ABSTRACT
Ethnographic research can take place, and has taken place, in a wide variety of types of setting, including villages, towns, inner-city neighbourhoods, operating theatres, prisons, public bars, churches, schools, opera houses, universities, welfare agencies, courts, morgues, and funeral parlours. These settings vary from one another in all manner of respects that will shape the nature of the research relationships that are possible and desirable within them. Field researchers have frequently been suspected, initially at least, of being spies, government officials, insurance investigators, or of belonging to some other group that may be perceived to pose a threat. Moreover, by passing various tests, and ‘showing bottle’, good field relations were established. Generalizations about field relations are always subject to multiple exceptions. As a white woman, there was suspicion about her motives, which she only overcame through ‘showing up every day, month after month’ and building relationships on an individual level in the field.
