Fieldwork Disrupted: How Researchers Adapt to Losing Access to Field Sites

Abstract

This article explores how researchers adapt to disruptions that cost them access to their field sites, advancing a uniquely sociological perspective on the dynamics of flexibility and adaptation in qualitative methods. Through interviews with 31 ethnographers whose access was preempted or eliminated, I find that adaptation varied systematically based on when during the fieldwork process researchers' access was disrupted. The timing of the disruption shaped the relevance and implications of common conditions that affect fieldwork, such as funding availability, institutionalized time constraints, and sunk costs. Consequently, despite a lack of common conventions or training in how to adapt to losing access, adaptations took one of three general forms, which I refer to as turning home, pivoting, and following. I highlight specific challenges associated with each of these forms and offer insights for navigating them. Building from my findings, I make the case that the logistics of being flexible and adapting are part of a hidden curriculum in qualitative methods, and I discuss how interrogating the conditions that structure these aspects of fieldwork advances research and pedagogy in qualitative methodology.