Unfinished business: a reflection on leaving the field

Thomas, Gareth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4959-2337 2023. Unfinished business: a reflection on leaving the field. Smith, Robin and Delamont, Sara, eds. Leaving the Field: Methodological Insights from Ethnographic Exits, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 74-85. (10.7765/9781526157669) Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Whilst confessional tales are a common feature of the research process, stories of exiting the field remain scarce. In this chapter, I reflect upon my experiences of leaving a post-industrial town after a long period of study. First, I trouble the popular narrative of ‘leaving’ as a voluntary and deliberate decision. My abrupt departure from the research site prompted questions and anxieties about researcher responsibilities and commitments. Second, I highlight the affective nature of leaving the field and sketch out the interpersonal intensity of the relationship between both the researcher and the participants. Third, I reflect upon my trepidation about writing once I had left the site, both in terms of doing justice to participants’ lives and not further stigmatising a maligned community. By sketching out not the reasons for leaving the field, but what concerns emerged because of my departure, I argue that researchers must treat disengagement as a serious matter – pragmatically and analytically – which rarely leaves us unaffected.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
ISBN:	9781526157652
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 November 2022
Last Modified:	15 Apr 2024 14:24
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/154393

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