Area, 2017, 49.4, 415–420, doi: 10.1111/area.

12342

Leaving the field: (de-)linked lives of the researcher

and research assistant
Martina Angela Caretta* and Florence Jemutai Cheptum**
*Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, 330 Brooks Hall, PO Box 6300,
98 Beechurst Ave., Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Email: martina.caretta@mail.wvu.edu
**Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), PO BOX 62000, City Square,
Nairobi 00200, Kenya

Revised manuscript received 19 January 2017

Leaving the field is a crucial moment that has been examined neither from an emotional point of view
nor from a life course perspective. In this co-authored paper, we, the researcher and the research
assistant, analyse through our diaries how this moment was entangled with decisive life events and
how our emotions were conditioned by our embodied experience of sickness, separation and
incertitude towards the future. Departing from life course and feminist geographical reflexive
standpoints, we engage with the complexities of positionality and turning points. Drawing on the
duality of our experiences of separation and the individual and collective evolution of our
positionalities and identities, this paper reifies the life course principle of linked lives by examining the
interdependency of researchers’ and research assistants’ lives.

Key words: fieldwork, autoethnography, linked lives, research assistant, emotions

The field is not only a geographical location but rather a

Introduction
Fieldwork, originally referred to as ‘exploration’, is
constitutive of geography. Although the discipline has
evolved and moved on to research that is not
necessarily linked to a physical field site (Stoltman and
Fraser 2000), fieldwork is still incorporated in our
teaching curriculums (Fuller et al. 2006). Geographical
investigation is linked to real-world phenomena that
often require data gathering through case studies and
site-specific examinations.
For geographers going to the ‘field’, be it a faraway
place or the neighbourhood, leaving the field can
represent a key moment in one’s life course. Articles
that do address the topic of leaving the field focus
mostly on it from a methodological point of view. They
discuss how data that has been gathered should be
organised to be analysed in an orderly way so that hard
work and the ‘spirit’ of the field do not get lost (Gallaher
2011). At the same time, the negotiation of exiting the
field is explored in relation to the gathering of sensitive
data that puts both the respondents and the researcher
in an ethically challenging position (Reeves 2010).
set of relations nurtured, contested and developed during
the course of long fieldwork phases often lasting several
months. Emotions, intended as socio-spatial expressions
and reactions (see Davidson et al. 2012) solicited by the
interaction with research participants through the research
process, are also a source of data that is often overlooked
(Caretta and Jokinen 2017). We analyse the evolution of
our emotions in two instances of separation not merely as
a useful reflexive exercise but to provide a broader picture
of the social worlds of the subjects involved in the
research process. While there might be a tendency for
researchers to depict their experiences as the only truth
(Domosh 2003), completing fieldwork also has
undeniable consequences for those that make a living out
of supporting and facilitating the research process.
Assistants, translators and gatekeepers often experience
fieldwork not only as an employment prospect but also as
a unique and intense learning opportunity (Molony and
Hammett 2007; Caretta 2015b). Their work often goes
unacknowledged and their names unnoticed, especially
with regards to co-authorship of research papers (Temple
and Edwards 2002; Fortmann 2009).

