ABSTRACT

The problem of obtaining access to the data looms large in ethnography; and Feldman et al. (2003: vii) suggest that it often comes ‘as a rude surprise’ to researchers who have not anticipated the difficulties that could be involved.1 It is often at its most acute in initial negotiations to enter a setting and during the ‘first days in the field’; but the problem, and the issues associated with it, persist, to one degree or another, throughout the data collection process. For example, Sampson and Thomas (2003) found that, in gaining access to carry out fieldwork on board ship, obtaining permission from the owners was only the very first step: the captain was an even more important gatekeeper; and, despite the sharply hierarchical character of ship life, even his support was far from sufficient. They comment that ‘negotiating access is something of a full-time occupation in a shipboard context’ (Sampson and Thomas 2003: 173). To one degree or another, this is true of most settings.