In November 2013, I launched an LSE blog focusing on field research method. Since then, it has been publishing regular posts on how researchers have addressed various constraints that faced them while in the field. The first set of posts was based on contributions to a two-day workshop that I organised last June 2013, and the blog is now open to contributions on a rolling basis, with no restrictions on regions of coverage. Below is the most recent call for contributions to the blog.
The Field Research Method Lab (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch) welcomes new contributions from both established and early career researchers to share their hands-on fieldwork experiences.
The blog has already featured a number of exciting experiences that cover field research in China, Zambia, Malaysia and the US associated with topics such as forced eviction and domicide, fieldwork under surveillance, gendered experience of migrant workers, urban redevelopment and neighbourhood changes, migrants from Taiwan and Malaysia, musical practices of ethnic minorities in urban and ruralChina, and many more. Forthcoming essays to appear include discussions on, for example, interviewing business elites in China, action research in China’s urban displacement, and ethics in researching urban crisis in Greece. The field research sites covered in contributed essays are also mapped on this link: http://goo.gl/ECh1q7
Contributors are welcome to produce a new piece built around, but not limited to, the themes below or to respond to any existing published essays on the blog:
- Practicalities associated with field research: field access; collaboration with local partners; language barriers, including dependence on translators
- Constraints on data collection: sampling; access to government sources; credibility and contamination of field data
- Relationship between the researcher and the researched: researcher’s positionality; power relations; insider-outsider dichotomy; boundary crossing
- Constraints on international collaboration
- Cultural encounters
- Government censorship and data access
- Research ethics
If interested in contributing to the blog, please contact the editor (Dr Hyun Bang Shin; e-mail: h.b.shin@lse.ac.uk) with your ideas including (1) a detailed abstract (about 200 words), (2) a brief biography and (3) a short summary of research project. The total length of each contribution is expected to be around 1,500-2,000 words. Being a blog, the acceptance of contributed essays is going to be on a rolling basis, but potential contributors are encouraged to make the initial contact with the editor as soon as possible.