Locating the Field Space, Place and Context in Anthropology

by Collins, Peter; Coleman, Simon

• ISBN13: 9781845204037
• ISBN10: 1845204034
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-15
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

Are reports of the death of conventional fieldwork in anthropology greatly exaggerated? This book takes a critical look at the latest developments and key issues in fieldwork. The nature of "locality" itself is problematic for both research subjects and fieldworkers, on the grounds that it now must be maintained and represented in relation to widening (and fragmenting) social frames and networks. Such developments have raised questions concerning the nature of ethnographic presence and scales of comparison. From the social space of a cybercafé, to cities in India, the UK and South Africa among others, this book features a wide range of ethnographic studies that provide new ways of looking at the concepts of "locality" and "site".

Author Biography

Simon Coleman is Professor of Anthropology, University of Sussex. Peter Collins is Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Durham.

Table of Contents

Introduction--Simon Coleman & Peter Collins * 'Beyond the Verandah: Fieldwork, Locality and the Production of Knowledge in a South African City'--Leslie Bank * 'Diaspora, Cosmopolis, Global Refuge: Three Voices of the Supranational City'--Nigel Rapport * 'Perception, Routes and Sociability through Walking around Aberdeen'--Jo Lee and Tim Ingold * 'The Internet, Cybercafs and the New Social Spaces of Bangalorean Youth'--Nicholas Nisbett * 'Studying Down, Up, Sideways, Through, Backward, Forward, Away and at Home: Reflections on the Field Worries of an Expansive Discipline'--Ulf Hannerz * 'Far from the Trobriands? Biography as Field'--Sigridur Duna Kristmundsdottir * 'Post-Diasporic Indian Communities: A New Generation'--Anjoom Mukadam &  Sharmina Mawani, School of Oriental and African Studies * 'Rendering and Gendering Mobile Subjects in a Globalised World of Mountaineering'--Susan Frohlich * 'The Temporal, Spiritual and Spatial Aspects of Regeneration on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea'--James Leach * Postscript--Webb Keane

Introduction--Simon Coleman & Peter Collins * 'Beyond the Verandah: Fieldwork, Locality and the Production of Knowledge in a South African City'--Leslie Bank * 'Diaspora, Cosmopolis, Global Refuge: Three Voices of the Supranational City'--Nigel Rapport * 'Perception, Routes and Sociability through Walking around Aberdeen'--Jo Lee and Tim Ingold * 'The Internet, Cybercafs and the New Social Spaces of Bangalorean Youth'--Nicholas Nisbett * 'Studying Down, Up, Sideways, Through, Backward, Forward, Away and at Home: Reflections on the Field Worries of an Expansive Discipline'--Ulf Hannerz * 'Far from the Trobriands? Biography as Field'--Sigridur Duna Kristmundsdottir * 'Post-Diasporic Indian Communities: A New Generation'--Anjoom Mukadam & Sharmina Mawani, School of Oriental and African Studies * 'Rendering and Gendering Mobile Subjects in a Globalised World of Mountaineering'--Susan Frohlich * 'The Temporal, Spiritual and Spatial Aspects of Regeneration on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea'--James Leach * Postscript--Webb Keane