Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork

by Lisa Gilman (Editor), John Fenn (Editor)

Overview

Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork offers a comprehensive review of the ethnographic process for developing a project, implementing the plan, and completing and preserving the data collected. Throughout, readers will find a detailed methodology for conducting different types of fieldwork such as digital ethnography or episodic research, tips and tricks for key elements like budgeting and funding, and practical advice and examples gleaned from the authors own fieldwork experiences. This handbook also helps fieldworkers fully grasp and understand the ways in which power, gender, ethnicity, and other identity categories are ever present in fieldwork and guides students to think through these dynamics at each stage of research. Written accessibly for lay researchers working in different mediums and on projects of varying size, this step-by-step manual will prepare the reader for the excitement, challenges, and rewards of ethnographic research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253040251
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2019
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	978,628
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lisa Gilman serves on the faculty in Folklore and English at George Mason University. She is author of My Music, My War: The Listening Habits of U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and The Dance of Politics: Performance, Gender, and Democratization in Malawi. She is also editor (with Michael Dylan Foster) of UNESCO on the Ground: Local Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage and producer of the documentary Grounds for Resistance: Stories of War, Sacrifice, and Good Coffee.
John Fenn is Head of Research and Programs at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Throughout his career he has brought an ethnographic perspective to field research, focused on the roles of creative and artistic practice in communities. Across fieldwork on arts and culture in Malawi (SE Africa), China, Indiana, and Oregon, he has documented a range of dynamic cultural practices, traditions, and groups working individually as well as in collaboration with teams of other researchers and cultural practitioners.

Table of Contents

Accessing Supplemental Materials ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Part I Preparing for the Field 5

1 Defining Fieldwork 7

2 Developing a Project 23

3 Creating a Research Plan 37

4 Organizing and Logistics 48

5 Documenting and Technology 63

6 Funding and Resources 78

Part II In the Field 91

7 Research Settings and Observation 93

8 Participant Observation 118

9 Interviewing 140

10 Documentation 166

11 Issues in the Field 182

Part III After the Field 197

12 Managing Data 199

13 Coding, Analysis, and Representation 209

14 Ethics and Final Products 225

15 Preservation and Future Use 235

Conclusion: Just Say Yes! 242

Works Cited 245

Index 253

What People are Saying About This

"

A much-needed handbook for those teaching folklore and ethnomusicology fieldwork at various levels. The authors offer practical advice grounded in their own experiences and tactfully but seriously address issues of positionality, power, and ethics in ways that demonstrate how central such issues are in all stages of a fieldwork project.

"

Katherine Borland

A soup to nuts guide that recognizes the multiple ways in which ethnographic research is conducted in different settings and renders them all legitimate. Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork dismantles the assumption that only immersive fieldwork counts and it offers suggestions for how to successfully organize and conduct episodic (dipping in and out of the field) research, which is much more typical of undergraduate student projects as well as of public folklore and community-based collaborative projects.

Ann K. Ferrell

A much-needed handbook for those teaching folklore and ethnomusicology fieldwork at various levels. The authors offer practical advice grounded in their own experiences and tactfully but seriously address issues of positionality, power, and ethics in ways that demonstrate how central such issues are in all stages of a fieldwork project.

Editorial Reviews

"A soup to nuts guide that recognizes the multiple ways in which ethnographic research is conducted in different settings and renders them all legitimate. Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork dismantles the assumption that only immersive fieldwork counts and it offers suggestions for how to successfully organize and conduct episodic (dipping in and out of the field) research, which is much more typical of undergraduate student projects as well as of public folklore and community-based collaborative projects."—Katherine Borland, author of Unmasking Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Nicaraguan Festival

"A much-needed handbook for those teaching folklore and ethnomusicology fieldwork at various levels. The authors offer practical advice grounded in their own experiences and tactfully but seriously address issues of positionality, power, and ethics in ways that demonstrate how central such issues are in all stages of a fieldwork project."—Ann K. Ferrell, author of Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century

From the Publisher