FIELD RESEARCH
COURSE 3
L E C T. D R . A D R I A N A Ș T E F Ă N E L
A D R I A N A . S T E FA N E L @ FJ S C . R O
UNDERSTANDING FIELD RESEACH
Through personal interaction over months or
years, you learn about these people and their
life history, hobbies, habits, hopes, fears and
dreams.
Meeting new people and discovering new
social worlds can be fun!
Field research it is also difficult, intense,
time consuming, emotional draining and
sometimes physically dangerous.
Field research requires directly
talking with and observing the
people being studied.
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
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.
Bronislaw Malinoski, the first researcher to
live with a group of people for a long
period of time.
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.
Robert Park’s zones of city growth model
CONSTRUCTIVISM. ETHOGRAPHY AND ETHNOMETODOLOGY
Explicit
knowledge
Tacit
knowledge
Cultural knowledge
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.
CONSTRUCTIVISM. ETHOGRAPHY AND ETHNOMETODOLOGY
Explicit
knowledge
Tacit
knowledge
Cultural knowledge
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.
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.
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
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 Maanen apud Neuman, L. 2011
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A VARIETY
OF TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A VARIETY
OF TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A
VARIETY OF
TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A VARIETY
OF TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A VARIETY
OF TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A VARIETY
OF TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A VARIETY
OF TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
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
5. SEES EVENTS
HOLISTICALLY
3. USES A VARIETY
OF TEHNIQUES
4. PRODUCES
DATA
STEPS IN PERFORMING
FIELD RESEARCH
1.
Prepare to enter the field
2.
Select a field and gain access to it
3.
Enter the field and establish social
relations with subjects
4.
Adopt a social role, learn the
ropes, and get along with the
subjects
5.
Watch, listen and collect quality
data
6.
Disengage and physically leave the
settings
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.
STEPS IN PERFORMING
FIELD RESEARCH
1.
Prepare to enter the field
2.
Select a field and gain access to it
3.
Enter the field and establish social
relations with subjects
4.
Adopt a social role, learn the
ropes, and get along with the
subjects
5.
Watch, listen and collect quality
data
6.
Disengage and physically leave the
settings
Select a site: your research question should guide you
Deal with gatekeepers: you should expect to negotiate with gatekeepers and
bargain access
Level of trust
STEPS IN PERFORMING FIELD
RESEARCH
1.
Prepare to enter the field
2.
Select a field and gain access to it
3.
Enter the field and establish
social relations with subjects
4.
Adopt a social role, learn the
ropes, and get along with the
subjects
5.
Watch, listen and collect quality
data
6.
Disengage and physically leave the
settings
Gain entry into
settings
Look for public
information as
outsider
Be passive
observer
Observe
sensitive
events
Time in the field site
Affect
events to
reveal
informatio
n
View most
sensitive
events or
information
STEPS IN PERFORMING
FIELD RESEARCH
1.
Prepare to enter the field
2.
Select a field and gain access to it
3.
Enter the field and establish social
relations with subjects
4.
Adopt a social role, learn the
ropes, and get along with the
subjects
5.
Watch, listen and collect quality
data
6.
Disengage and physically leave the
settings
Adler&Adler suggest three roles:
•Peripheral membership
•Active membership
•Complete member
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 apud Neuman (2011)
Field data are what you experience, remember and record in
field notes.
STEPS IN PERFORMING
FIELD RESEARCH
1.
Prepare to enter the field
2.
Select a field and gain access to it
3.
Enter the field and establish social
relations with subjects
4.
Adopt a social role, learn the
ropes, and get along with the
subjects
5.
Watch, listen and collect quality
data
6.
Disengage and physically leave the
settings
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.
STEPS IN PERFORMING
FIELD RESEARCH
1.
Prepare to enter the field
2.
Select a field and gain access to it
3.
Enter the field and establish social
relations with subjects
4.
Adopt a social role, learn the
ropes, and get along with the
subjects
5.
Watch, listen and collect quality
data
6.
Disengage and physically leave
the settings
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.
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
TYPES OF MAPS USED IN THE FIELD
Spatial maps
Kitchen
door
Social map
Empty
chair
mom
Tv set.
open
elena’s
boyfrie
nd
Temporal map
dad
table
elena
open
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thr
Fri
Sat
10.00
Old drunks
Old drunks
Old drunks
Old drunks
Skip work or
leave early
Going to fish
5.00
Neighbours and
bridge player
Softball team
(all-male night)
Football
watchers
Young crowd
Loud music,
mixed crowd
Loners and no
dates