Doing Field Projects. John Forrest

awareness that using human subjects in sociology, anthropology, or experimental psychology could also potentially inflict harm, either personal or social, and safeguards needed to be put in place to minimize risk. Hence, every university has a committee devoted to assessing the potential for danger in using human subjects for research, and either approving that research, or not. At first blush you might think that interviewing people about their lives would carry few, if any, risks, however, unfortunately, that is not the case. Historically, anthropological fieldwork is littered with examples of people who have been harmed by information they have communicated to anthropologists. This point leads to the next ones.

      Informed Consent

      All fieldwork requires the informed consent (in some form or other) of the participants. The actual form of the consent, and the method to obtain it, vary from project to project, but the basic principles are always the same: people with whom you are working as ethnographic subjects must be aware of your purposes in using them for information, and how you intend to use the data obtained from them. However, the type of informed consent required can vary significantly from situation to situation. For instance, if you are documenting a public event, there is no need to obtain consent from everyone involved when collecting generalized data because the public has been invited expressly to be actively engaged with the event (in some sort of participant capacity – even if only as a consumer/audience member). When you begin talking to individuals about their experiences at such public events, you do need some kind of informal, informed consent, but this need not be much more than a simple question (preferably recorded) such as, “I am writing a paper for a college class on __________ (whatever kind of event it is). Is it all right to ask you some questions?” Scheduled, one-on-one fieldwork, such as life history interviews, requires more in the way of informed consent.

      Let us unpack the word “informed.” Clinical trials for medications require that the participants be made aware of the risks involved in taking the medication, and also of the protocols (such as whether there will be control groups not taking the medication, and what the chances are that a participant will be in the control group or not). Experimental psychology research trials usually require that the participants be made aware of protocols, including whether deception is going to be employed, and that adequate debriefing after the trials is built into the procedures so that participants are eventually fully informed about procedures (and will have access to the results eventually).

      Being informed and giving consent is much simpler for participants in qualitative anthropological fieldwork, partly because such research does not involve controlled experimentation, and partly because deception is not ethically permissible (see below). Quantitative fieldwork is a somewhat different matter, but the projects in this volume are all qualitative. In the projects in this volume that require informed consent (mostly interviews), “informed” means making sure that your interviewee knows your purpose in conducting the fieldwork, and what you will do with the information once you have collected it. The simplest way to accomplish this is to start a recording with something like:

      My name is ___________ and I am here with ____________ talking about __________. I am going to be using part of the interview for ___________. Before we start, may I ask you if this is acceptable to you?

If at some later stage you have the good fortune to publish parts of the fieldwork, you may need to return to get a signed consent from the informant. This will depend on the requirements of the publisher. It is also advisable at the beginning of the recording to tell your interviewee that it is perfectly acceptable for them to stop the interview at any point, for any reason.

      Finally, I will point out that minors are not legally capable of giving informed consent. Therefore, by usual ethical standards, fieldwork with children is not advisable. Technically, a parent or guardian can give consent on behalf of a minor, but it is simplest to just avoid children altogether. That way you are never in jeopardy.

      Openness

      I usually had at least one student each year in my methods class who wanted to hide recording equipment from participant-observer events to capture the “real thing,” or take photos without permission. Such practices are always unethical. There is a bit of a grey area here when it comes to public events, but the guidelines are straightforward. I err on the side of caution. That is, I never take a person’s photograph without their approval (whether I am going to disseminate it or not). In this case, you are not looking for formal informed consent, you are just asking something like, “Is it all right to take your photo.” You may be surprised at the percentage of people who refuse – for whatever reason. After all, it is intrusive to take a stranger’s photograph.

      In public settings it can be acceptable to take group photos, especially if other participants are doing the same. But publishing such photos may still land you in ethical trouble. Publishers may refuse to use a photo if the people in it are identifiable (and you do not have informed consent from them). I ran into this problem when picking cover photos for one of my books. The photo was of a baptism by full immersion in a local body of water which I thought was remarkably engaging, but my publisher would not allow it. Even though the event was in the open and fully accessible to the public at large, it was not ethical to publish the photo.

      When you are dealing with events that are open to the public, you must be careful. Take, for example, a Sunday church service or Friday prayers at the local Mosque. You are likely freely invited to attend, but your motives for attending may not be clear to all in attendance. In general, it is not ethical to make recordings at such events, and photography is likely forbidden. You can speak to the imam or pastor before the service, and/or you can speak to participants to discover what is and is not permissible. You can also simply look around. Are other participants taking notes or photos? If not, you should not either. Apart from being good ethical practice, this injunction is also good fieldwork practice in general: you do not want to draw attention to yourself unnecessarily.

      Events that have their own internal ethical guidelines prohibiting reportage must be strictly avoided. These include the likes of 12-step meetings, Masonic rituals, fraternity initiations, and so forth. They are quite intentionally secret affairs, so that even if you are eligible to attend them, you may not report on them. No exceptions.

      Anonymity/Confidentiality

Routinely, fieldworkers preserve the anonymity of the people they are engaging with and the places where they have conducted fieldwork when they present their findings. Likewise, you should use pseudonyms for all the people and places involved in your fieldwork. There are special cases where anonymity is next to impossible, but you must make a good faith effort. There are also many cases where anonymity may seem to be absurd. Suppose, for example, you are documenting how your granny makes the chicken soup that has been a family favorite for generations. Using her real name may not seem to be problematic to you, and chances are that it is not. Nonetheless, it is always best to start with pseudonyms. You can use real names later if the need arises, but you cannot hide a real name with a pseudonym after you have revealed it.

      Getting into the habit of disguising people and places in your notes and presented materials is also a solidly good practice that you should get used to from the outset. It should end up being second nature to you. Professionals acknowledge that attempts at preserving anonymity are not cast-iron secure. Anyone who is really intent on finding out where (precisely) I have conducted fieldwork and with whom I have worked should be able to discover exact details without too much difficulty. But doing so will take effort, and casually prying minds will be excluded. Likewise, do not share your fieldwork details with others without safeguards in place.

4 Research Design

      Good research design lies at the heart of all good field research, and you should, in close consultation with your instructor, give careful consideration to how exactly you are going to carry out each project before you get too deeply into it. Each of the projects in this book has some introductory material on how to approach it, and there are many different strategies depending on the nature of the project. Choosing someone to interview in order to