Fieldwork for Human Geography by Richard Phillips Jennifer Johns

Author:Richard Phillips, Jennifer Johns [Richard Phillips, Jennifer Johns]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Human Geography, Science, Earth Sciences, Geography
ISBN: 9780857025876
Google: m3JEAgAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 13808611
Publisher: SAGE
Published: 2012-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Read and then re-read your notes, the significance of which may not be immediately clear. Rachel Silvey, whose research in Indonesia is mentioned above, suggests that if your notes are extensive it can help to index them in some way, noting any recurring themes and patterns as you go along. She used a ‘simple, alphabetical indexing system at the back of the field notebook’ and found this saved ‘hours of research time’ (2003: 99).

Pay attention to what you have described. What drew you to it? Even the most apparently passive description – snapping whatever you see through the viewfinder of a camera – reveals a choice you have made; something you were drawn to. The picture is ‘taken’ but also ‘made’ and this means that the taker/maker necessarily plays an active part (Chaplin 2004: 36).

Pay attention to the ways in which you are describing, including the things you find difficult to articulate (put into words). Raymond Williams (1961: 23–24) suggests that ‘we often literally feel ourselves creating as we struggle to describe certain new information for which conventional descriptions are inadequate’. This is because description can be ‘vital’ and creative, a way of opening our eyes and minds to ‘new things and new relationships’.

Reflect on the significance of your observations both for your research questions and also for wider debates, which you may have read about in the academic literature. Ask yourself: ‘Has your experience changed your perception of the research problem and the issues associated with it?’ (Dummer et al. 2008: 477). The wider theoretical significance of what you have observed may only become apparent to you once you have had time to read your notes in the context of academic literature, perhaps after you have returned from the field.

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