Approaching Informality: Rear-Mirror Methodology and Ethnographic Inquiry

Reasonableness: legitimate reasons for illegitimate presentations at the ED

“…During my presence in the field I was guided by a variant of the rear‐mirror methodology advocated by Alena Ledeneva () for the study of informality. This included the preference for the partial insider status, the performance of the naive newcomer role, reactive self‐disclosure, and giving peculiar attention to the tensions and inconsistencies between participants’ formal and informal accounts of their work on one hand, and between verbal accounts and practical ways of doing things on the other (Wamsiedel ).…”

“Soothing My Child's Soul and My Own”: Dealing with Pregnancy Loss in Postcommunist Romania

“…As time passed and I perfected this “rear‐mirror methodology” (Ledeneva ; Wamsiedel ), consolidated my position within various social networks, got better versed in the Romanian language and local codes of behavior, and even carried myself a pregnancy that was labeled “high‐risk,” I saw people's openness gradually increase. Eventually, a considerable part of my time in the field was spent talking, directly, to parents who had lost a fetus or a child—or “parents of angels” ( părinţi de îngeri ), as they often like to call themselves.…”

“…Instead, it appeared to be much more productive to adopt a flexible research approach that left ample space for indirect talk about the topic-centering, for instance, on (successful) pregnancies, delivery-related fears, hypothetical cases of loss, others who had experienced a loss, past and present demographic policies, and other related issues. 5 As time passed and I perfected this "rear-mirror methodology" (Ledeneva 2011;Wamsiedel 2017), consolidated my position within various social networks, got better versed in the Romanian language and local codes of behavior, and even carried myself a pregnancy that was labeled "high-risk," I saw people's openness gradually increase. Eventually, a considerable part of my time in the field was spent talking, directly, to parents who had lost a fetus or a child-or "parents of angels" (pȃrinţi deîngeri), as they often like to call themselves.…”

Marshrutka (in)formality in southern Russian cities and its role in contentious transport policies

“…Moreover, anthropological methods as participant observations, go along interviews as well as an extensive analysis of the inner public discourse through newspaper reports, law texts, and public speeches have been applied during three fieldwork periods conducted between 2015-2018. The research was conducted using a flexible approach to fieldwork with the aim of gathering knowledge about locally adjusted organisation regimes of marshrutka mobility provision and their inner-legislation structure in commercial enterprises of the two respective cities (Wamsiedel 2017).…”