The fieldwork component of my research would be participation in various online communities, but it could potentially also be spending some time talking to people in person in a school, or community setting.
I can definitely see the value in fieldwork, but I don't necessarily think that it is always better than other types of research. In INF 1003 we had a guest lecture about ethnography, and it was pointed out that there are downsides to participating in the communities that you are studying, and I think that those definitely need to be taken in to account. Some possible shortcomings are the possibility of people's behaviour being influenced by the perceived goals of the research, or your own biases getting in the way. While the work of anthropologists, for example, have allowed us to gain great insights into a variety of different cultures around the world it can be difficult to separate the worldview and the influence of these researchers on the subjects from their findings. This is not to say that this is not also true of research that is conducted in a library, but I think it is important to consider this before privileging one type of research over another.
No comments:
Post a Comment