Fieldwork tips and tricks...

I am completely not an expert by any means, which makes me perfectly qualified to write the really dumb things that do and don't help when trying to glean information from people...

Firstly - if you are qual (don't know about quant but I constantly hear of lab experiments taking more time than expected) the research will *never* fit into the time you have allocated for it. I am a deadline freak and hate to miss one but with this there is absolutely no choice. Not doing it in the allocated time is not failure but a lesson in determining what can be done and when, and also flexibility. I am sure everything can be justfied - it is unlikely one would have been lying on the beach day-in-day-out (unless this is your research!!!) and, most of thetime, extensions or re-visits to the 'field' are inevitable. It is going to happen. I gave myself 5 and a half months and will defo need eight to nine especially as I have never even been to my research country before! It is incredibly hard not to be too harsh on yourself doing research and one is constantly worried that time is being 'wasted' doing the 'wrong thing' - although how to define 'wasted' and 'useful' or 'wrong' and 'right' in qual research is not always that simple...

- 'Right' and 'wrong' definitions... hmmm. This in itself is actually a useful understanding when approaching fieldwork. I spent ages (still do, don't get me wrong) thinking I am looking for 'this' therefore, if I find 'this', or do a 'good' interview, the work and time has been 'useful' and consequently I did something 'right'. But it is sooooooo much more grey than that. I have spent two months technically 'wasting' time - because i have found little info out that directly answers my research problem. However, I have found out mounds of info that indirectly leads me to new considerations or understandings, or helps me settle into local life, or which provide more info than perhaps an interview with the wrong person would. Which is fine - when you realise you have to factor in a lot of time for such settling in - or researching-the-research periods.

Secondly, and more practically:

• Do smile at *everyone*. And I mean everyone. If in an office setting, smile at everyone, if in the street in an area you're doing an ethnography in, smile at everyone, if children are harrassing you for money, smile, smile smile; smile at waiters, at shop assistants, at librarians, at hotel staff; and, especially, smile at admin people. This may sound like obvious politeness, but when at home you may not realise just how much you switch off, and are 'normally' polite but not happy and smiley polite and friendly, or realise that you are in a bad mood. I am often in a bad mood and this has worked against me twice. Once I was really hungry and paranoid and a lady next to me at work kept offering me her food, which (due to me being a bit of a shy freak) makes me abnormally stressed and embarrassed. Don't ask me why, it is ridiculous. Anyway, one day I did not look at her during lunchtime so as to save her the worry of having to, yet again, give me her food, and she didn't talk to me for aaaages! I was so sad about this. Also, she turns out to be the CEO's mother and getting an interview with him has proved to be nigh-on impossible. Lesson learned. Other times are when I have been normally polite to people who actually turn out to be a goldmine (waiters are a strange one I am realising!) and being friends with hotel staff can be great for information, local contacts, even translating. I know this now. Being nice to everyone is exhausting though.

• Do have a lot of free time. I am in a bind because I am volunteering full-time - I thought that this placement would get me in to see peeps for my research. This did not happen and I was stuck there for a while, seeing out a suitable amount of my promised term. (Darned ethics and reputation!) Seeing people for interviews is very time consuming! You need time to find the interviewee(s), find their contact details, make contact, get hold of them (this takes an age), then organise a time when they are free. You need to be free to see them *whenever* and to travel wherever. Getting interviews is hard blinkin work! So if you aren't free to go to them... doh.

• Be aware that writing and performing interviews can, a lot of the time, be two totally different things. So it is a good idea to try and internalise your questions as much as possible so they come out naturally, rather than relying on a pad (unless you are lucky enough to be doing a structured interview that is) with questions, or even memory jotters on it. Also, the interview can often take on a life of its own - this can be good if the interviewee is responsive and chatty, not so good if all the questions are recieved flat and they give you an answer, but not a very informative, all-rounded one, or are distracted and busy. Obviously, good interviewers can weedle all sorts of information from these people. I can't. :0(

• Do love and respect Gatekeepers. From my memory these are presented in books at home as scary creatures whose power is very visible. They are 'Gatekeepers'! I didn't think I had any to deal with. And then I realised then everyone who isn't an informant, or an interviewee, is a possible gatekeeper (hence all the smiling). Gatekeepers are admin people who can get you appointments with busy CEOs, are the admin people who have an address book full of contacts, they are the waiter who can give you the name of the organisation down the road you would never have heard of otherwise, they are the librarian who really kindly lets you into the library when you aren't really allowed in... These people are gods, and should be treated as such. No bowing though, or leaving of food at their feet, is necessary. Haha.

• Do travel, travel, travel.

• Asking questions is not always easy, and something that sounded great on paper, can sound rude or silly out loud so have a wee practice.

• Getting out a dictaphone for the first time is surprisingly hard. I am still unsure when a friendly chat stops and the interview starts. I suppose this is a flaw with my 'technique' (I have no technique) but I am yet to whip out my dictaphone when we are having a nice, free flowing chat and I am gleaning all this fabulous information. I am also yet to read their 'confidentiality' rights before the interview, and not at the end... Sometimes it is just terribly inappropriate! I think though, as time goes on, you realise when is a dictaphone moment, and when just memory and notes will have to suffice...

• Doing field research is tiring. It never, ever stops. Even in the ATM booth the other day I was leafing through the knackered panflets for any kind of info about culture and general life. All. The. Time. Therefore, you need holidays - real ones, not just a change of scene asking the same questions. Be nice to yourself!

• Sometimes nothing happens. Nothing may happen for like, two whole weeks. You find out only general information, are confused and a bit downhearted. And terribly worried about going home knowing nothing, Then kazam! You find something, or have the best conversation, or finally, that person you have been trying to get hold of for interview emails/calls! Woot! And you are off again. Sometimes though 'nothing' can in itself be something, or encourage you to look in a different way or at something new you have neglected. Good stuff.

• Do always, always ask for the name of any one they can think of that you can contact at the end of an interview.

• Do carry a memory stick around for if someone wants to give you a document, but is only on their comp!

• Do try and remember faces. The amount of times I have met someone and the promptly wiped them from my mind (as I do at home) because I think I will never see them again, and then later had to go and see them... And who are they?! The fear of asking someone to speak to so-and-so, for it to turn out to be them, is just horrifying (I had it this morning. Thankfully she was pointed out to me anyway, and I went ah! Like I already knew).

• Don't always think that because you have yet to organise that interview, or chase up an interview request or go somewhere, that you are simply procrastinating. Sometimes, a better part of you knows that now isn't the time. Sometimes though, you are just procrastinating.

This web blog has some more practical advice on it, it is great:

http://www.mythicrhythm.com/2006/05/helpful-fieldwork-tips.html

This is all I can think of for now - feel free (in fact please, please do!) to write any other tips!! Lord knows I need them. I know these tips probably seem horribly basic to a lot of you super-researchers out there, but as a novice with only a few weeks of experience any help is help!!

ciao!

x J