Essentials of Field Relationships: (Qualitative Essentials)

Field research can consist of trekking across the globe to study peoples in exotic cultural settings. It can also mean strapping on your running shoes and observing behavior at the local market. Regardless of whether the researcher is “at home” or away, the development of research relationships is paramount to the success of the research project. In this book, the authors provide guidance to researchers on developing relationships in their field research. Using a myriad of examples from projects in a wide range of settings, Kaler and Beres offer helpful hints about how to navigate the personal side of conducting research—establishing and maintaining relationships, handling ethical dilemmas, and identifying how the personal identity of researchers help shape their projects.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Transitioning In and Out of the Field; Chapter 3 Maintaining Relationships in the Field; Chapter 4 Establishing and Negotiating a Researcher Identity; Chapter 5 Gathering Data; Chapter 6 Research Ethics; Chapter 7 Concluding Thoughts;

About the Author :
Amy Kaler is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. She studies the institutional contexts of reproductive and sexual health, with emphasis on birth control and sexually transmitted diseases. Her research focuses on southern and eastern Africa and western Canada. She is the author of Running After Pills: Politics, Gender and Contraception in Colonial Zimbabwe and co-editor of The Gendered Society Reader (Canadian edition). She has also published extensively in leading journals in sociology, history, public health, and gender studies., Melanie Beres is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has conducted field research in Canada and New Zealand. To date, her “field” has remained relatively close to home, including research with transient youth in a small resort community in the Canadian Rockies. She has several previous publications and conference papers based on fieldwork research and about fieldwork, with a focus on research with transient populations. Currently she teaches research methods, theories of social power and social inequality. Her current research projects are focused on exploring power in intimate relationships in local and international contexts.

Review :
"Qualitative studies are all about relationships. In this concise, beginner-friendly book, Amy Kaler and Melanie Beres provide sound advice to help the reader negotiate the complexities of interpersonal relations in fieldwork. Using their own experiences and those of other seasoned researchers, they offer practical suggestions that could spell the difference between success and failure of a project." - Maria J. Mayan, University of Alberta, author of Essentials of Qualitative Inquiry It is certainly a real strength of Kaler and Beres' and their flexible approach represents a realistic but gentle introduction to the complexities and actualities of carrying out qualitative research. The individual chapters are well organized and introduce a range of relevant topics pitched at just the right level for those who are embarking on qualitative fieldwork for the first time. They are also peppered with 'lessons from the field' sections in which the authors and other seasoned researchers offer brief asides drawn from a broad range of projects in which they reflect on some of the issues and difficulties that they have faced or resolved in the course of carrying out their own fieldwork. These are very useful and help bring the discussions to life.--David Evans, Qualitative Research "The book is clearly written and well documented, and provides an abundance of journal references and books for further study. Both experienced and student researchers will benefit from its directions and advice. Summing Up: Recommended." - J. P. Hester, CHOICE "In this concise and well-written little volume authors Kaler and Beres demystify fieldwork and render it accessible to all. Those following a strict disciplinary approach will find it as thorough as those intending to follow a more generic one, and the many examples of fieldworkers-in-action illustrate the flexibility of the approach."- Harry F. Wolcott, Emeritus, University of Oregon