Being there... and there... and there!

Abstract

Multi-site, or multilocal, field work has become increasingly practiced and acknowledged in anthropology since the 1980s. Drawing on several field studies by anthropologists at Stockholm University but particularly on the author's study of the work of news media foreign correspondents, this article identifies differences in practices and assumptions between such work and the classic model of single-site field work as enunciated in the mid-20th century. It discusses the construction of multi-site fields, including the selection of sites; the quality of relationships with informants in such fields; the temporal aspects of field work and of the sites themselves; the dominant types of data in multi-site studies; and the fit between field work and organizational and career circumstances; as well as particular topics dealt with in the foreign correspondent study.