In this reflection we unpack students’ first fieldwork experiences and how this parallels a rite de passage. We do so in two domains: (1) students' first fieldwork with a focus on entering the field, staying in the field, and researcher identity; and (2) the impact of fieldwork experiences on students’ professional skills. Two struggles are prominent: letting go of the idea of “objectivity” and learning to deal with the whimsicalities of doing fieldwork.
In this article I examine how expectations and experiences of a socalled 'tropical paradise' are informed by tourism imaginaries of and perceptions of authentic encounters in the natural and cultural landscape of Santa Cruz la Laguna, Guatemala. These landscapes imaginaries are often rooted in, mobilized by, and performed through a sense of alienation from both 'Western life' and local daily realities, and, moreover, collectively articulated among tourists and reproduced within the tourist destination. In this article, I approach the tourism landscape as a space in and through which imaginaries are constructed, materially and symbolically, and shaping social lives of tourists while traveling. I analyze these imaginaries through unraveling tourist narratives revolving around a pursuit for natural idyll of 'the tropics' and experiences of 'authentic' encounters. I argue that landscape imaginaries are linked to the way in which alienation, on different levels, is both reified and rejuvenated among tourists and, in so doing, release different meanings and structure the local landscape. I Discuss how these imaginaries are subject to tourists' expectations of 'paradise' and experiences of being-in-the-world in Santa Cruz.
In this article we reflect on our experiences as supervisors in a field methods course in order to explore how ethnographic research practices can be used as tools in the supervision of students that conduct field research for the first time and as such to provide insights about what constitutes “good supervision.” Our reflections follow the three main stages of fieldwork: preparing and designing research, doing fieldwork, and reporting on research, as the role of the supervisor and their relationship with students transforms accordingly. We describe how we use the parallels between “doing research” and “teaching how to do research” as tools for teaching field methods through learning by doing. We pay specific attention to three central elements of ethnographic practice: building rapport, social interaction (the “supervisor effect”), and reflexivity that we use in our supervision.
The construction of a paved road in Santa Cruz la Laguna, Guatemala has been widely discussed across the municipality in recent years. This article discusses how contending narratives coexisted yet changed as the construction of the road progressed. While the road‐building project became the embodiment of political disaffection and societal problems during the construction phase as it transformed the landscape, the materiality of the completed road generated hope for prosperity linked to its economic advantages. The study of this road‐landscape nexus ethnographically explores the transformation of an infrastructure project as it moves from embodying possibility to reality.
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