Journal ArticleDOI
Caring, Information Control, and Emotionality: Fieldwork Trade-Offs
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this article, the authors describe a turning point in one's life related to "life experiences that radically alter and shape the meanings persons give to themselves and their life projects" (Denzin, 1989, p. 14).Abstract:
Epiphany, a turning point in one's life related to "life experiences that radically alter and shape the meanings persons give to themselves and their life projects" (Denzin, 1989, p. 14), came for the author in the final stages of completing her dissertation. She had claimed in her dissertation proposal that she was going "to document the daily interactions of staff and residents at a halfway house for ex-offenders," implying she would present a "realist tale" characterized by objectivity, focus on the commonplace, "native" perspective, and researcher omnipotence (Van Maanen, 1988). As the field tale began unfolding, the author realized such an "epistemological stunt" was impossible. She wrote to her dissertation chair that her methods section might be "a little too subjective, or, given my theoretical leanings ... more existentialist than I realized." Eventually, this methods section became the author's dissertation about "becoming involved." The following narrative represents a reflexive version of that...read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Navigating the waves: the usefulness of a pilot in qualitative research
Abstract: In line with a more reflexive approach in social science, particularly amongst ethnographers, authors increasingly report not just what they have found from a piece of research but how they have gone about doing it. Using a similar style this article considers the importance of pilot work in undertaking qualitative and ethnographic studies, prior to researcher immersion in the ‘field’. It offers an account of the author’s experiences of ‘cold’and total immersion in a fieldwork setting and uses a contrasting example of a funded and carefully developed pilot study using a variety of methods, in order to highlight the benefits of pilot work. In doing so it suggests that while pilots are not new to ethnographers they are under-discussed and to some extent under-utilized, perhaps as a consequence of methodological allegiances and a tendency to link pilots with more positivist approaches in social science. The article suggests that while pilots can be used to refine research instruments such as questionnaires and interview schedules they have greater use still in ethnographic approaches to data collection in foreshadowing research problems and questions, in highlighting gaps and wastage in data collection, and in considering broader and highly significant issues such as research validity, ethics, representation and researcher health and safety.
Dissertation
Crystallising meaning: attitudes of listening to illness narratives
Abstract: .......................................................................................... iii Declaration....................................................................................... v Acknowledgements........................................................................vii Table of
Journal ArticleDOI
Rules of the road: doing fieldwork and negotiating interactions with hesitant public figures
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address negotiating interactions with hesitant participants who are public figures, yet do not traditionally fit within the category of the advantaged, and target new field resea...
References
More filters