4: Fieldwork

Question 1

Traditional understandings of the field

Answer 1

‘out there’ for authentic empirical encounter
exotic colonial other
privileged practice; distanciated gaze
separate from the lab/study/library

Question 2

Traditional understandings of fieldwork

Answer 2

distinct from theory and writing phases
rite of passage
neutral data collection –> guarantor of understandings
empirical phase

Question 3

Circulating reference [?;?]

Answer 3

Latour 1999
Chain of transformations
Lose things (reduction): locality, materiality, particularity
Gain things (amplification): standardisation, universality
Not one ontological gap but many

Question 4

Cosmopolitics [?;?]

Answer 4

Stengers 2010
Fieldwork = a risky process of co-fabrication and some participants may not cooperate
Be open to your research speaking back to you

Question 5

Massey [?]

Answer 5

2003
field = spatial metaphor and epistemological assumptions
Dualism - fieldworker = active, thinking; field = passive
BUT the field speaks back - dynamic; 2-way encounter
Study = distance, objectivity vs. field - capture complexity of world —– different claims to knowledge

Question 6

Ethnography in the knowledge economy [?&?;?]

Answer 6

Mills and Ratcliffe 2012
Knowledge valued in monetary times
Focus on efficiency and research utility = add-value, policy impact –> short term ‘ethnographies’
Knowledge is accessible and democratised BUT you lose nuance and complexity
Marketing ethnography skills - access to ‘local’ and hard-to-reach groups