Getting Prepared to Be Prepared: How Interpersonal Skills Aid Fieldwork in Challenging Contexts

Carla Alberti; Nicole Jenne

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.15.3.03

Authors

Carla Alberti Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile
Nicole Jenne Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.15.3.03

Keywords:

Fieldwork, Research Strategy, Challenging Contexts, Qualitative Research

Abstract

This article deals with fieldwork in challenging research contexts that make preparation for field research particularly difficult. Challenging contexts include generally insecure places, politicized contexts, and unknown settings. Drawing on our experience in the field, we discuss four challenges that are common across these contexts: access, positionality, researcher well-being, and research design and data collection. Bringing together insights from fieldwork with urban elites and in the countryside, this paper describes problems that occurred in both settings and identifies a set of interpersonal skills that helped the authors to tackle the challenges of the field and seize the opportunities it offered. This article posits that recognizing the importance of certain interpersonal skills, namely: openness, empathy, humility, and flexibility, precedes the identification of practical tools. Interpersonal skills, instead, focus on a general attitude that underlies researchers’ capacity to make informed choices about specific courses of actions, preparing fieldworkers to be prepared to confront problems once they arise.

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Author Biographies

Carla Alberti, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile

Carla Alberti is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Instituto de Ciencia Política, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and Junior Researcher at the IMFD, Chile. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Brown University. Her research interests include indigenous politics, Latin American politics, party-movements, and illegal markets.

Nicole Jenne, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile

Nicole Jenne is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and an associate researcher at the Centre for International Studies (CEIUC) of the same university. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Her research interests are in the areas of International Relations and international security, especially regional security in Latin America and the Asia Pacific.

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