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In our last message to this list we wrote:
> A group of researchers at the University of Southampton, UK are
> interested in hearing from you about your experiences of interviewing individuals and
> groups alone. We are contacting you, as a member of this discussion list, as we feel you
> may have some experiences of working alone in one-to-one or group interview situations.
> In particular we are interested to hear about how you organise safety when you go out
> into the field, and any other issues you would like to raise about the experience of
> interviewing alone. We would also like to hear about any 'difficult' situations you have
> experienced as a result of being a lone researcher.
Having now received a large number of responses to the above request for information, we
are able to pose some more specific questions to the list. We would like to hear from
anyone who did not reply to our first email request, and would be interested in telling us
about their experiences of doing fieldwork alone.
Our research is unfunded (hence the email contact) and informal in the sense that three
researchers (all engaged in lone interviews in respondents homes) all raised the issue of
researcher safety in the field and decided to find out what was 'out there'. We are
conscious that we do not want to scaremonger, nor necessarily raise this issue as a
priority above any other; most importantly however, we also want to hear about safety
issues for men as well as women. The purpose of this exploratory foray into the field is
to find out what and who is out there, and to listen to their experiences. We then hope to
collate responses and use them as the basis for a paper (for a methods/research journal
perhaps) and to create a set of guidelines/tips based on your (as well as our ideas) that
could be used by those teaching/doing research.
We therefore ask your permission to use any email responses you send to
us as data. We would like to contextualise your responses in relation to the general
disciplines you are working in, your gender and age, and the arena in which you conducted
your research. However, beyond this basic background information, all responses will
remain completely anonymous.
If you could include the following information in your reply we would be grateful:
· Gender
· Age
· Occupation
· Discipline/area of work ( if applicable)
· Fieldwork setting
· Country of Fieldwork
· Focus of Fieldwork
· Type of interviews, average duration and time conducted (ie day or evening)
· What precautions do you take to ensure safety for yourself and your respondents?
· Were you given any guidelines for safety before you began fieldwork?
· Have you experienced any particular incidents that have concerned you?
· Have your behaviour/precautions changed as a result of these experiences in the field?
· Has anything else contributed towards the adaptation of your safety practices?
· What'best practice' would you recommend for researchers interviewing alone?
Many thanks for your time and interest
Liz Kenyon, Sheila Hawker and Mel Semple
Department of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Southampton
UK
--------------------
Dr. Liz Kenyon
Research Fellow
Department of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Southampton
SO17 1BJ
Tel: 01703 594863
Fax: 01703 593859
Email: [log in to unmask]
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