ABSTRACT
There is a measure of heartbreak in fieldwork. All the places you go and all the people you meet fill your mind and your heart with stories, good and bad, wonderful and tragic. The typical ethnographer wallows in these stories throughout fieldwork, telling and re-telling them. But there comes a moment when you must abandon some of these stories. You must filter out those which are not related to your research questions. You must leave them on the cuttingroom floor. Not everything you see and hear gets put in the final report. Not everyone you meet gets to meet your clients or stakeholders. It’s a gift to hear these stories and meet these people, and it’s tough to leave them behind when the project is over.
