Research Realities in the Social Sciences

This book sets up the prospect of learning about one of social science's most important methods--fieldwork--by discussing its frequent failures and frustrations. While some books do take up related issues, most represent the research process in ideal and potentially abstract forms-a process rather void of human fallibility and separate from the everyday context in which academics conduct their work. The collection delivered here is much more acutely oriented to the problems of conducting fieldwork--a considerable contrast to the squeaky-clean depictions of fieldwork in standard undergraduate methods texts and occasional reflexive treatises in methodological journals. The contributors in this volume address a wide range of issues and obstacles that they have confronted at various stages in their respective research careers, and their real research examples are drawn from the authors' respective disciplines of anthropology, political science, historical archaeology, criminology, social psychology, and sociology. Topics range from power struggles with institutional review boards to conducting fieldwork in dangerous settings or in societies undergoing political transformation. In reflecting on their personal experiences, authors provide practical guidance on how to overcome the types of problems that typically confront academic researchers in their daily work. This book will be a valuable resource for all collections in the social sciences.