Carolyn D. Smith and William Kornblum, eds., The Field: Readings on the Field Research Experience.and Carolyn Nordstrom and Antonius C. G. M. Robben, eds., Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival.

Abstract

Fieldwork was once a mysterious business: Students were told that it involved “participant observation”: a mode of being apparently located somewhere north of “going native” but south of simply collecting survey data. Advice was informal and practical (keep duplicate notes, bring plenty of ziplock bags). However, the recent loss of confidence in the anthropological project and a concomitant concern with reflexivity has meant that fieldwork has also become increasingly “problematized” and self-conscious.