Researchers sometimes work in settings which are potentially dangerous to their health and safety. For example, they can be vulnerable to violent confrontation, verbal abuse or infectious diseases. This volume explores the contexts, settings and situations which pose high physical risk to the fieldworker, and presents the strategies the author has developed for reducing the risks. Raymond Lee draws on his own experience in Northern Ireland, as well as on the work of other researchers with groups such as outlaw bikers and youth gangs, drug addicts and informants in inherently dangerous occupations. Dangerous Fieldwork also offers valuable information on the increasingly important topic of sexual harassment.

Researchers sometimes work in settings which are potentially dangerous to their health and safety. For example, they can be vulnerable to violent confrontation, verbal abuse or infectious diseases. This volume explores the contexts, settings and situations which pose high physical risk to the fieldworker, and presents the strategies the author has developed for reducing the risks. Raymond Lee draws on his own experience in Northern Ireland, as well as on the work of other researchers with groups such as outlaw bikers and youth gangs, drug addicts and informants in inherently dangerous occupations. Dangerous Fieldwork also offers valuable information on the increasingly important topic of sexual harassment.

"Required reading for anyone about to leave for the field. . . . A timely, deserving, and original contribution to a rapidly growing body of literature on the study of violence."—Jean-Paul Dumont, George Mason University

Ethnography as Risky Business: Field Research in Violent and Sensitive Contexts offers a hands-on, critical appraisal of how to approach ethnographic fieldwork on socio-political conflict and collective violence, focusing on the global south. The volume’s contributions are all based on extensive firsthand qualitative social science research conducted in sensitive--and often hazardous--field settings. The contributors reflect on real-life methodological problems as well as the ethical and personal challenges such as the protection of participants, research data and the ‘ethnographic self’. In particular, the authors highlight how ‘risky ethnography’ requires careful maneuvering before, during, and after fieldwork on the basis of a ‘situated’ ethics, yet also point to the rewards of such an endeavor. If these methodological, ethical and personal risks are managed adequately, the yields in terms of generating a deep understanding of, and critical engagement with, conflict and violence may be substantial.

Exploring the challenges and risks of social science fieldwork, this book shares best practice for conducting research in hostile environments and pragmatic advice to help you make good decisions. Drawing on the authors’ experiences in regions of conflict and grounded in real-world examples, the book: · Provides practical guidance on important considerations like choosing a research question in sensitive contexts · Gives advice on data and digital security to help you minimize fieldwork risk in a contemporary research environment · Offers tools and templates you can use to develop a tailored security framework Building your understanding of the challenges of on-the-ground research, this book empowers you to meet the challenges of your research landscape head on.

This open access book offers a synthetic reflection on the authors’ fieldwork experiences in seven countries within the framework of ‘Authoritarianism in a Global Age’, a major comparative research project. It responds to the demand for increased attention to methodological rigor and transparency in qualitative research, and seeks to advance and practically support field research in authoritarian contexts. Without reducing the conundrums of authoritarian field research to a simple how-to guide, the book systematically reflects and reports on the authors’ combined experiences in (i) getting access to the field, (ii) assessing risk, (iii) navigating ‘red lines’, (iv) building relations with local collaborators and respondents, (v) handling the psychological pressures on field researchers, and (vi) balancing transparency and prudence in publishing research. It offers unique insights into this particularly challenging area of field research, makes explicit how the authors handled methodological challenges and ethical dilemmas, and offers recommendations where appropriate.

This book focuses on the emotional hazards of conducting fieldwork about or within contexts of violence and provides a forum for field-based researchers to tell their stories. Increasingly novice and seasoned ethnographers alike, whether by choice or chance, are working in situations where multidimensional forms of violence, conflict and war are facets of everyday life. The volume engages with the methodological and ethical issues involved and features a range of expressive writings that reveal personal consequences and dilemmas. The contributors use their emotions, their scars, outrage and sadness alongside their hopes and resilience to give voice to that which is often silenced, to make visible the entanglements of fieldwork and its lingering vulnerabilities. The book brings to the fore the lived experiences of researchers and their interlocutors alike with the hope of fostering communities of care. It will be valuable reading for anthropologists and those from other disciplines who are embarking on ethnographic fieldwork and conducting qualitative empirical research.

The nature of qualitative inquiry means that researchers constantly have to deal with the unexpected, and all too often this means coping with the presence of danger or risk. This innovative and lively analysis of danger in various qualitative research settings is drawn from researchers' reflexive accounts of their own encounters with 'danger'. An original take on the ever-popular topic of the ethics of research, this pioneering book expands the common sense use of the term to encompass not just physical danger, but emotional, ethical and professional danger too, with the authors paying special attention to the gendered forms of danger implicit in the research process. From the physical danger of researching the night club 'bouncer' scene to the ethical dangers of participant observation in an old people's home, these international contributions provide researchers and students with thought provoking insights into the importance of a well chosen research design.

Fieldwork is widely practiced but little written about, yet accounts of the exotic, mundane, complex, and often dangerous are central to not only sociology and anthropology but also geography, social psychology, and criminology. This handbook presents the first major overview of this method in all its variety, introducing the reader to the strengths, weaknesses, and "real world" applications of fieldwork techniques.