The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).
© 2017 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
416
Accordingly, this co-authored paper by the researcher
and the research assistant aims to show the authors’
linked lives. We advance the concept of linked lives
through the relational aspects of research by not merely
engaging with the researcher’s reflections but by also
bringing in the research assistant’s thoughts. Guided by
feminist epistemological principles, long championed by
feminist geographers (e.g. Rose 1997) striving towards the
debunking of power asymmetries in the research process,
we discuss our field diaries in an autoethnographic and
reflexive fashion to make apparent the catalyst that
our encounter was and the turning points that our
farewells meant for our life trajectories. Through ‘thick
descriptions’, we render the duality of our personal and
joint struggles and vulnerabilities as constitutive parts of
our identities (see also Rose 1997), and we reflect on
the power-loaded relations that are contextual and
constitutive of the research process, even in regard to an
end.
The paper is structured as follows. We first outline the
background of the research project. In the second
section, we present the first instance of separation,
which from a life course perspective was a turning point
in our lives. In the third part, we analyse the moment of
definitive parting and how our lives have been linked.
We conclude the paper by discussing how our identities
have changed through the research process and the
significance of this paper as a reflexive, intersectional
and dual analysis of the principle of linked lives.
Background
Feminist epistemology constitutes the foundation of our
research. Grounded in the principles of reflexivity and of
non-hierarchical exchange (Rose 1997), this approach is
reified in the analysis of both our diaries and requires us
to disclose our positionality vis- a-vis the research
environment. While we are both women in our early
30s – and in our late 20s at the time of the research –
we have very different backgrounds, origins and family
situations.
We met in 2011 during the course of Martina’s first
PhD fieldwork phase in Sibou, Marakwet, Kenya.
Martina’s research focused on smallholder irrigation
farming and women’s participation in water management
institutions in the East African drylands (see Caretta
2015a). Between 2011 and 2015, we spent a total of five
months together. When apart, we kept in constant contact
through email, SMS and WhatsApp. We conducted
repeated interviews with at least 30 women. Florence,
together with other research assistants, carried out a two-
year survey every three months with eight farmers, and
she also led eight focus groups and participatory mapping
exercises with an average of eight participants (for an
Area 2017 49.4, 415–420 doi: 10.1111/area.12342
© 2017 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
Leaving the field
in-depth analysis, see Caretta 2015b). Although Martina
had learned Swahili, most study participants preferred to
talk in the local language of Marakwet. Florence was not
only responsible for translating and transcribing
ethnographic material, but she also played a pivotal role
in facilitating member checking among participants
(Caretta 2016).
When we came across each other, Florence, an
undergraduate in finance, was unemployed and
spending most of her time at home taking care of her
children, while at the same time looking – without luck
– for a teaching job in neighbouring secondary schools.
As the need for more and younger research assistants
became apparent, Florence started collaborating with
Martina in 2012 not just out of the need for
employment, but as an opportunity to gain knowledge
about her own community. Being in the same age
bracket and sharing a passion for research made us not
only a strong researcher duo but also friends (see also
de Leeuw et al. 2012).
Because of her foreign background, Martina was an
outsider. Florence’s positionality was ambivalent: born
and raised in the area, and hence an insider; yet not a
farmer, and hence an outsider. This unique mix of class,
gender, nationality and ethnicity shaped our approach to
the research. Disclosing our positionality in such a
reflexive fashion materialises the contextual, power-
loaded and relational nature of the process of
knowledge production and how that influenced our life
course, especially at the end moment of fieldwork.
Considering these aspects of our subjectivities, how
they converge in the research site, how they are
intertwined with our personal life events and how these
in turn have shaped our lives is the crux of life course
theory. Originally grounded in the analysis of life
reproductive stages, this theory has developed to include
the different trajectories of those individuals who do not
necessarily build a family for themselves. Life course
theory highlights the role of individuals in shaping their
own life path (Elder et al. 2003; Gecas 2003), while also
taking into account that those paths change over time
because of historical and social changes that provide
individuals with, for instance, migration opportunities
that do not necessarily lead to a stable family life (Hunt
2005). Therefore, when someone’s life path is to be
analysed, specific time and location should be counted
in as variables that influence and determine the
individual’s behaviour. Accordingly, our gender, class,
age and ethnicity – i.e. positionality – are factors
shaping our life course (see also Finney 2011), which is
not simply determined by our differing institutional and
geographical context but, as this paper will show, has
also been influenced by our encounter. This catalyst,
that is to say, a crucial instance that triggered a turning
 Leaving the field
point in our lives and influenced our life course (Elder
et al. 2003; Heinz 2003), was the first occurrence that
linked our lives through the interdependent work of
research.
Temporarily leaving the field
Reflections by research assistants are very rarely found
in social science literature (Caretta 2015b). Here,
Florence recalls what the end of the data gathering stage
meant for her:
In July 2013, we were finalizing Martina’s research. I had
been really enjoying the fieldwork since I got to learn so
many things about farming, soil and research in general.
I was used to waiting for Martina to come to Kenya so
