Time to Kill the Witch? Reflections on Power Relationships When Leaving the Field
Gender Identity and Research Relationships
ISBN: 978-1-78635-026-8, eISBN: 978-1-78635-025-1
Publication date: 10 May 2016
Abstract
Purpose
To demonstrate why leaving the ethnographic field provides an excellent opportunity for the researcher to engage in reflexivity on all aspects of the research and especially on issues of power, age and gender.
Methodology/approach
An autobiographical reflection on a 40 year career as an ethnographer.
Findings
The autobiographical literature and the methods literature on ethnography has neglected leaving the field, and the opportunities that process provides for reflectivity. The author reflects on issues of power, age and gender as they have been implicated in the various fieldsites studied in her career. The particular field site featured centrally is two martial arts, savate and capoeira.
Originality/value
To improve the quality of reflexive writing on leaving the field.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Mrs R. B. Jones for word processing the chapter, to Achilles, Trovao, and all the other people who have led me into the roda and to Randall Cotgrave ‘my’ savate teacher.
Citation
Delamont, S. (2016), "Time to Kill the Witch? Reflections on Power Relationships When Leaving the Field", Gender Identity and Research Relationships (Studies in Qualitative Methodology, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1042-319220160000014013
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited