ABSTRACT
My methodological approach to this study is grounded in a belief that the acquisition of knowledge cannot be separated from either the methods from which we gather data (Fonow and Cook 1991; Gottfried 1996) or our own social identities as central instruments throughout the research process (Wolf 1996). This chapter recounts the collection of knowledge that informs my study on domestic labor in South Africa's new democracy. Part of this story details the multiple methodological techniques I employed to acquire the data at the center of this study. Yet each step of that process was shaped by the constantly shifting dynamics of the field, the complexities of my case study of private households and my own identity, assumptions, emotions and intellectual development throughout this project. Therefore, I see these two parts of the research story as integrally
connected to the content and analytic findings throughout this book. This chapter introduces three central parts of that story: the methodological 'directions' for this study, the complexities of applying these methods in a dynamically shifting field context and the meaningful components of my own research identity as the lens through which these data were acquired.
