Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables, figures and research scenarios
- About the authors
- Preface to the second edition
- 1 The nature of qualitative research
- 2 Evaluating qualitative research
- 3 Qualitative research design in information organizations
- 4 Case studies in information organizations
- 5 Laying the foundations for fieldwork
- 6 Beginning fieldwork
- 7 Observation
- 8 Interviewing
- 9 Group discussion techniques
- 10 Historical investigation
- 11 Recording fieldwork data
- 12 Analysing qualitative data from information organizations
- 13 Writing qualitative research reports
- 14 Human resources in knowledge management: a case study
- Select bibliography
- Index
5 - Laying the foundations for fieldwork
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables, figures and research scenarios
- About the authors
- Preface to the second edition
- 1 The nature of qualitative research
- 2 Evaluating qualitative research
- 3 Qualitative research design in information organizations
- 4 Case studies in information organizations
- 5 Laying the foundations for fieldwork
- 6 Beginning fieldwork
- 7 Observation
- 8 Interviewing
- 9 Group discussion techniques
- 10 Historical investigation
- 11 Recording fieldwork data
- 12 Analysing qualitative data from information organizations
- 13 Writing qualitative research reports
- 14 Human resources in knowledge management: a case study
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
FOCUS QUESTIONS
• What is fieldwork, and how does it fit into the overall framework of qualitative research and the case study approach?
• What is the researcher's role, and to what extent do experience-near and experience-distant concepts help define it?
• How do I lay the foundations for fieldwork?
• How should I go about choosing a research topic?
• How should I formulate and test research questions?
• What is the purpose of a literature review?
• What is the role of theory in preparing to conduct fieldwork?
This chapter describes the preparation for fieldwork in information agencies. To help you prepare, each step is discussed in turn. First, however, we introduce the concept of fieldwork, discuss the role of the researcher, the value of ‘experience-near’ and ‘experience-distant’ concepts, and help lay the foundations for fieldwork.
Overview of fieldwork in information organizations Definition of fieldwork
In Chapter 1 we noted that qualitative research embodies five characteristics (context, description, process, participant perspective and induction). All of these characteristics, except perhaps induction, can be fulfilled by only one method of data collection – fieldwork. That is, researchers collect data within the natural setting of the data, and the key data collection instruments are the researchers themselves. This use of the natural setting has led to the fieldwork stage in qualitative research, and indeed to the whole qualitative process, being termed ‘naturalistic enquiry’.
Fieldwork is the interface between researcher and data in the case study approach characteristic of qualitative research; it involves collecting data ‘in the field’, being out among the subjects of one's research, becoming immersed in their milieu and seeing events and activities as they see them.
Because the qualitative researcher wants to know what subjects think and how they act in their natural setting, the only way to do this thoroughly is by being alongside them to the extent that this is feasible.
The role of the researcher
In a way, then, the researcher ‘inserts’ his or her presence into the natural setting of the subjects. At the start of a project this can be most disconcerting to all involved. But a competent and sensitive researcher soon learns how to become just part of the everyday fabric and thus less noticeable.
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- Information
- Qualitative Research for the Information ProfessionalA practical handbook, pp. 64 - 79Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2004