Fieldwork in transforming societies: Understanding methodology from experience

Abstract

This book discusses the personal and professional challenges of conducting fieldwork in the difficult, sometimes threatening contexts of the transforming societies of post-socialist Europe and China. Field research is a distinctly human effort and the social relationships between researchers, third parties and respondents directly affect the quality of research findings. With unusual frankness, the authors share their personal field experiences and discuss both the imaginative strategies they have devised to cope with problems and the methodological lessons they have learned.