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The Field Site as a Network: A Strategy for Locating Ethnographic Research

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jenna{at}ischool.berkeley.edu.

	Abstract

Through the work of constructing a field site, researchers define the objects and subjects of their research. This article explores a variety of strategies devised by researchers to map social research onto spatial terrain. Virtual networked field sites are among the recent approaches that are challenging conventional thinking about field-based research. The benefits and consequences of one particular configuration, the field site as a network that incorporates physical, virtual, and imagined spaces, will be explored in detail through a case study. The author focuses in particular on the logistical issues involved and practical steps to constructing such a field site. This article includes suggestions for ways of studying social phenomena that take place on a vast terrain from a stationary position.

First published on February 18, 2009, doi:10.1177/1525822X08329699

Field Methods 2009;21:181.

A more recent version of this article appeared on May 1, 2009


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