Rethinking Whiteness and Masculinity in Geography: Drinking Alcohol in the Field in Vietnam

This paper evaluates the spatial politics of fieldwork in Vietnam in order to think through the connections between whiteness, masculinity, and geography. In drawing attention to how the consumption of alcohol underwrites daily activities in Vietnam, as well as fieldwork activities, I show that research ethics are underpinned by unique spatial contexts that do not conform to conventional accounts of masculinity and whiteness in the global North. I make three interrelated arguments. First, I argue that debates in geography about whiteness and masculinity must be understood alongside fieldwork experiences in the global South. Second, I invite geographers to think through how research ethics are shaped by spatially contingent productions of whiteness and masculinity. Lastly, I challenge geographers to keep pace with how disruptive categories like whiteness and masculinity are produced outside of the global North.     

难民认同：基于苦难历史记忆、政策及现实利益的想象——以广东省小岭华侨农场越南归侨为例

本文选择小岭华侨农场越南归侨为研究对象,运用田野调查和历史档案资料,阐释了在特殊迁移经历、政府倾斜性扶持政策及现实利益等因素的影响下,华侨农场越南归侨实现和巩固了对难民身份的想象与认同。     

Challenges and Opportunities in Cross-cultural Geographic Inquiry

While qualitative fieldwork in cross-cultural settings is central to human geography, there has been limited focus in the literature on the expectations and skills required to succeed as a field researcher in this area. Some practical advice is available for researchers who are new to cross-cultural fieldwork (e.g. graduate students, junior faculty members) and for advisers preparing young academics for such endeavours; however, themes are often treated individually rather than as a collective whole. This paper provides suggestions for novice field researchers by drawing on the experiences of four female graduate students engaged in qualitative geographic research. It identifies some major issues that influence the feasibility and efficacy of cross-cultural fieldwork, and provides practical suggestions to help prospective researchers plan for and implement field-based research projects in these contexts.     

Global Application of Indigenous Archaeology: Community Based Participatory Research in Turkey

What does Indigenous archaeology offer archaeologists who do not work on Native land, at Indigenous sites, or with Indigenous people? This article demonstrates the broad applicability of Indigenous archaeology and the way it can be utilized by archaeologists working in any locale. Through recent fieldwork in south central Turkey working with a non-indigenous community of local residents near the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük, I demonstrate ways that the theories and methodology of Indigenous archaeology are a useful and relevant part of practice for archaeologists working in areas that are neither on Native land nor involve sites related to indigenous heritage. It also points to the need for further investigation into collaborative methods for the development of a set of best practices within archaeological and heritage management settings.     

Combining research-based student fieldwork with staff research to reinforce teaching and learning

This paper addresses the relationship between teaching and research in a fieldwork context by seeking student views over 3 years across two institutions to assess the perceived value of blending staff research activity with student fieldwork. Student views were solicited using questionnaires. Despite the contrasting environments, locations and approaches of the institutions’ respective field courses, student perceptions are remarkably similar. Engaging in research activity in fieldwork (and specifically combining research-based student fieldwork with staff research) is perceived strongly to add value to study for a degree, as well as stimulate interest in the subject and improve understanding of methodologies employed.     

“A Riddle,Wrapped in a Mystery,inside an Enigma”: Teaching Post-Socialist Transformation to UK Students in Moscow

In the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, teaching post-socialist transition to undergraduate students has become increasingly challenging. This paper relates the development, planning and operation of a fieldwork module in Moscow, for Year Three geography undergraduates. It argues that ‘on-street’ teaching and imaginative use of visual sources can partially overcome the linguistic drawbacks of fieldwork in this context. It supports the utility of fieldwork for teaching post-socialist transformation, but stresses the need for local knowledge and contacts, linguistic ability on the part of module staff, and careful planning, to overcome anticipated and unexpected challenges.     

Bastard Spice or Champagne of Cinnamon? Conflicting Value Creations along Cinnamon Commodity Chains in Northern Vietnam

In upland northern Vietnam ethnic minority farmers are cultivating what some global retailers refer to as the ‘champagne of cinnamon’. However, a closer examination reveals that this spice is not ‘true cinnamon’ but cassia, with the exact species remaining uncertain. Drawing on commodity chain literature and debates over the creation of value and quality, the aims of this article are twofold. First, it investigates the making of ‘Vietnamese cinnamon’ as it moves from the hills of northern Vietnam to supermarket shelves in the global North, and the actors and livelihoods involved. Second, it explores how different actors define ‘Vietnamese cinnamon’ and infuse it with often-contradictory values. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork over a four-year period, the study finds that the state and cooperating non-government organizations tend to ignore ongoing taxonomic confusion while creating a geographical indicator to highlight the uniqueness of this commodity. Yet, concurrently, exporters and retailers in the global North focus on other distinctions as key marketing tools including remoteness, ethnicity, taste and health benefits. The article thus calls for an expanded analytical focus on competing value creation for agro-food products and on the impacts for commodity producers, in this case ethnic minority farmers in the global South.     

