Wiley-Blackwell The Shadow Side of Fieldwork: Exploring the Blurred Borders between Ethnography and Life

TheShadow Side of Fieldwork draws attention to the typically hidden or unacknowledged aspects of ethnographic fieldwork encounters that nevertheless shape the resulting knowledge and texts. Addressing these invisible, elusive, unspoken or mysterious elements introduces a distinctive rigor and responsibility to ethnographic research. Luminaries in anthropology dare to explore the 'unspeakable' and 'invisible' in the ethnographic encounter Considers personal and professional challenges (ethical, epistemological, and political) faced by researchers who examine the subjectivities inherent in their ethnographic insights Explores the value, and limitations, of addressing the personal in ethnographic research Includes a critical discussion of the anthropologist’s self in the field Introduces imaginative rigor to ethnographic research to heighten confidence in anthropological knowledge Review "Important and invaluable ... .This book brings that totality out of the shadows and into the light. It is written in an accessible manner and should inform teaching of research methods at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level, being a core text in the latter. It should be a companion guide to us all." (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, September 2009) "There are some fabulous papers in here: thought provoking, stimulating, well-written, clever papers." (Anthropological Forum, July 2009) Review "Eye opening, provocative, and politically charged, this timely volume will change the ways you think about objects of knowledge and the means and ethics of knowing." João Biehl, Princeton University "With a multi-faceted play on the concept of shadow, these fine essays together redeem and clarify the so-called reflexive turn in anthropology, showing how the deeply personal in fieldwork is integral to the kind of quirky curiosity on which ethnographic knowledge so distinctively depends." George Marcus, University of California, Irvine"With uncommon candor, the remarkable ethnographers of The Shadow Side of Fieldwork interrogate some of the most pressing ethical and theoretical issues of writing culture in the present moment. Their often moving accounts of close encounters with themselves in their fieldwork contexts, and their understanding of how these encounters shape anthropology’s project of ethical connection with persons and worlds beyond, and within, our own, invites the discipline into new realms of inquiry, and excites deeper engagement with the paradoxes and anxieties of intersubjective research. A remarkable undertaking, all told." Debbora Battaglia, Mount Holyoke College From the Inside Flap The Shadow Side of Fieldwork draws attention to typically hidden or unacknowledged aspects of ethnographic research that nevertheless shape knowledge, texts, and methodologies. These are the invisible, unspoken, elusive, and mysterious areas where life and research overlap, private experiences and formal ethnography blur, and research boundaries seem to dissolve. Containing essays by such variedluminaries as Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Vincent Crapanzano, among others, this book penetrates a variety of shadows in ethnographic field encounters. The authors recount personal and professional challenges that led them to confront the complex sources or paradoxical nature of their insights. By turning attention to the shadow sides of fieldwork and thoroughly exploring what they find there, the writers, as responsible researchers, strengthenconfidence in ethnographic knowledge. The Shadow Side of Fieldwork helps students and scholars to understand the submerged influences inherent in their research, and is essential reading for anyone involved in ethnographic fieldwork. From the Back Cover The Shadow Side of Fieldwork draws attention to typically hidden or unacknowledged aspects of ethnographic research that nevertheless shape knowledge, texts, and methodologies. These are the