ABSTRACT
Ethnographic researchers are already attuned to attending to the consequences of being embedded in a sociocultural context. Working across very different regional and national locations, the relationships between these spaces are not always immediately evident. However, the value of being alert to resonances between spaces can be illustrated by a comment made by US-based researcher Jennifer Rowsell on viewing photographs of one of the libraries in the Australian pilot study. Social researchers are often advised to have an unobtrusive presence and avoid acting in such a way as to change the conditions they are observing. The process of establishing the boundaries of a research site is where the ‘groundedness’ of traditional ethnography rubs up against the fluidity and ephemerality of mobility, associations, and networks. Data produced using the methods described above has allowed us to build a picture of the potential and actual networks, pathways, and trajectories taken by people, material resources, and ideas about parenting and early learning.