Archaeological Research in Conflict Areas: Practice and Responsibilities

This paper discusses the relationships between ethics and archaeological fieldwork. It represents the author’s reflections on her own archaeological work in an area, Lebanon, which has in recent times been wracked by considerable violence. The stimulus for the paper came mainly from the question posed by the session organizers and editors of this issue: what would constitute ethical archaeological practice, especially in situations of war and violence but also in cultural contexts in which different approaches to understanding and valuing historical knowledge predominate than those typically held by archaeologists. Two concrete examples from my own fieldwork in Beirut and Kamid el-Loz make clear how the scientific interests of historical-archaeological research and those of people who live in the research area can be reconciled despite specific instances in which they diverge.     

Proceeding through Colonial Past-Presents in Fieldwork: Methodological Lessons on Accountability,Refusal, and Autonomy

This article examines how the colonial past manifests within the present through an analysis of ethnographic and archival fieldwork. Drawing on feminist geographic scholarship for decolonising knowledge production, I argue that geographers have a responsibility to the people they work with and the places where they conduct research to know what came before. Through an analysis of how the colonial past surfaced in everyday and ongoing experiences of negotiating consent during fieldwork, I show how reflecting on the colonial past-present offers insights into the colonial power geometries of knowledge production. Proceeding through the colonial past-present offers useful lessons on being accountable to people and lands, recognising refusal, and making autonomy. While this article is focused on my experiences as a white settler scholar from the USA who did research in a Mixe community in Oaxaca, Mexico, proceeding through colonial past-presents offers lessons to any and all geographers who struggle to unsettle the persistent colonial power geometries of knowledge production.     

Addressing the new agenda for fieldwork in higher education

Abstract

Recent changes in higher education in the UK effectively make the traditional mode of fieldwork delivery unsustainable. This, coupled with criticisms of past fieldwork practices, suggests the need for a thorough re‐evaluation of the role and delivery of fieldwork programmes in contemporary higher education. A prudent place to start addressing this new agenda is an evaluation of some basic educational theory and the objectives of fieldwork. From such basic considerations, some of the contemporary problems with teaching fieldwork can be more effectively tackled and strategies for designing field exercises devised.     

Student Perceptions of Geography and Environmental Science Fieldwork in the Light of Restricted Access to the Field,Caused by Foot and Mouth Disease in the UK in 2001

Internationally, fieldwork is generally seen as intrinsic to the very nature of geographical education. However, objective experimentation comparing student learning experiences with and without fieldwork is rare. During 2001 in the UK, fieldwork was withdrawn from many university degree programmes as Foot and Mouth Disease led to restrictions on access to the countryside. This restriction provided an unexpected opportunity to assess student perceptions of fieldwork in the light of its absence and to review those alternative learning strategies which were put in its place (where appropriate). To this end, nominal group technique (NGT) was applied to five groups of students from five separate UK universities to obtain information on the groups' perceptions of the value of fieldwork. NGT elicited almost 300 responses from 33 final-year students representing a high level of group consensus on the issues involved. Rationalisation of responses identified 12 categories, which reflect and amplify key educational objectives addressed by fieldwork in geography and environmental sciences from existing theoretical literature. Results demonstrate that student perception of fieldwork (based on previous university-level field experiences) is overwhelmingly positive. The groups identified the experience of geographical reality, developing subject knowledge, acquiring technical, transferable and holistic skills, and working with peers and lecturers as being the most important perceived benefits of fieldwork. Negative impacts of fieldwork included high levels of time consumption. Using a systematic and objective methodology, these results confirm, in a novel rigorous multi-institutional approach, the conception of geography and environmental science fieldwork as being of significant value for the overall student learning experience.     