that we could start our serious fieldwork as usual. I knew
apart from the experience and building of friendship with
Martina, I could earn something to improve my living
standard. Life wasn’t easy since I had to contribute to
the basic needs of my family of two children and
husband and myself. When I knew that the research was
coming to an end, I felt so sad since I knew things were
not going to be as usual. The friendship we had made
was growing, and there was now a dilemma on what
next, now that the research was coming to an end. How
will we meet again? How could I earn a little income?
Those were some of the few questions that kept
disturbing my mind.
Often researchers do not want to acknowledge the role
that they have played in changing the lives of those that
they have worked with, as they want to render their
research site as pristine and untouched by their
influence (Temple and Edwards 2002). Adopting a
feminist and autoethnographic perspective shows that
research had a sizable impact on Florence’s life course.
Working as a field assistant not only allowed her to save
some money, but it also awakened a desire to continue
her education and become a scholar herself.
I informed my husband that I was moving from the
village to Eldoret to further my education and search for
a job since it was not easy to find another job in Sibou,
and Martina’s research was over. The response wasn’t
positive as I expected; he reacted negatively, shouting
that he was not going to support me since he had to
support his siblings and I had to stay home and take
care of our children. This led to conflict between the
two of us. I moved anyway to Eldoret to undertake my
Master and paid part of my fee with the savings as a
research assistant. Initially, life was very difficult: it was
too challenging to play the role of a student, a mother
and a wife living far from her husband.
417
Florence’s life was at a turning point. A turning point is
defined by Elder et al. (2003) as a significant
transformation in one’s life due to, in Florence’s case,
returning to school in midlife. She did not know how she
would be able to provide for herself and her children; she
had decided that she would continue her education
alongside her caring responsibilities, which were a
constant of her life course. Emotionally, she felt uncertain
about what was expected of her when she moved from
her small town: people assumed that she would return to
the village when she completed her education. This
turning point is especially meaningful for a woman and
mother in her late 20s living in a small community in the
drylands of Kenya, where tradition prevails and women’s
life paths are marked by their role as first daughter, then
wife and finally mother. Becoming a mother is considered
the highest realisation one can ever reach and the greatest
legitimation one can gain in the local society. Deciding to
break the ties of tradition to pursue higher education far
from home is a courageous move for anyone coming from
those areas, let alone for a woman who can be perceived
as the odd one out of the community. Florence’s life
decision also had consequences for her husband, who
suffered social scorn, as he had not been able to force his
wife to stay and play her traditional role. This narrative
also illuminates the expectations and constraints of
Florence’s lifeworld (Worth 2009) and the stereotypes that
still tend to be associated with a certain age bracket
(Hopkins and Pain 2007) which, in this particular case,
makes it hard for society and family to grapple with
Florence’s decision to pursue education as an adult.
Martina’s perspective on ending that fieldwork phase
in July 2013 was as sad and hard to grapple with as it
was for Florence:
Today I left Sibou. The last days have been a nightmare.
I got food poisoning, which turned into diarrhea and
stomach sickness that has now been going on for a few
days. I can’t keep anything down; I feel like I am
flushing my brain down the toilet. If this wasn’t enough,
my condition did not allow me to properly say goodbye
to everyone. I am sick and I want to leave the field so
badly, just to be able to sleep in a room that is not
infested by rats and where I can feel safe and
comfortable, but at the same time I feel so teary about
closing this chapter in my life and leaving all these
people behind. I guess I have proved myself as a
geographer and I don’t have to endure this anymore. I
have to focus on the writing, submitting articles and
getting my thesis done.
In her diary, Martina unleashed her negative feelings,
which were affected by her deteriorating physical
condition (for a deeper analysis on this, see Jokinen and
Area 2017 49.4, 415–420 doi: 10.1111/area.12342
© 2017 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
418
Caretta 2016). While both Florence and Martina were
sad, Florence was wondering how she would make it
without fieldwork assignments, and Martina was
thankful she did not have to come back to Sibou. Worn
out by long fieldwork, tough living conditions and
sickness, she did not hold back in her diary. These
reflections constitute relevant data for analysis (Bennett
2004) and show that Western researchers might risk
reproducing unjust global racialised power structures by
depicting only their experience as authentic, while in
reality they are grounded in one-sided Western
whiteness with implicit authority (Radcliffe 1994). By
giving equal visibility to Florence’s experience, this
paper moves beyond this near-sighted discourse.
Martina’s life was also at a turning point. She was in
the last stage of her PhD, and she had to excel in her
academic performance through articles and thesis
writing to be able to succeed further in academia. Given
how rough the last fieldwork phase had been, she was
looking at her future from another perspective, knowing
she could not ask herself and her body to go through
such a tough experience again. Accomplishing her PhD
was perceived as liberation, an opportunity to be set
free from academic hierarchies and to be able to
conduct research on her terms.
When bidding farewell, she felt sad not to be able to
do it properly, as she was feeling sick. However, she
was in a privileged position. She could leave the field
anytime and go back to the comfort of her home, but as
a student she was vulnerable because she had to
conclude her data collections to be able to complete
her PhD. Her positionality was hence shifting. She was a
Western scholar, but a scholar in the making, who had
