic research. At the same time, this ,construction' can potentially have more singular ramifications, particularly when fieldwork is carried out in situations characterised by chronic violence. In such circumstances, the ethnographic process almost inevitably exposes the anthropologist to violence, but can also become intrinsically imbued with violence, to the extent that it can make sense to talk of the ,violence' of ethnography. This article illustrates this idea through a consideration of the author's doctoral fieldwork experiences in Managua, Nicaragua, including his ritual initiation into an urban youth gang, and considers some of the ethical and practical ramifications of this experience. [source]