This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1525822X08329699v1 21/2/181    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Burrell, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

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

University of California-Berkeley

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.

Key Words: ethnography • spatiality • cyberspace • imagined spaces • logistics

This version was published on May 1, 2009

Field Methods, Vol. 21, No. 2, 181-199 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1525822X08329699


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?