This is an excellent collection of papers which celebrates the best of traditional approaches to fieldwork, whilst also looking to its future. The Handbook will quickly become essential reading for the novice and experienced fieldworker across many of the social sciences--Chris Pole, University of LeicesterFieldwork is widely practiced but little written about, yet accounts of the exotic, mundane, complex and often dangerous are central to not only sociology and anthropology but also geography, social psychology and criminology. In all these - increasingly overlapping - fields, experience underlies any comprehensive understanding of social life. The SAGE Handbook of Fieldwork presents the first major overview of this method in all its variety, introducing the reader to the strengths, weaknesses, and real world applications of fieldwork techniques. Its 22 carefully chosen chapters are each based on a substantive field of empirical enquiry, written by an acknowledged expert in the field. The range is impressive: from the traditional to the virtual, concerning subjects as diverse as emotion, sexuality, sport, embodiment, identity, self-narrative, fieldwork in organizations, science and technology. Specifically intended for use in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in qualitative research design and methodology in sociology, anthropology, criminology, urban studies, social geography, public health and education, the handbook will also prove beneficial to academic researchers in these and other disciplines. As important as fieldwork is to education, sociology, anthropology, geography, social psychology and criminology, we have relatively few to guide us except, perhaps, by example. This collection of 22 essays seeks to give students and practitioners solid advice on the intricacies of conducting solid fieldwork. With topics such as online fieldwork and an interdisciplinary approach, this includes the new as well as the traditional methods, locating fieldwork within its tradition and firmly within its own logic. Contributors cover ethnography, the geography of social research, situating the respondents in such groups as the middle class or ethnic minority, conducting fieldwork as a reflexive exercise, working with dangerous topics that reveal emotion or the secrets of sexuality, working with embodiment and identity, conducting fieldwork in organizations, as in police studies or education, bringing science and technology into the mix, and locating fresh fields of research. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) This is an excellent collection of papers which celebrates the best of traditional approaches to fieldwork, whilst also looking to its future. The Handbook will quickly become essential reading for the novice and experienced fieldworker across many of the social sciences - Chris Pole, University of LeicesterThe SAGE Handbook of Fieldwork presents the first major overview of this method in all its variety, introducing the reader to the strengths, weaknesses, and real world applications of fieldwork techniques. Its 22 carefully chosen chapters are each based on a substantive field of empirical enquiry, written by an acknowledged expert in the field. The range is impressive: from the traditional to the virtual, concerning subjects as diverse as emotion, sexuality, sport, embodiment, identity, self-narrative, fieldwork in organizations, science and technology.
