One of the most challenging aspects of being out there all alone is not being able to remember my purpose sometimes. When I first arrived to my field research site, I realize that these people are not just "subjects of my proposal or research," they are real human beings with contradictory ideas and difficult life, they are making daily decisions that I either like or hate, but they are there, they are full-fledged. The questions and also the answers depend on our field questions and design as well. Mine is a field based on in-depth interviews and these questions are related to the nature of that kind of a field. The main questions that I ask many many times:
The answers is what shape the nature of our field and the distance between us and our subject matter. Depending on the subject, you can choose establish a different kind of distance and different distances can have different values... For example, if I really try to understand why people act in that way, I may choose to get embedded to their life rather than asking them the cold question of "why you are acting this way?" For most of the cases, I think we don't have answers for these big questions, but we make up one.
The big, repetitive and inescapable self-questioning of each and every day (especially of your field is based on interviews that are not 7/24 activities):
1- Who am I to come here and act like I know something on their life?
2- Can I help them on something?
3- How can I break the power relationship between the researcher and her subjects?
4- How much should I get involved with their political activities?
5- How much should I get involved with their live, I will leave this place at some point and they will have to keep going?
The answers is what shape the nature of our field and the distance between us and our subject matter. Depending on the subject, you can choose establish a different kind of distance and different distances can have different values... For example, if I really try to understand why people act in that way, I may choose to get embedded to their life rather than asking them the cold question of "why you are acting this way?" For most of the cases, I think we don't have answers for these big questions, but we make up one.
The big, repetitive and inescapable self-questioning of each and every day (especially of your field is based on interviews that are not 7/24 activities):
6- Did I do anything good for my research today? Is this much of daily work enough?
7- Does my research question make sense? Still? Maybe not anymore!!
8- Maybe I should not do this. Maybe I am not good as a researcher.
9- Now, I am totally confused!!
7- Does my research question make sense? Still? Maybe not anymore!!
8- Maybe I should not do this. Maybe I am not good as a researcher.
9- Now, I am totally confused!!
To be continued...
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