Following our discussion at the Dept. of Human Geography about the characteristics and challenges of extended residential fieldwork outside Sweden, our paper was recently published in Geografiska Notiser. It is titled "Praktiska, metodologiska och emotionella utmaningar i fält – mot ärligare diskurser om fältarbete inom kulturgeografi" and you can find it here.
In the paper we give a brief background about how fieldwork is discussed within the discipline and we then move on to present the results of a short survey carried out within our department. The three elements that emerge are:
- fieldwork is on average 6 months long. This aspect indicates that there is a certain praxis within human geography regarding fieldwork, even though it is not clearly spelled out (as in the case of anthropology that assumes/expects PhD fieldwork to be 1 yr long on average);
- fieldwork has been challenging for PhD candidates at our department. Power relations, security and ethical issues have been brought up in the survey and some quotes are detailed in the article;
- fieldwork doesn´t end in the field. Issues and difficulties are rarely discussed when back at the department, but they are nevertheless reflected in the uncertainty some of us experience when it comes to coding and analyzing data;
As the title indicates, our work aims at initiating a discussion about fieldwork within Human Geography departments in Sweden in order to recognize strenghts, limitations and possible improvements that can made to facilitate the work of PhD candidates.
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