Open AccessFalse Starts, Suspicious Interviewees and Nearly Impossible Tasks: Some Reflections on the Difficulty of Conducting Field Research Abroad
Author(s) -
Larry Hubbell
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2003.1887
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , field (mathematics) , china , sociology , field research , public relations , psychology , social science , political science , law , computer science , mathematics , artificial intelligence , pure mathematics
In this article, I discuss some of the problems I have encountered in conducting field research abroad, specifically in England, South Africa, Russia and China - a broad variety of societies ranging from free to not free societies. I discuss the problems I encountered and how I overcame some of them and was stymied by others. I have had problems gaining access to interviewees; establishing rapport with interviewees from different societies; and have had my motives questioned. Nevertheless, my research has been rewarding and has resulted in a number of serendipitous discoveries.