John Forrest - Doing Field Projects

So, what is an ethnographic mindset? There is no easy answer to that question, and the exercises in this book provide a hands-on approach to grasping what it is that fieldworkers do. It is not one thing. Sometimes they observe, sometimes they engage, sometimes they participate, sometimes they take action. Sometimes they take notes, or make voice recordings, or take photographs, or make videos, or draw maps, or play computer games, or combinations of all of these and more. After you have done some of the exercises here we can return to the question, and I have some additional thoughts in my concluding chapter. Meanwhile, you can keep the salient question in the back of your mind, “What am I seeking to achieve?” Fieldwork is never a passive enterprise; it must always be actively reflective and reflexive (at some level).

Likewise, instruction in fieldwork can also be reflexive. This book is a fair example in places. In many projects I introduce instructions and suggestions in a reflexive manner. That is, I reflect on the kinds of practices that worked well in my classes, and also on what I might have done to improve them. This practice developed out of my general desire to see teaching as a partnership with my students. When I was a classroom lecturer, there came a point in most classes when I would talk directly about my life, beginning with the observation that I had a life outside the classroom. I told my students that I had a wife and son, I owned a house, had bills to pay, had heartaches and joys, just like everyone else. I did not just magically appear for 90 minutes twice a week, dispense objective information, and then disappear into some nameless void. In that sense, teaching anthropology is not like teaching chemistry (not for me, at least). I have taught chemistry without injecting myself into my lessons; I have never taught anthropology that way.

My students often used the expression “the real world” to describe life outside the university, and I frequently pointed out to them that the expression implied that the university was not real. It is real. It is part of the world. You can talk about the office world or the factory world or the university world, but one is not more or less real than any other. They all have their rules and they all have their rewards and punishments. What matters is how well you know the rules (which is one of the issues to be delved ethnographically). I am embedded in many chapters in this book to show you how I derived my methods, and you (and your instructor) are free to question them, and alter them, instead of treating them as absolute instructions to be obeyed without demur. What I do works for me (usually); it may not work for you. All I can do is tell you why my methods work for me. That is why the book is (minimally) reflexive.

This is a book about learning how to do fieldwork and how to present your findings to your instructor or some other relatively self-contained, or private, audience. You are not being asked to create a polished finished product to be widely disseminated. That enterprise is a step beyond what is required of you here. Organizing your field data and presenting it to your instructor is an intermediate step between gathering the data in the first place, and honing it into professional-level output. That final step is not within the purview of this book. If you have an interest in pursuing this subject more, specifically as it relates to both the gathering of data and the conversion of data to output for public consumption, you can consult the anthology, Fieldnotes, The Makings of Anthropology edited by Roger Sanjek (1990) or Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes by Robert Emerson et al. (2011). The latter book is primarily concerned with how you go about taking notes during fieldwork and should also be consulted in this regard, because the process is not as obvious as may seem at first, and there are many wrinkles that you may not have thought of. Although in its second edition, the book is somewhat dated given the technologies now available to fieldworkers. When I present the individual projects in this book, I give different strategies for note taking depending on the nature of the project.

Individual projects in this book offer a wide array of methods for presenting your data including standard written reports, PowerPoint slide shows, videos, blogs, and so on, and which one you choose will depend on the parameters of the project, your instructor’s requirements, and your own preferences.

1 1 See https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246054591_Emics_and_Etics_The_InsiderOutsider_Debatefor further details.

2 2 I identified each of the people I interviewed with a pair of capital letters that kept their identity hidden from outsiders, but used a simple algorithm for me to be able to identify them easily. Meanwhile, in my transcriptions I used JF for myself.

You cannot simply dive into fieldwork unprepared. Not only do you need certain basic equipment, which will vary from project to project, you also need to have a firm grasp from the beginning on how to carry out and execute a project from start to finish. We can take these procedures step by step.

Your smartphone can replace many of the traditional tools of the fieldworker including notepad, camera, and voice recorder, and can be used as such from time to time. There are, however, several dangers in using your smartphone for all your fieldwork needs. First and foremost, there are multiple ways that your phone can fail, including damage, battery failure, and loss of signal. Thus, even if you are comfortable multitasking on your phone, you should always have a backup system for everything (notes, photos, voice recording) – always . In any event, it is much more functional if you can have separate, dedicated equipment for voice recording, photography, and note taking. Imagine trying to hold an interview concerning a skilled process, take photos, and keep notes all at the same time using a smartphone only.

One major problem with a smartphone is that it is a phone. You do not want to be in the middle of an interview only to have a text message or a phone call come through. You can silence these options, of course, and you should during fieldwork even when you have other devices with you. On the whole, though, it is a much simpler option to have separate equipment with you dedicated to voice recording and photography, as needed. With many smartphones you also have to contend with memory issues. If your phone is packed with selfies and holiday pix, you may run into memory shortages at critical junctures. This problem is especially acute when it comes to lengthy voice recordings. You do not want to be halfway through an interview and run out of memory. You could also run into battery issues with voice or video recording.

Technology has the bad habit of failing on you at the worst possible time, meaning that you can miss opportunities, some of which may be gone forever. Therefore, redundancy is always important. Not only will you be grateful for having a notebook and voice recorder with you when your smartphone battery dies, but you will also be relieved of having to use your phone for every fieldwork function. On the other hand, if your voice recorder or camera malfunctions, you will be glad that your smartphone can pick up the slack (especially if you carry a portable power pack with you for instant recharging). REDUNDANCY!!!

Even in this digital age, a small notebook and pen are still important tools for doing fieldwork. I say this, not because I was trained in the 1970s and am stuck in my ways, but because notebook and pen are invaluable adjuncts to other equipment. For example, when you are recording an interview, you can jot down questions that come up, but which are inconvenient to ask at that moment. When I am doing fieldwork, I usually have with me my camera bag containing my 35 mm DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera (which is also a video camera), spare lenses, extra batteries, and a sound recorder. It is a small unobtrusive bag that anyone might carry around with their daily essentials. It also has a front pocket where I keep my smartphone and my notebook and pens (plural – always have a spare). “Always have a spare” should be your mantra. Running out of ink or battery power should never be a problem.