In this article we problematize the concept of the “field” in social research, stemming from and expanding the discussion presented in the introduction to this issue. We demonstrate that for social researchers a field site transcends the
The Concept of the “Field” in Early Soviet Ethnography
A Northern Perspective
Dmitry V. Arzyutov and Sergei A. Kan
One of the fundamental principles of anthropology is that it is based on fieldwork. 1 It is the field that “helps define anthropology as a discipline in both senses of the word, constructing a space of possibilities while at the same time drawing
Traversing Fields
Affective Continuities across Muslim and Christian Settings in Berlin
Omar Kasmani and Dominik Mattes
prayer gatherings in these two religious settings as a way to capture locally specific workings of affect and sensation. At the same time, we wish to evoke affect's potential for traversing fields. Even though we have individually conducted fieldwork in
From behind stall doors
Farming the Eastern German countryside in the animal welfare era
Amy Leigh Field
counterparts. Bright yellow rapeseed, or the basis for canola oil ( Rapsöl ), is grown on broad tracts of land during the spring, where there are very few trees and even fewer birds. Large, fuel-thirsty tractors and other machinery drive up and down fields in
Field Notes and Reading Notes
Studying with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in the 1990s
Nélia Dias
“Attend and document at least one Halloween event during the next two weeks. Take field notes on the event. You may also use video, audio, and photographic techniques.” 1 That was one of the requirements of Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett's class
Early Field Photography and Visual Documents of Northern Indigenous Cultures
Ivan Poliakov’s Collection, 1876
Ekaterina B. Tolmacheva
Field, and particularly ethnographic and anthropological, photography, began to develop in Russia in the 1870s. A particular surge of interest in visual documentation of culture can be traced back to an ethnographic exhibition held in Moscow in 1867
Questions from the Field
Anthropological Self-reflexivity through the Eyes of Study Participants
Sangmi Lee
Although there is nothing new about how anthropologists can be the observed instead of simply being the observer and that they can also be interviewed while interviewing, no one has studied the kinds of questions they receive from the people that they study and interact with in the field. Questions that research participants ask the anthropologists during fieldwork provide a critical way to reflect upon historical and persistent issues related to field-work, such as positionality, self-reflexivity and methodology. Based on fourteen months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork among two Hmong communities in Laos and the United States, this article examines some of the questions I received from the people in my study and suggests that anthropologists need to pay more critical attention to these questions as a source of self-reflexivity and positionality in the process of ethnographic writing.
Practising in the Field
A Narrative of Public Health Research
Lindsay Sprague
The following is a narrative of a medical researcher and her experiences in the field. Una Lynch, a resident of Northern Ireland and currently a lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the Queen’s University Belfast, has engaged in extensive public health research using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Though historically, as anthropologists, we have valued the contributions fieldwork has offered to our understanding of culture, personality, lifestyles and behaviours, we seldom encounter fieldwork within other facets of academia. How is ethnography used, therefore, within other disciplines? What contributions has ethnography brought to knowledge outside the borders of anthropology?
Re-locating the Ethnographic Field
From 'Being There' to 'Being There'
Máiréad Nic Craith and Emma Hill
When considering the ethnographic field, language use has been of continued anthropological concern. Traditional approaches to the field have associated language use with concepts such as place, territory and ethnicity and have tended to bound them within a single site. However, in conditions of increasing globalised mobility, approaches to both fieldwork and language use within the field are changing. Using existing scholarship on minority-language communities in Europe alongside original fieldwork with Somali migrants in Glasgow, this article considers the dynamics of that relationship within the contexts of single-sited, multi-sited and online fields. It finds that, for an inquiry focused on both language use and mobility, established modes of thinking about the field are a methodologically restrictive practice on 'being there'. Instead, the authors argue for rethinking the field as a 'spoken' one where, with language at the fore, emphasis is placed on 'being there'.
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2015
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 42–62
Zuzana Hrdličková
The expression “field trip” is well understood within educational circles. Students travel away from their normal environment to observe objects of interest and the authentic experience is supposed to increase their learning and retention of
