In the Field: Readings on the Field Research Experience / Edition 2

by William Kornblum, Carolyn D. Smith

Overview

These engaging accounts by masters of field research illustrate the synthesis of passionate involvement and objective analysis. An informative and inspiring collection for students and professional social scientists. (Cynthia Fuchs Epstein Distinguished Professor of Sociology City University of New York).

This revised, edited volume brings together personal accounts by a group of noted ethnographic researchers to examine the natural history of participant observation. An ideal supplemental text for methods courses, In The Field is designed to give students a sense of what it is actually like to conduct ethnographic research. As the selections show, field researchers must struggle to gain acceptance by the group under study but then often become deeply involved in the lives of the people and at times are forced into a reexamination of their own values. By learning how social scientists conduct research under field conditions and how they feel while they are doing it, students will be better prepared to carry out successful field research projects of their own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275954178
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/24/1996
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

CAROLYN D. SMITH is a writer and editorial consultant specializing in educational materials in the social sciences. She is the author of The Absentee American: Repatriates' Perspectives on America (Praeger, 1991).

WILLIAM KORNBLUM is the author of Blue Collar Community (1976) and co-author (with Terry Williams) of Growing Up Poor (1985) and other titles.

Kornblum and Smith have collaborated in the writing and development of textbooks on sociology and social problems and are co-editors of The Healing Experience: Readings on the Social Context of Health Care (1994).

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction by William Kornblum
Gaining Entry
Jelly's Place by Elijah Anderson
Doing Research in the Flats by Carol Stack
Exploring the Cocaine Culture by Terry Williams
In the Field with Snake Handlers by Peggy Sullivan and Kirk Elifson
Building Relationships
Getting In by Ruth Horowitz
Earning a Place in the Hustler's World by Robert P. McNamara
Relations of the Road by Douglas Harper
Maintaining Objectivity
Doing Research in Cornerville by William F. Whyte
Prostitution, Drug Use, and AIDS by Claire Sterk
On Studying South Chicago by William Kornblum
The Caseworker by Victor Ayala
The Observer's Role
Researching Peasants and Drug Producers by Edmundo Morales
The Fieldworker and the Surgeon by Charles Bosk
The Outsider Phenomenon by Nancy Naples
Epilogue
Finding Your Spot by Vernon Boggs
Index

Editorial Reviews

Practicing social scientists present personal accounts of their ethnographic field research. In ten pages or less they speak of how they do their research, feel while they are doing it, become accepted by the people they wish to know, build and maintain relationships with their subjects, maintain objectivity, sort through their findings, and worry about the privacy of the friends they have made in the field. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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