Locating the Field Space, Place and Context in Anthropology [Hardcover]

Are reports of the death of conventional fieldwork in anthropology greatly exaggerated? This book takes a critical look at the latest developments and key issues in fieldwork. The nature of 'locality' itself is problematic for both research subjects and fieldworkers, on the grounds that it must now be maintained and represented in relation to widening (and fragmenting) social frames and networks.

Such developments have raised questions concerning the nature of ethnographic presence and scales of comparison. From the social space of a cybercafe to cities in India, the UK and South Africa among others, this book features a wide range of ethnographic studies that provide new ways of looking at the concepts of 'locality' and 'site'. It shows that rather than taking key fieldwork processes such as globalization and mobility for granted, anthropologists are well-placed to examine and critique the totalizing assumptions behind these notions.

Simon Coleman is Professor of Anthropology, University of Sussex.
Peter Collins is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Durham.

Introduction--Simon Coleman & Peter Collins * 'Beyond the Verandah: Fieldwork, Locality and the Production of Knowledge in a South African City'--Leslie Bank * 'Diaspora, Cosmopolis, Global Refuge: Three Voices of the Supranational City'--Nigel Rapport * 'Perception, Routes and Sociability through Walking around Aberdeen'--Jo Lee and Tim Ingold * 'The Internet, Cybercafs and the New Social Spaces of Bangalorean Youth'--Nicholas Nisbett * 'Studying Down, Up, Sideways, Through, Backward, Forward, Away and at Home: Reflections on the Field Worries of an Expansive Discipline'--Ulf Hannerz * 'Far from the Trobriands? Biography as Field'--Sigridur Duna Kristmundsdottir * 'Post-Diasporic Indian Communities: A New Generation'--Anjoom Mukadam & Sharmina Mawani, School of Oriental and African Studies * 'Rendering and Gendering Mobile Subjects in a Globalised World of Mountaineering'--SusanlÃ%