Fieldwork in practice: Thoughts from the pre-fieldwork armchair

Authors

  • James Staples SOAS, University of London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22582/am.v1i1.149

Abstract

While fieldwork in a place already known to the researcher brings with it a list of specific advantages and disadvantages, it also encounters many of the same methodological and ethical considerations common to all ethnographic research. Written pre-fieldwork, this paper anticipates some of these issues – from interview techniques and participant observation to the researcher’s own relationship to the research – and invites the reader to respond.

Author Biography

James Staples, SOAS, University of London

James Staples is about to begin fieldwork with leprosy patients in south India. Particular research interests include: social exclusion/ cohesion; marginality and social boundaries; phenomenology; and the body.

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