Emergency in practice

This chapter examines a complex anthropological research project and how it was accomplished in an emergency setting. The chapter intends to outline some of the practicalities, and the practice, of ethnographic fieldwork in emergencies. It describes some administrative and preparatory challenges, and the tools and techniques used to accomplish the research, along with an ethnographic example of the work in practice. This chapter demonstrates that ethical, valuable, long-term ethnographic research can be undertaken in complex emergencies. As such, it hopes to inform similar studies in the future.