Doing Fieldwork

Making use of his own research experiences in Papua New Guinea, Southern Ontario, and Newfoundland, Wayne Fife teaches students and new researchers how to prepare for research, conduct a study, analyze the material (e.g. create new social and cultural theory), and write academic or policy oriented books, articles, or reports. The reader is taught how to combine historic and contemporary documents (e.g. archives, newspapers, government reports) with fieldwork methods (e.g. participant-observation, interviews, and self-reporting) to create ethnographic studies of disadvantaged populations. Anthropologists, Sociologists, Folklorists and Educational researchers will equally benefit from this critical approach to research.

"I like many things about this book, but for the teacher and the student the most critical issue is one of utility. If one wants a compact single volume that takes the student from conceptualization, through research plan and field practice, to writing for different audiences, this book is an excellent tool for the job." - Oriol Pi-Sunyer, University of Massachusetts

"By focusing on problems and methods of fieldwork among disadvantaged groups, Fife's book becomes an exceptionally useful guide for the production of ethnographies that speak to key social issues. The continued vitality of anthropology depends upon recovering its capacity to surprise us, both descriptively and analytically. You have before you a guide to field research on the production of history, power, and inequality that will take you a long way toward that goal." - Gerald Sider, City University of New York

Autorentext
WAYNE FIFE is Associate Professor and Head of Anthropology at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, USA.

Inhalt
Introduction Ethnographic Research Methods PART I: METHODS FOR MACRO-LEVEL RESEARCH Using Historical Sources for Ethnographic Research Contemporary Scholarly Sources and a Theoretical Orientation Newspapers and Government Documents PART II: METHODS FOR MICRO-LEVEL RESEARCH Participant-Observation as a Research Method Interviewing Self-Reporting PART III: PUTTING THE ETHNOGRAPHY TOGETHER Analysis Testing and Creating Theory Academic and Practical Writing Appendix One: A Methodological Check List Appendix Two: Sample of an Interview Schedule Bibliography