This book contains personal accounts of PhD researchers on doing field research in politically and otherwise difficult environments. The methodological flexibility required in development research is discussed around four themes: cultural difference; methodological style and the scale level; communication and interaction; and political and ethical legitimacy. The volume argues that the choice and deployment of methodology is an ongoing, reflexive process of "boundary work".
This book provides an invaluable guide to undertaking development fieldwork in both the developing world and in western contexts. It takes you through all the key stages in development research and covers: Research design and the roles of quantitative and qualitative methods. Research using archival, textual and virtual data, along with using the internet ethically. Practical as well as personal issues, including funding, permissions, motivation and attitude. Culture shock, ethical considerations and working with marginalized, vulnerable or privileged groups, from indigenous peoples through to elites and corporations. How to write up your findings. Sensitive, engaging and accessible in tone, the text is rich in learning features; from boxed examples to bullet-pointed summaries and questions for reflection. Development Fieldwork is the perfect companion for students engaged in research across development studies, geography, social anthropology or public policy.
Exploring the challenges and risks of social science fieldwork, this book shares best practice for conducting research in hostile environments and pragmatic advice to help you make good decisions. Drawing on the authors’ experiences in regions of conflict and grounded in real-world examples, the book: · Provides practical guidance on important considerations like choosing a research question in sensitive contexts · Gives advice on data and digital security to help you minimize fieldwork risk in a contemporary research environment · Offers tools and templates you can use to develop a tailored security framework Building your understanding of the challenges of on-the-ground research, this book empowers you to meet the challenges of your research landscape head on.
Social movement studies have grown enormously in the last few decades, spreading from sociology and political science to other fields of knowledge, as varied as geography, history, anthropology, psychology, economics, law and others. With the growing interest in the field, there has been also an increasing need for methodological guidance for empirical research. This volume aims at addressing this need by introducing main methods of data collection and dataanalysis as they have been used in past research on social movements. The book emphasises a practical approach, presenting in each chapter specific discussions on the main steps ofresearch using a certain method; from research design to data collection and the use of information. In doing so, dilemmas and choices are presented, and illustrated within chapters following the same systemic approach.
Academic literature rarely gives an account of the ethical challenges and emotional pitfalls the researcher is confronted with before, during and after being in the field. Giving personal accounts, the authors explore some of the challenges one can face when engaging in local-level research in difficult situations.
The OT Student Primer: A Guide to College Success focuses on advice and tutorials to make a student's journey through OT school more successful and enjoyable. This book is designed to help both OTA and OT students make the best of their education by providing the basic information needed to succeed and build their knowledge of OT. The process of learning OT theories, techniques, terminology, and concepts is challenging and this book addresses the core understanding of the profession that all students should know as they embark on their OT careers. The primer is filled with tutorials, practical skills, advice, helpful hints, and professional skills. The text provides the most up-to-date fieldwork issues, complete coverage of documentation skills and therapeutic communication, plus essential OT concepts. Tables and worksheets are included to gain a better self-understanding and exercises allow students to check what they have learned.
While a quick response can save you in a time of crisis, avoiding a crisis remains the best defense. When dealing with complex industrial systems, it has become increasingly obvious that preparedness requires a sophisticated understanding of human factors as they relate to the functional characteristics of socio-technology systems. Edited by indust
Fieldwork is a hallmark of geographical scholarship, encompassing all the approaches by which we learn first-hand about the world. Too often, though, fieldwork details—the challenges, the failures, and methodological mash-up used—are left out of geographers’ published work. This accessible collection brings together 18 of those too-often overlooked stories, and reveals the ongoing vibrancy of geographical fieldwork today. The 32 authors span many of geography’s subfields, and their work incorporates multiple methodological traditions: ethnographic, digital, archival, mixed, and more. With short, readable contributions, Geographical Fieldwork in the 21st Century offers an ideal resource for students across the social sciences who are wrangling with the process of fieldwork. It shows fieldwork’s core attributes—innovation, commitment, and serendipity—are alive and well. But this collection also illustrates just how fieldwork is changing as our ability to learn about the world is shaped by new pressures of the 21st century neoliberal academy, by the proliferation of new technologies, and by the growing social demand for collaborative, engaged, and ethical scholarship. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Geographical Review.
Reimaginig Utopias explores the shifting social imaginaries of post-socialist transformations to understand what happens when the new and old utopias of post-socialism confront the new and old utopias of social science. This peer-reviewed volume addresses the theoretical, methodological, and ethical dilemmas encountered by researchers in the social sciences as they plan and conduct education research in post-socialist settings, as well as disseminate their research findings. Through an interdisciplinary inquiry that spans the fields of education, political science, sociology, anthropology, and history, the book explores three broad questions: How can we (re)imagine research to articulate new theoretical insights about post-socialist education transformations in the context of globalization? How can we (re)imagine methods to pursue alternative ways of producing knowledge? And how can we navigate various ethical dilemmas in light of academic expectations and fieldwork realities? Drawing on case studies, conceptual and theoretical essays, autoethnographic accounts, as well as synthetic introductory and conclusion chapters by the editors, this book advances an important conversation about these complicated questions in geopolitical settings ranging from post-socialist Africa to Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The contributors not only expose the limits of Western conceptual frameworks and research methods for understanding post-socialist transformations, but also engage creatively in addressing the persisting problems of knowledge hierarchies created by abstract universals, epistemic difference, and geographical distance inherent in comparative and international education research. This book challenges the readers to question the existing education narratives and rethink taken-for-granted beliefs, theoretical paradigms, and methodological frameworks in order to reimagine the world in more complex and pluriversal ways.
In recent decades there has been increasing attention to mass atrocities such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other gross human rights violations. At the same time, there has been a vast increase in the number of academics and researchers seeking to analyze the causes of, and offer practical responses to, these atrocities. Yet there remains insufficient discussion of the practical and ethical challenges surrounding research into serious abuses and dealing with vulnerable populations. The aim of this edited volume is to guide researchers in identifying and addressing challenges in conducting qualitative research in difficult circumstances, such as conducting research in autocratic or uncooperative regimes, with governmental or non-governmental officials, and perhaps most importantly, with reluctant respondents such as victims of genocide or (on the other side of the coin) war criminals. The volume proceeds in five substantive sections, each addressing a different challenge of conducting field research in conflict-affected or repressive situations: Ethics Access Veracity Security Identity, objectivity, behaviour. This important text will be vital reading for students, scholars and researchers in the areas of research methods, international relations, anthropology and human rights. It will also be of keen interest to policy practioners and NGOs, and especially relevant for those working in the regions of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
