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A Handbook for Social Science Field Research

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At the beginning of our own research careers, one over a quarter of a century ago and the other ten years ago, each of us had the good for- tune to work as part of a team with researchers more seasoned than we who showed us how to apply what we had learned as graduate students to our experiences in “the field.” For one of us (SC), “the field” was Thailand. For the other (EP), it was the human brain, a “field” in only a nontraditional sense of the term. Despite the fact that our backgrounds as researchers could not be more different, there is a memory we share: the anguished moment when we realized that our best-laid research plans had failed miserably in the real world. Fortunately for both of us, our senior colleagues were always there to cushion the fall. They reminded us that we were not failures; they pointed us to books and articles that provided us with the knowledge we needed to understand why our research plans had failed. They were there to assure us that the most important lesson we could learn about conducting research in “the field” was to be flexible, to be ready to shift gears at any moment, and that we were not expected to have all the answers. Fast-forward to 1999. One of us (SC) was now a member of the faculty at Princeton University, the other (EP) a program director at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). By now each of us independently had learned the three cardinal tenets of field research:

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Series Title

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Call Number

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Publisher

: ., 2006

Collation

1-281

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

1-4129-1680-1

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NONE

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Edition

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Subject(s)

A Handbook for Social Science Field Research

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