By Means of Re-Membering: Notes on a Fieldwork with English Children

An ethnography of a children’s renal unit: experiences of children and young people with long‐term renal illness

“…Ethnography facilitates a focus on research participants’ vision of their worlds, their relationships and also their points of view in a particular context (Hammersley 1998). Also ethnography permits children to contribute to research, in their own time and in their own ways (Bluebond‐Langer 1978, Fine & Sandstrom 1988, Laerke 1998, Emond 2005). This methodology is ideal for the study of everyday behaviour in a local setting (Savage 1995, 2000), making it appropriate to explore participants’ experiences in a hospital renal unit.…”

Practising ethics: from general antropology to the antropology of childhood and back again

“…Is it possible to conduct participant observation and construct symmetrical relationships 24 with children? The answers to these questions emerge implicitly in debates between researchers analysing relationships of power and domination between adults and children, or examining the researcher's status, place and role in the field (Waksler 1986;Mandell 1991;Laerke 1998;Christensen 2004;Danic et al 2006;Christensen & James 2008b;Lignier 2008).…”

“…According to some, it is possible to reduce this alterity by assuming the role of least--adult (Mandell 1991) or enacting "generational performances" (Hejoaka & Zotian 2016). For others, it cannot be reduced, but it can be negotiated (Laerke 1998;Mayall 2008) through strategies such as assuming one role rather than another (supervisor, leader, observer or friend) and/or taking a "physically distant position" (Fine 1987;Danic et al 2006).…”

Working With Child Prostitutes in Thailand

“…Often they did not have the vocabulary to talk about what they did or they had started prostitution only recently and had little idea of what it actually involved. Other researchers have dealt with these problems much more successfully than I did (see Baker et al [1996] or Laerke [1998] for example), but transparency and honesty in discussion of fieldwork methods are important, and with hindsight, with more imaginative methods, I might have got closer to some of the younger children. The children I did work most closely with, therefore, were usually older and more articulate and also had a longer history of prostitution.…”