At work in the field

Problems and opportunities associated with employment during fieldwork

Bibliographic Data

ID12930780
AuthorsAdam Kaul (Durham University, corresponding author)
Year1970
Volume6
Issue2
Publication date1970-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology Matters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1758-6453 • E-ISSN: 1758-6453
PublisherNomadIT (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.22582/am.v6i2.99
OpenAlexW1492064589
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited5

This paper explores the advantages and drawbacks of gainful employment whilst conducting ethnographic fieldwork. Examples are drawn from the author's fieldwork in a heavily visited tourist destination in western Ireland. Whilst there are potential problems that arise due to employment, the benefits are such that it should not be discouraged outright. Moreover, it needs to be discussed as a potential condition of fieldwork. I found that although employment was initially necessary simply to fund my time in the field it became an intensely useful vehicle for gaining access to local knowledge. Employment allows the field researcher to move into and explore emic categorizations of people, and in this case, observe the interactions between permanent residents and tourists. Employment is very rarely discussed in the literature on anthropological methodology, and this paper is intended to continue a growing dialogue about the pragmatic, day-to-day experience of the field. Introduction

Emic and etic · Ethnography · Field (mathematics · Gainful employment · Job design · Job performance · Job satisfaction · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Tourism · Work (physics · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Engineering · Law · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Psychology · Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access