Stories from the Field

Published by Columbia University Press 2020

Stories from the Field

A Guide to Navigating Fieldwork in Political Science

Edited by: Peter Krause and Ora Szekely

https://doi.org/10.7312/krau19300

Overview
Contents

About this book

Stories from the Field is a relatable, thoughtful, and unorthodox guide to field research in political science. It features personal stories from working political scientists: some funny, some dramatic, all fascinating and informative.

Author information

Peter Krause is associate professor of political science at Boston College and research affiliate with the MIT Security Studies Program. He is the author of Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win (2017) and coeditor of Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics (2018).

Ora Szekely is associate professor of political science at Clark University. She is the author of The Politics of Militant Group Survival in the Middle East: Resources, Relationships, and Resistance (2016) and coauthor of Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (2019).

Reviews

Sidney Tarrow, coeditor of The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement:
Scholars seldom share their personal stories and lessons drawn from field research with others, limiting our ability to learn from one another's experiences. This book is unique in making available stories and insights from forty-four such experiences from scholars for whom fieldwork is a central part of their research. I wish it had been available when I first went to the field, and hope that young scholars today will take advantage of it, both to convince them of the importance of fieldwork and to help to prepare them for what to expect from it.

Cynthia Enloe, author of The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy:
I love this book. I want every first-year political science student, all graduate students, and each of my colleagues to read it. Krause and Szekely deliver the real deal: how to do rigorous field research while remaining candid, agile, and curious. In every chapter here, I laughed and I learned.

Jesse Driscoll, author of Doing Global Fieldwork: A Social Scientist’s Guide to Mixed-Methods Research Far From Home:
The breadth of life experience captured in this collection is the reason this volume has great pedagogical potential. A lot of graduate students will flip to find their academic heroes and crushes and then keep reading. Authors are writing with different agendas, but always in a first-person voice. The effect is to give the volume both intellectual heft and a personal touch.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
INTRODUCTION: LEARNING THROUGH Peter Krause and Ora Szekely Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I. WELCOME TO THE FIELD
1. FIELDWORK AND EMOTIONS Ian S. Lustick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. COOKING SOUP AND KILLING CHICKENS: NAVIGATING GENDER AND FOOD-AS-FIELDWORK IN WEST AFRICA Zoe Marks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
3. RECITE! INTERPRETIVE FIELDWORK FOR POSITIVISTS Richard A. Nielsen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
II. DESIGNING YOUR RESEARCH AND DECIDING WHERE TO GO
4. FIELDWORK BY DECREE, NOT BY DESIGN Stathis N. Kalyvas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
5. CONDUCTING 1,500 SURVEYS IN NEW YORK CITY (WITH GREAT UNCERTAINTY AND A LIMITED BUDGET) Christina M. Greer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
6. HEZBOLLAH WILL TAKE YOUR DATA: HOW TO PLAN FOR RESEARCH AMONG INSURGENTS Krista E. Wiegand Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
7. WHEN THE LINGUISTIC LIGHTWEIGHT GOES ABROAD: RELYING ON SHARP STUDENTS Stephen M. Saideman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
8. NAVIGATING DATA COLLECTION IN WAR ZONES Fotini Christia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
III. MAKE A PLAN . . . THEN BE READY TO TOSS IT
9. LET GO AND LET ALI Nadya Hajj Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
10. BE PREPARED (TO GO OFF SCRIPT) Daniel N. Posner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
11. RADIO GAGA: EVOLVING FIELD EXPERIMENTS IN MALI Kristin Michelitch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
12. CROSSED WIRES: INTERVIEWING THE WRONG PEOPLE Bethany Lacina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
13. “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO”: DEALING WITH DISHONESTY IN THE FIELD Matthew Franklin Cancian and Kristin E. Fabbe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
14. SUCCESSFUL FIELDWORK FOR THE FIELDWORK-HATER Amelia Hoover Green Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
IV. CREATIVELY COLLECTING DATA AND EVIDENCE
15. HOW TO INTERVIEW A TERRORIST Jessica Stern Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
16. STUMBLING AROUND IN THE ARCHIVES Marc Trachtenberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
17. DETAILS IN THE DOODLES: DOCUMENTING COVERT ACTION Lindsey A. O’Rourke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
18. MY STINT AS A UKRAINIAN TAXI DRIVER Keith Darden Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
19. CONDUCTING FIELDWORK IN A VIRTUAL SPACE: EXPLORING ISIS’s ENCRYPTED MESSAGING ON TELEGRAM Mia Bloom and Ayse Lokmanoglu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
20. ALL THE SIGNS ARE THERE: INCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES DURING FIELDWORK ON GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN RUSSIA Valerie Sperling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
21. LEARNING FROM FOREIGN COLLEAGUES Robert Ross Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
V. DEVELOPING LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
22. ON FIELD-BEING Wendy Pearlman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
23. FIELDWORK ON FOOT Paul Staniland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
24. THE ONION PRINCIPLE David D. Laitin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	196
25. THE INTOXICATION OF FIELDWORK: OBTAINING AUTHORIZATIONS IN BURKINA FASO John F. McCauley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
26. FIELD RESEARCH AND SECURITY IN A COLLAPSED STATE Will Reno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
27. BUILDING FIELD NETWORKS IN THE ERA OF BIG DATA Amaney Jamal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
VI. SEEING AND BEING SEEN: IDENTITY IN THE FIELD
28. RESEARCHING AN OLD CIVIL WAR CLOSE TO HOME Laia Balcells Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
29. POSITIONALITY AND SUBJECTIVITY IN FIELD RESEARCH Enze Han Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
30. RACE AND THE STUDY OF A RACIAL DEMOCRACY Melissa Nobles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
31. “WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THAT ?”: STUDYING RACIAL INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES FROM THE OUTSIDE Desmond King Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
32. NAVIGATING BORN AND CHOSEN IDENTITIES IN FIELDWORK Peter Krause Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
VII. BEING ETHICALLY ACCOUNTABLE
33. ON RESEARCH THAT “MATTERS” Erica Chenoweth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
34. THE FIELD IS EVERYWHERE Zachariah Cherian Mampilly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
35. THINGS CHANGE: PROTECTING YOURSELF AND YOUR SOURCES IN UNCERTAIN TIMES Marc Lynch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
36. ETHNOGRAPHY WITH EXTREMISTS: LIVING IN A FASCIST MILITIA Alessandro Orsini Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
37. BUILDING TRUST WITH EX-INSURGENTS Emil Aslan Souleimanov Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
38. ON BEING SEEN Ora Szekely Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	312
VIII. STAYING SAFE AND HEALTHY
39. CONDUCTING SAFE FIELDWORK ON VIOLENCE AND PEACE Sarah Zukerman Daly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
40. YOUR SAFETY AND THEIRS: INTERVIEWING SEX-TRAFFICKERS Carla B. Abdo-Katsipis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
41. SHINGLES ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL Ravi Perry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
42. DRINK THE TEA Vipin Narang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	340
ONE LAST THING BEFORE YOU GO... Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	344
CONCLUSION: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DO FIELDWORK? Peter Krause and Ora Szekely Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	364
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 11 b&w illustrations

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Published: August 24, 2020
ISBN: 9780231550109

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Stories from the Field

A Guide to Navigating Fieldwork in Political Science