Pedagogical benefits of fieldwork of the students at the Faculty of Geography in the light of the Bologna Process

Students’ opinion and assessment of the quality of teaching presents an important segment of the evaluation of the quality of teaching at university level in accordance with the principles of the Bologna Process. In this study, we have examined opinion of students at the Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade on the pedagogical benefits of fieldwork, which presents an important determinant of geographers’ education. A total of 215 students evaluated pedagogical benefits of fieldwork in relation to didactic-methodical aspects such as: immediate contact with objects of knowledge; interdisciplinary study of a problem; application of various methods of teaching; enhancement of motivation for learning; improvement of social relations, and development of skills necessary for fieldwork. Research results indicate that students recognize and positively evaluate benefits of fieldwork. Final-year students as well as students who had more days of fieldwork evaluate benefits of fieldwork in a more positive way. Research results indicate the need to improve the quality of fieldwork and increase its share in the curriculum of the Faculty of Geography in accordance with the constructivist paradigm in education, which places a student at the centre of educational process, and fundamental principles of the Bologna Process.     

Fieldwork in geography education: defining or declining? The state of fieldwork in Canadian undergraduate geography programs

This paper investigates the prevalence of fieldwork in undergraduate Geography programs in Canada. It examines the presence of fieldwork, provided through both field courses and courses that include fieldwork components, by reviewing program requirements and course offerings in undergraduate geography programs. The research explores the extent to which fieldwork is a required component of an undergraduate degree and scrutinizes the integration of fieldwork within geography programs. The results indicate that few programs include fieldwork requirements and that overall there is limited integration of fieldwork in programs of study.     

二十世纪马来西亚华人传统音乐文化的主题变迁

在实地田野考察和搜集大量史料的基础上,对20世纪马来西亚华人传统音乐文化的变迁进行了梳理和探讨,论述了其从传统地方性到新式统一性再到本土化发展的内在联系。华人传统音乐文化的变迁,使得马来西亚华人传统音乐文化从华人移民音乐成长为华族音乐文化,成为当地多元文化的重要组成部分。在这个变迁中,社团起到了很重要的支持作用。     

Applying a systems approach to the management of change in fieldwork

Abstract

Fieldwork is increasingly subject to a variety of external pressures. The management of change in fieldwork provision can be aided by an appreciation of the systemic nature of fieldwork. Social paradigms of team behaviour are particularly applicable to fieldwork, and to understanding some systems failures.     

Multicultural group work on field excursions to promote student teachers’ intercultural competence

As a response to the intercultural challenges of Geography Education, this study seeks to determine factors fostering intercultural competence of student teachers. Based on a one-week multicultural field excursion of eight German and eight Turkish students in Kayseri (Turkey) on Education for Sustainable Development, we used qualitative interviews to evaluate changes in the 16 student teachers’ intercultural competence. Findings strongly indicate that multicultural fieldwork fosters intercultural learning on a personal level.     

Theorizing the City: Recent Research in Urban Anthropology

Half of the world's population now lives in cities. This number is expected to grow to two-thirds in the next fifty years. And yet, it is only recently that anthropologists have begun to take urban contexts seriously as fieldwork sites. In this article, I analyze three recent volumes on urban anthropology which each propose a distinctive theoretical and methodological approach to the study of the city. I suggest that there is a fine line to be drawn between urban determinism—the suggestion that the city is the pivotal force in shaping individual lives, a perspective that ignores both human agencies and the complexities of causality—and anthropology which relegates the city to mere context, ethnographies that, almost by chance take place in urban contexts but say little about the realities of city life. The texts examined share two features in common: firstly, they are most effective when they, through close ethnographic or archival engagement, show the complexity and variation in urban contexts; and secondly, each text displays an absolute commitment to ethnographic fieldwork as a powerful tool to understand the lived experience of the urban. As a commitment to long-term participant observation is the sine qua non of our discipline, my central question is whether “urban anthropology,” is not just anthropology after all?     

Using GIS in an Earth Sciences field course for quantitative exploration,data management and digital mapping

Field courses are essential for subjects like Earth Sciences, Geography and Ecology. In these topics, GIS is used to manage and analyse spatial data, and offers quantitative methods that are beneficial for fieldwork. This paper presents changes made to a first-year Earth Sciences field course in the French Alps, where new GIS methods were introduced. Students use GIS in preparation to explore their research area using an elevation model and satellite images, formulate hypotheses and plan the fieldwork. During the fieldwork, a pilot group managed their field-observations using GIS and made digital maps. Students praise the use of quantitative digital maps in the preparation. Students made use of the available techniques during the fieldwork, although this could be further intensified. Some students were extra motivated due to the technical nature as well as the additional analytical possibilities. The use of GIS was experienced as a steep learning curve by students, and not all staff members are confident in supervising students using GIS, which calls for a sufficient preparation and training of both students and staff. The use of GIS adds abstract analyses and quantitative assessment, which is a complementary learning style to fieldwork that mostly focuses on practical skills.