Doing Anthropological Research
Doing Anthropological Research provides a practical toolkit for carrying out research. It works through the research process chapter by chapter, from the planning and proposal stage to methodologies, secondary research, ethno-graphic fieldwork, ethical concerns and writing strategies. Case study examples are provided throughout to illustrate the particular issues and dilemmas that may be encountered. This handy guide will be invaluable to upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students who are studying or intending to use anthropological methods in their research.
Natalie Konopinski received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and has taught anthropological research methods to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is currently a visiting scholar at George Mason University, USA.
First published in 2014
by Routledge
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2014 Natalie Konopinski for selection and editorial matter; individual contributors, their contributions
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Doing anthropological research : a practical guide / edited by
Natalie Konopinski.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. AnthropologyResearch. 2. AnthropologyMethodology. 3. AnthropologyFieldwork. I. Konopinski, Natalie.
GN42.D65 2013
301.072dc23
2013001760
ISBN: 978-0-415-69754-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-69755-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-74387-4 (ebk)
Joost Fontein is a social anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where he teaches the Imagining Anthropological Research course upon which this book is framed. His research explores the political imbrications of landscapes, things and human substances in Zimbabwe. His Ph.D. (published in 2006) exploring the politics of heritage around Great Zimbabwe won the 2004 ASA Audrey Richards Prize. His second book Graves & Water: Belonging, Sovereignty and the Political Materialities of Landscape is almost complete. His third book explores the affective presence and emotive materialities of human remains. He is editor of Journal of Southern African Studies, founder of Critical African Studies, and co-founder of the Bones Collective research group.
Ian Harper is Head of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He has conducted research in South Asia in the area of medical anthropology and development, and is currently a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. He has taught research methods, and has extensive dissertation supervision experience at undergraduate, M.Sc. and Ph.D. levels. He was the co-founder of Anthropology Matters and has acted as the Ethics Officer for the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth (ASA).
John Harries is based at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and received his doctorate in Social Anthropology in 2002. He has done years of ethnographic fieldwork in Newfoundland, Canada, as well as research with health and social care professionals in the UK and has, more recently, undertaken a project concerning urban redevelopment and the industrial heritage of Edinburgh. He has extensive experience of teaching qualitative research methods at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and to a diverse array of audiences, from arts students, to anthropologists, to public service managers. He has also supervised many students through to the successful completion of their undergraduate and masters dissertations.
Lotte Hoek is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research interests are visual media, contemporary art and urban ethnography in South Asia. She has undertaken long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the film industry of Bangladesh. Her monograph Cut-Pieces: Celluloid Obscenity and Popular Cinema in Bangladesh is forthcoming from Columbia University Press.
Laura Jeffery is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where she has taught research methods at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She has also run qualitative methods training workshops in Ghana, Kenya, India and Pakistan for research teams working on a UK Department for International Development (DfID) Research Consortium based at the University of Cambridge. She is author of Chagos Islanders in Mauritius and the UK: Forced Displacement and Onward Migration (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), and holds a Research Fellowship funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to study debates about environmental knowledge in the Chagos Archipelago.
Tobias Kelly is based at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research and teaching interests are in the broad area of political and legal anthropology. He has a particular interest in multi-sited transnational research, and has carried out fieldwork in the Middle East, the UK and at the UN. He has taught research methods at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels.
Natalie Konopinski received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and has taught anthropological research methods to undergraduate and M.Sc. level students. Her research explores security practices, anticipation, protection and the state in Israel. She is currently Visiting Scholar at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, USA, where she is writing her monograph Securityland: Anticipation, Suspicion and Citizenship in Tel Aviv.
Neil Thin is a social anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, with 30 years of combined experience in research, planning, policy-making and grassroots activity in the UK, South Asia, South-East Asia, Africa, and Latin America. His research, teaching, and advisory work is always interdisciplinary, focusing on the intercultural understanding and promotion of well-being and happiness through social policies and development interventions. He is the author of Social Progress and Sustainable Development (Rugby: ITDG Publications, 2002) and Social Happiness: Research into Policy and Practice (Bristol: Policy Press, 2012) as well as many policy, research and training documents for international development organizations.
