Description
What do you do if you get stuck in an elevator in Mogadishu? How worried should you be about being followed after an interview with a ring of human traffickers in Lebanon? What happens to your research if you get placed on a government watchlist? And what if you find yourself feeling like you just aren't cut out for fieldwork?
Stories from the Field is a relatable, thoughtful, and unorthodox guide to field research in political science. It features personal stories from working political scientists: some funny, some dramatic, all fascinating and informative. Political scientists from a diverse range of biographical and academic backgrounds describe research in North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, ranging from archival work to interviews with combatants. In sharing their stories, the book's forty-four contributors provide accessible illustrations of key concepts, including specific research methods like conducting surveys and interviews, practical questions of health and safety, and general principles such as the importance of flexibility, creativity, and interpersonal connections. The contributors reflect not only on their own experiences but also on larger questions about research ethics, responsibility, and the effects of their personal and professional identities on their fieldwork. Stories from the Field is an essential resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students learning about field research methods, as well as established scholars contemplating new journeys into the field.
About the Author
Peter Krause is associate professor of political science at Boston College and research affiliate with the MIT Security Studies Program. He is the author of Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win (2017) and coeditor of Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics (2018).
Ora Szekely is associate professor of political science at Clark University. She is the author of The Politics of Militant Group Survival in the Middle East: Resources, Relationships, and Resistance (2016) and coauthor of Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (2019).
Reviews
The breadth of life experience captured in this collection is the reason this volume has great pedagogical potential. A lot of graduate students will flip to find their academic heroes and crushes and then keep reading. Authors are writing with different agendas, but always in a first-person voice. The effect is to give the volume both intellectual heft and a personal touch. -- Jesse Driscoll, author of Doing Global Fieldwork: A Social Scientist's Guide to Mixed-Methods Research Far From Home
I love this book. I want every first-year political science student, all graduate students, and each of my colleagues to read it. Krause and Szekely deliver the real deal: how to do rigorous field research while remaining candid, agile, and curious. In every chapter here, I laughed and I learned. -- Cynthia Enloe, author of The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy
Scholars seldom share their personal stories and lessons drawn from field research with others, limiting our ability to learn from one another's experiences. This book is unique in making available stories and insights from forty-four such experiences from scholars for whom fieldwork is a central part of their research. I wish it had been available when I first went to the field, and hope that young scholars today will take advantage of it, both to convince them of the importance of fieldwork and to help to prepare them for what to expect from it. -- Sidney Tarrow, coeditor of The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement
Offers a wealth of personal insights, methodological discussions, and ways of creatively coping with the unexpected during research carried out around the globe....This is a good volume for use in a methods course...Highly recommended. * Choice *
Awards
Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2021.
Book Information
ISBN 9780231193016
Author Peter Krause
Format Paperback
Page Count 392
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
Stories from the Field is a relatable, thoughtful, and unorthodox guide to field research in political science. It features personal stories from working political scientists: some funny, some dramatic, all fascinating and informative. Political scientists from a diverse range of biographical and academic backgrounds describe research in North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, ranging from archival work to interviews with combatants. In sharing their stories, the book's forty-four contributors provide accessible illustrations of key concepts, including specific research methods like conducting surveys and interviews, practical questions of health and safety, and general principles such as the importance of flexibility, creativity, and interpersonal connections. The contributors reflect not only on their own experiences but also on larger questions about research ethics, responsibility, and the effects of their personal and professional identities on their fieldwork. Stories from the Field is an essential resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students learning about field research methods, as well as established scholars contemplating new journeys into the field.
About the Author
Peter Krause is associate professor of political science at Boston College and research affiliate with the MIT Security Studies Program. He is the author of Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win (2017) and coeditor of Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics (2018).
Ora Szekely is associate professor of political science at Clark University. She is the author of The Politics of Militant Group Survival in the Middle East: Resources, Relationships, and Resistance (2016) and coauthor of Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (2019).
Reviews
The breadth of life experience captured in this collection is the reason this volume has great pedagogical potential. A lot of graduate students will flip to find their academic heroes and crushes and then keep reading. Authors are writing with different agendas, but always in a first-person voice. The effect is to give the volume both intellectual heft and a personal touch. -- Jesse Driscoll, author of Doing Global Fieldwork: A Social Scientist's Guide to Mixed-Methods Research Far From Home
I love this book. I want every first-year political science student, all graduate students, and each of my colleagues to read it. Krause and Szekely deliver the real deal: how to do rigorous field research while remaining candid, agile, and curious. In every chapter here, I laughed and I learned. -- Cynthia Enloe, author of The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy
Scholars seldom share their personal stories and lessons drawn from field research with others, limiting our ability to learn from one another's experiences. This book is unique in making available stories and insights from forty-four such experiences from scholars for whom fieldwork is a central part of their research. I wish it had been available when I first went to the field, and hope that young scholars today will take advantage of it, both to convince them of the importance of fieldwork and to help to prepare them for what to expect from it. -- Sidney Tarrow, coeditor of The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement
Offers a wealth of personal insights, methodological discussions, and ways of creatively coping with the unexpected during research carried out around the globe....This is a good volume for use in a methods course...Highly recommended. * Choice *
Awards
Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2021.
Book Information
ISBN 9780231193016
Author Peter Krause
Format Paperback
Page Count 392
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
