Fieldwork Resources
Below you will find links to Fieldwork Safety Report, a short bibliography related to fieldwork, and link to a shared library on research on Contemporary Central Asia.
Please feel free to suggest additional resources via the contact page or the email provided below.
The link above takes you to a report completed by the Central Eurasian Studies Society task force on fieldwork safety. It outlines many of issues researchers face in the field that would be helpful in planning.
Publications on Conducting Fieldwork in Eurasia
Created with assistance from Martha Merrill
Adams, L.L. (1999). The Mascot Researcher Identity, Power, and Knowledge in Fieldwork. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 331-363. Sage Publications, Inc.
Bekmurzaev, N., Lottholz, P., & Meyer, J. (2018). Navigating the safety implications of doing research and being researched in Kyrgyzstan: cooperation, networks and framing. Central Asian Survey, 37(1), 100–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2017.1419165
Dadabaev, T. (2017). "Introduction to Survey Research in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Tasks, Challenges and Frontiers" in Social Capital Construction and Governance in Central Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-52233-7_2
De Soto, H.G. & N. Dudwick. (2000). Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists in Postsocialist States Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Glasius, M. et al. (2017). Research, Ethics and Risk in the Authoritarian Field. Springer
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-68966-1
Kuehnast, K. (2000). Ethnographic Encounters in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan: Dilemmas of Gender, Poverty, and the Cold War. In H. G. De Soto and N. Dudwick, eds. Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists in Postsocialist States Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Kuzmits, B. (2008). Losing My Illusions: Methodological dreams and reality in local governance Research in the Amu Darya borderlands. In C. Wall and P. P. Mollinga, eds. Fieldwork in Difficult Environments: Methodology as Boundary Work in Development Research Zurich and Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 19-42.
Merrill, M. & C. M. Whitsel. (2017). “Institutional Review Boards and Intercultural Research Barriers” Reimagining Utopias: Theory and Method for Educational Research in Post-Socialist Contexts. Iveta Silova, Noah W. Sobe, Alla Korzh & Serhiy Kovalchuk, Eds. Sense Publishers: Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Silova, I., N.W. Sobe, A. Korz & S. Kovalchuk. (2017). Reimagining Utopias: Theory and Method for Educational Research in Post-Socialist Contexts. Eds. Sense Publishers: Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Veldwisch, G.J.A. (2008) Authoritarianism, Validity, and Security. Researching water distribution in Khorezm, Uzbekistan. In C. Wall and P. P. Mollinga, eds. Fieldwork in Difficult Environments: Methodology as Boundary Work in Development Research Zurich and Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 161-181.
Wall, C. (2008) Working in the Fields as Fieldwork. Khaskar, participant observation, and the tamorka as ways to access local knowledge in rural Uzbekistan. In C. Wall and P. P. Mollinga, eds. Fieldwork in Difficult Environments: Methodology as Boundary Work in Development Research Zurich and Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 137-160
Wall C., & Mollinga,P.P. (2008). Fieldwork in Difficult Environments: Methodology as Boundary Work in Development Research Zurich and Berlin
Wall, C. and Overton, J. (2006) Unethical Ethics? Applying Research Ethics in Uzbekistan Development in Practice, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 62-67
Wilkinson C. (2008) Positioning “Security” and Securing One’s Position. The researcher’s role in investigating “security” in Kyrgyzstan. In C. Wall and P. P. Mollinga, eds. Fieldwork in Difficult Environments: Methodology as Boundary Work in Development Research Zurich and Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 43-68
Zanca, R. (2000) Intruder in Uzbekistan: Walking the Line between Community Needs and Anthropological Desiderata. In H. G. De Soto and N. Dudwick, eds. Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists in Postsocialist States Madison: University of Wisconsin Press
Zavisca, J. (2007) Ethics in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Forum for Anthropology and Culture 4, 127-146