Read Tracy’s example table in Chapter 1. Complete the Field/Site Brainstorm Table (fillable Word Doc).
To do: Determine the field of study—a context or group that revolves around a certain issue, dilemma, or topic of interest. If you’re stuck, examples might include:
Reunions/goodbye interactions;
Rites of passage;
Food purchasing and eating; or
Sibling rivalry. In your table, fill in the potential site, participants, settings, advantages, and disadvantages.
Interactive Activity #4: Tracy Exercise 1.1: Field/site brainstorm
Qualitative Research Methods: Collective Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact
Exercise 1.1 (page 9 of 2013 edition)
Field/site brainstorm
The table below provides an example of systematically comparing and contrasting potential field sites and their advantages and disadvantages. In this table it becomes clear that there is no one perfect site but, instead, each one holds specific advantages and disadvantages. Creating your own table can help you brainstorm several potential sites and consider advantages and disadvantages to each.
Table 1.1: The “field” for this brainstorm consists of all the spaces and places where employees regularly show a negative or controlling emotion toward their clients/customers as a paid part of their job, and where doing so repeatedly may challenge their emotional well-being.
Potential Site
Prison
Bar or Club
Bill Collection
Potential Participants
Correctional officers
Bouncers
Collection agents
Potential Settings
Inmate booking area, prison lobby, inmate cafeteria, inmate pods
Front door
Call room floor; shadowing collector on street
Advantages
Emotions running high for those just arrested; complex scene; long-term employee-client relationship; current research suggests high burnout; very little research exists
Easy, immediate access; research could be a full participant by getting a job or pretending to act like a patron
Multiply-focused and intense sessions; wide range of emotions; interaction with client may be audio recorded
Disadvantages
One needs official permission and security check to enter scene; participants wary of researcher; really busy; no clear place to sit and watch; research may be intrusive
Routine, short-term interaction with customers; research exists (e.g. Scheibel, 1992); complex interaction more sporadic
Somewhat scriipted; research already exists (e.g. Sutton, 1991)
To do: Determine a field of study—a context or group that revolves around a certain issue, dilemma, or topic of interest. If you’re stuck, examples might include: (1) reunions/goodbye interactions; (2) rites of passage; (3) food purchasing and eating; or (4) sibling rivalry.
Then create your own table, where you fill in the potential site, participants, settings, advantages, and disadvantages.
Potential Site
[Insert Site #1]
[Insert Site #2]
[Insert Site #3]
Potential Participants
[Insert Participants #1]
[Insert Participants #2]
[Insert Participants #3]
Potential Settings
[Insert Settings #1]
[Insert Settings #2]
[Insert Settings #3]
Advantages
[Insert Advantage #1]
[Insert Advantage #2]
[Insert Advantage #3]
Disadvantages
[Insert Disadvantage #1]
[Insert Disadvantage #2]
[Insert Disadvantage #3]
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