COMMUNICATING RELUCTANCE: FIELDWORK IN A SENSITIVE COMMUNITY
COMMUNICATING RELUCTANCE: FIELDWORK IN A SENSITIVE COMMUNITY

Summary/Abstract: Fieldwork presents challenges that cannot always be overcome by following do’s and don’ts outlined in methodological guides on conducting a research. This study deals with the issue of reluctance as barrier of communication applied to the case of Certeze. It is about reluctance in a sensitive field that has become additionally sensitive as a result of exposure to repeated inquiries from researchers and the media. This paper also deals with the issue of communication using a “front” and a “back” stage when interviewing migrants engaged in seasonal labour. Our major finding is that exposure of a sensitive field to repeated inquiries from various researchers and the media may be regarded as a methodological dilemma of its own right and can thus be studied. Moreover, in fields exposed to repeated inquiries from researchers and the media the subsequent researcher has to deal with “savvy informants” who have developed certain strategies to cope with the interest. In other words they have learned to be “subjects”.

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