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For their constant support, encouragement and for a sense of perspective, this
book is dedicated to:
Jacqueline, Charlotte and Lizzie Mannix-Pole (C.P.)
and
Margaret and David Hillyard (S.H.)
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SAGE Publications Ltd © Christopher Pole and Sam Hillyard 2016
1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road First published 2016
London EC1Y 1SP
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CONTENTS
About the authors vii
1 What is Fieldwork? 1
2 Finding the Field 19
3 Field Relations 35
4 Tools for the Field 55
5 Fieldwork: Values and Ethics 77
6 When it’s Time to Go 107
7 Analysis 123
8 Conclusions 145
References 153
Index 167
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Professor Chris Pole is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Brighton.
His long-standing research interests are in social research methodology, especially
Ethnography and in the Sociology of Education and Childhood. Previous books
in these areas include Fieldwork (Four Volumes. Sage Benchmarks in Social
Research Methods), Ethnography for Education (with Marlene Morrison) and
Young People in Transition. Becoming Citizens? (with Jane Pilcher and John Williams).
Dr Sam Hillyard is a Reader in Sociology at Durham University, UK. Her
research interests are in qualitative research methods, interactionist social theory
and rural studies. She is the series editor of Studies in Qualitative Methodology, and
has published in the area of social research methodology in the journals
Qualitative Research, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography and the Oxford Review of
Education.
1
WHAT IS
FIELDWORK?
Chapter overview
• Fieldwork is an intellectually and technically challenging total experience
aimed at capturing meaning.
• Being there first-hand is important.
• Fieldwork is also curiosity-driven – to gain insight and understanding
or verstehen.
• In this book we are against methodological fundamentalism, but rather
advocate an inclusive approach to fieldwork.
This is a book about doing research. Not any research in general, but a specific
kind of research which is as much about the role of the researcher as it is about
the focus of the research. The intention is to provide an open and frank account
of what it is like to do research: where you, the researcher, are the reason(s) why
it will succeed or fail; where you are the main influence on what the research
will discover and; how it will be received and evaluated by those who read or
use its findings. The idea is that by the end of the book you will have a good
idea of the ethos surrounding doing fieldwork – what it’s all about and what
knowledge it can yield. This includes what this kind of research entails, but
also what it’s like to do it. We will talk about the excitement of research, the
challenges and frustrations, the rewards, the tedium and the sheer hard slog that
all research projects involve in different proportions, at one time or another.
The kind of research this book is about is that which is based on fieldwork. The
idea behind fieldwork is that it is about getting involved with what and who you are
researching. It is about doing research in a practical, applied, ‘hands on’ sense. The
essence of it is what Robert Park, when he was director of the Chicago School
