Walking the Fine Line Between Fieldwork Success and Failure: Advice for New Ethnographers

Title
Walking the Fine Line Between Fieldwork Success and Failure: Advice for New Ethnographers
Publication Date
2014
Author(s)
Gill, Peter Richard
Temple, Elizabeth
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5625-9298
Email: etemple3@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:etemple3
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Athabasca University
Place of publication
Canada
UNE publication id
une:20455
Abstract
While the importance of ethnographic research in developing new knowledge is widely recognised, there remains minimal detailed description and discussion of the actual practice and processes involved in completing ethnographic fieldwork. The first author's experiences and struggles as an ethnographer of a group of young men from two locations (a gymnasium in Melbourne, and a remote Australian fishing town) are presented and discussed as a means of informing research practice. Challenges faced by the author were often intrapersonal or interpersonal, but also included meeting institutional demands. The fieldwork process was full of negotiation and compromise between fieldwork dynamics and the restraints and realities of researching within a university. While this project was manageable in the end, it had profound personal impacts and gave rise to consideration of many research implications.
Link
Citation
Journal of Research Practice, 10(1), p. 1-16
ISSN
1712-851X
Start page
1
End page
16

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