What are the relationships between the self and fieldwork? How do personal, emotional and identity issues impact upon working in the field?

This book argues that ethnographers, and others involved in fieldwork, should be aware of how fieldwork research and ethnographic writing construct, reproduce and implicate selves, relationships and personal identities. All too often research methods texts remain relatively silent about the ways in which fieldwork affects us and we affect the field. The book attempts to synthesize accounts of the personal experience of ethnography. In doing so, the author makes sense of the process of fieldwork research as a set of practical, intellectual and emotional accomplishments. The book is thematically arranged, and illustrated with a wide range of empirical material.

My research interests are underpinned by a sustained, critical methodological engagement with ethnographic and qualitative research. This includes work on contemporary developments in qualitative data analysis, writing and representation, as well as a focus on of the self and (auto)biography in qualitative inquiry. I have led and been involved in a number of funded projects focussing on qualitative research methods and methodological development. I am currently the Director of the Cardiff Node of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) Qualitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Innovation, Integration and Impact (QUALITI) (2005-8).

Introduction
Locating the Self
The Interpersonal Field
The Embodiment of Fieldwork
The Sex(ual) Field
Romancing the Field
Writing the Self
(Re)Presenting the Field
Consequences and Commitments