Being in the Field Theory, Practice and Ethnography

Unlike conventional methodology books, Being in the Field focuses on sharing genuine experiences of fieldwork and accurately conveying to students the nature of being in the field. Aimed at final year undergraduate students, postgraduates, and early career researchers, this book provides a useful critical overview of the experiential nature of conducting fieldwork in a variety of social, political, cultural, geographical and institutional settings. The authors draw on academic accounts of fieldwork from a selection of fields of study, including anthropology, organisational studies, human geography, sociology and development studies. Being in the Field will equip researchers with the sophisticated epistemological and ontological skills that are needed to adapt to the many problems and challenges encountered during the course of fieldwork. The book will also help those new to research to develop confidence and critical thinking skills, and use these to adapt their fieldwork in response to theoretical problems and practical obstacles. Marsha Henry and Suruchi Thapar-Björkert give students an invaluable insight into the process of conducting research.