FIELD RESEARCH

1. FIELD RESEARCH Course 3 Lect.dr. Adriana Ștefănel Adriana.stefanel@fjsc.ro

2. UNDERSTANDING FIELD RESEACH Field research requires directly talking with and observing the people being studied.

3. SETTINGS OR LOCATION OF FIELD RESEARCH • Places to conduct successful short-term, small-scale field research studies: beauty salon, day care centre, bakery, bingo parlour, bowling alley, church, coffee shop, police, nursing home, weight room

4. A SHORT HISTORY OF FIELD RESEARCH • Academic field research began in the late XIXth century • In the 20s, researches concludes that the best way to develop an in-depth understanding of a community or culture is for a researcher to directly interact with and live among the native peoples, learning their customs, beliefs and social processes. • Soon researchers were applying field research techniques to study their own societies. • After WWII, field research faced increased competition from survey and quantitative research. • Today field researchers directly observe and interact with subjects in natural settings and acquire an ”inside” perspective. BronislawMalinoski, the first researcher to live with a group of people for a long period of time. Robert Park’s zones of city growth model

5. CONSTRUCTIVISM. ETHOGRAPHY AND ETHNOMETODOLOGY Field researcher assume that people filter human experiences through an ongoing, fluid, subjective sense of reality that shapes how they see and act on events. Cultural knowledge

6. CONSTRUCTIVISM. ETHOGRAPHY AND ETHNOMETODOLOGY Field researcher assume that people filter human experiences through an ongoing, fluid, subjective sense of reality that shapes how they see and act on events. Cultural knowledge

7. CONSTRUCTIVISM. ETHOGRAPHY AND ETHNOMETODOLOGY • Ethnographers describe the explicit and tacit cultural knowledge that subjects use. Thick description: Qualitative data in which a researcher attempts to capture all details of a social settings in an extremely detailed description and convey an intimate feeling for setting and the inner lives of people in it.

8. CONSTRUCTIVISM. ETHOGRAPHY AND ETHNOMETODOLOGY • . • Ethnometodologists want to document how we apply micro-level social rules and create new rules ”on the fly”. The breaching experiment: a method to make visible and demonstrate the power of simple, tacit rules that we rely on to create a sense of reality in everyday life. Keep calm, Its an experiment

9. THE LOGIC OF FIELD RESEARCH • Field method is more like an umbrella of activity beneath which any technique may be used for gaining the desired knowledge The (good) field researcher is a resourceful, talented individual with ingenuity and ability to think on her or his feet while in the field. Fieldwork means involvement and detachment, both loyalty and betrayal, both openness and secrecy, and most likely, love and hate. Van MaanenapudNeuman, L. 2011

10. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

11. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

12. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

13. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

14. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

15. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

16. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

17. WHAT DO FIELD RESEARCHERS DO? 8. COPES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL STRESS 1. OBSERVS ORDINARY EVENTS AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITY 7. OBSERVES ONGOING SOCIAL PROCESSES 2. BECOMES DIRECTLY INVOLVED • 6. UNDERSTANDS AND DEVELOPS EMPATHY • 3. USES A VARIETY OF TEHNIQUES 5. SEES EVENTS HOLISTICALLY • 4. PRODUCES DATA

18. STEPS IN PERFORMING FIELD RESEARCH • Be flexible: in field research you will not follow clearly laid-out, pre-set, fixed steps. • Organize yourself: to conduct field research you must refine the skills of careful looking and listening, short-term memory, and regular writing. • Defocus: you need to empty your mind of preconceptions and take a broad view rather than focusing narrowly • Be self-aware: as a field researcher you need to know yourself and reflect on your personal experiences. Prepare to enter the field Select a field and gain access to it Enter the field and establish social relations with subjects Adopt a social role, learn the ropes, and get along with the subjects Watch, listen and collect quality data Disengage and physically leave the settings

19. STEPS IN PERFORMING FIELD RESEARCH • Select a site: your research question should guide you • Deal with gatekeepers: you should expect to negotiate with gatekeepers and bargain access Prepare to enter the field Select a field and gain access to it Enter the field and establish social relations with subjects Adopt a social role, learn the ropes, and get along with the subjects Watch, listen and collect quality data Disengage and physically leave the settings

20. STEPS IN PERFORMING FIELD RESEARCH Level of trust View most sensitive events or information Affect events to reveal information Prepare to enter the field Select a field and gain access to it Enter the field and establish social relations with subjects Adopt a social role, learn the ropes, and get along with the subjects Watch, listen and collect quality data Disengage and physically leave the settings Be passive observer Time in the field site

21. STEPS IN PERFORMING FIELD RESEARCH Adler&Adler suggest three roles: • Peripheral membership • Active membership • Complete member Prepare to enter the field Select a field and gain access to it Enter the field and establish social relations with subjects Adopt a social role, learn the ropes, and get along with the subjects Watch, listen and collect quality data Disengage and physically leave the settings Researchers entering a field site encounter not only participants but participants’ pre-existing categories for understanding the world-categories which will be applied to researchers as a way of getting a definitional ”handle” on their presence, and figuring out how to interact with them…researchers must be defined in terms that either enhance or do not threaten participants’ group identity Harrington apudNeuman (2011)

22. STEPS IN PERFORMING FIELD RESEARCH Field data are what you experience, remember and record in field notes. • Absorb and Experience: the researcher is the instrument for measuring field data. • Watch and Listen: a great deal of what you do in the field is to pay close attention, watch and listen carefully. • Record the data: most field research data are in the form of notes, maps, diagrams, photos etc. Prepare to enter the field Select a field and gain access to it Enter the field and establish social relations with subjects Adopt a social role, learn the ropes, and get along with the subjects Watch, listen and collect quality data Disengage and physically leave the settings

23. STEPS IN PERFORMING FIELD RESEARCH Leaving affects subjects. Some may feel hurt or rejected because a close social relationship is ending. They may react may react by trying to pull you back into the field, or they may become angry and resentful. Prepare to enter the field Select a field and gain access to it Enter the field and establish social relations with subjects Adopt a social role, learn the ropes, and get along with the subjects Watch, listen and collect quality data Disengage and physically leave the settings

24. TYPES OF FIELD NOTES • Direct observation: Sunday, October 4. Kay’s Cafe, 3.00 pm. Large, white male in mid-40s, overweight, enters. He wears worn brown suit. He is alone; sits at booth 2. Kay comes by, asks What’ll it be? Man says Coffee, black for now. She leaves and he lights cigarette and reads menu. 3.15 Kay turns on radio. • Inference: Kay seems friendly today, humming. She becomes solemn and watchful. I think she puts on the radio when nervous. • Analytic: women are afraid of men who come in alone since the robbery • Personal journal: It is reining. I am feeling comfortable with Kay but I am bored today

25. TYPES OF MAPS USED IN THE FIELD • Spatial maps Social map • Temporal map Kitchen door mom Empty chair table dad Tv set. open elena elena’s boyfriend