to prove herself to achieve her title (see also Porter
2009).
Leaving the field for good
Methodological and ethical reflexivity drew Martina back
to the field one and half years after her exhausting
experience of sickness. She was getting close to
defending her PhD, and she had realised the need for
methodological validity, reliability and attentiveness
and for overcoming epistemic injustice, i.e. questioning
Western researchers’ normative positioning as the
‘knower’ (Fricker 2007; Caretta 2017 for a full analysis on
the dissemination of research results). However, she was
in a different position compared to her previous fieldwork
phases. The role of student and novice to the field were
behind her; she was now in charge of guiding and
coordinating a ten-day research workshop for 15 people,
among whom were other scholars and members of local
communities. She reflected:
Area 2017 49.4, 415–420 doi: 10.1111/area.12342
© 2017 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
Leaving the field
It’s like a test on my organizational capability, while at
the same time I am being questioned on my knowledge
and the data I have gathered on local people.
Florence’s life had also evolved compared to one and a
half years earlier:
In January 2015 when Martina came back to Kenya to
present the result of the study, I had to go to back to
Sibou. By that time, my master education was almost
coming to an end. My life had changed a lot. My
husband had become happy with my hard work, and
he was fully supportive towards my education. Having
worked with Martina’s research helped me carry out my
master thesis smoothly. For instance, it was easier to
approach the respondents when collecting data, as I
had gained experience when I was assisting Martina.
This is one of the reasons why I insist that being
research assistant made me become a researcher and a
scholar.
Florence had moved from being a mother, a wife and a
research assistant to being a scholar on her own,
autonomously carrying out her master’s thesis and
finally getting the support of her husband. She had also
moved for good out of the village, which she did come
back to for the sake of the dissemination workshop. She
had migrated, and her level of education had improved.
Moving back to the village was not something she
would consider again: a situation that reveals the turn
that Florence’s life had taken. By being the daughter of a
school teacher, then going through secondary school
and college encouraged by her family, moving on to
being Martina’s research assistant and finally obtaining
her master’s degree, Florence had gone through a
process of cumulative advantage. Her family’s premises
were positive from the start of her life, which, together
with the educational and work experiences she acquired
over the years, put her on a social pathway that led to
changes in her statuses and roles (see also Alwin 2012;
Elder et al. 2003).
At the time, Martina was fully immersed in trying to
successfully finish her dissertation and had a less clear
vision of what the future would hold. Research
participants gave her a powerful wake-up call:
They often say, ‘We are happy we got to know you. We
are thankful about the booklet that we received. We
wish you good luck with becoming a professor, and we
understand that you won’t be back for some time, but
we are looking forward to meeting you in some years’
time. You should then come back with your husband
and your children.’ They were the first ones telling me I
 Leaving the field
one day will be a professor. I never thought of myself
like that. This trip in this sense not only feels like the end
of a long journey, but it also feels like a coming to life of
myself as an independent scholar. I am dreading
thinking about the uncertainty that is engulfing my life in
academia: will I truly be able to become a professor one
day? Will I succeed in getting research funding and
landing a post-doc?
In retrospect, saying farewell for good was yet another
turning point for Florence and Martina. The research
was over, and incertitude was the prevailing emotion
that they were experiencing. That defining moment
pushed both of them to reflect on their professional
careers and to become active in the job search.
Linked lives through turning points
Since 2011, our lives have evolved because of the
catalyst of change that our first meeting was. Coupled
with the turning points that those two farewells were,
our life courses have changed. Florence went from
being a stay-at-home mom in a remote village in the
drylands of Kenya to a PhD student at Eldoret
University. Martina, a PhD student at the time and eager
to conduct her academic career in East Africa, is now
currently employed as an Assistant Professor at West
Virginia University and developing a research
programme in Appalachia. Conducting research together
has been conducive for the evolution of our identities
overtime. Through her engagement in research, Florence
was able to make material gains to enrol in an
advanced university degree and subsequently decide to
continue with a PhD, as she was aware of what that
educational path can entail after having shadowed
Martina during hers. Meanwhile, Martina would not
have been able to complete her PhD without the
logistical, practical, professional and moral support of
Florence.
The life course is defined as ‘the age-graded sequence
of roles, opportunities, constraints, and events that shape
the biography from birth to death’ (Shanahan and
Macmillan 2008, 40). In this co-authored paper, we –
the researcher and the research assistant – advance the
concept of linked lives. First, we show how encounters
and especially the end of these encounters can be
turning points in the lives of those involved. Second,
what is significant about our work is that it engages with
the life course theory by bringing in the multiple and
relational aspects of research, not just through the
researcher’s reflections but also through the research
assistant’s thoughts. Often, analysis of the concept of
linked lives presents the viewpoints of the researchers
and research subjects (see Gambold and Ng in this
419
issue). We go beyond this by disclosing the evolution of
our identities through our collaborative research efforts,
which were determinant turning points for the shaping
of our present self-hoods.
Grounded in a reflexive analysis of emotions intended
as a circumstantial response to everyday occurrences,
we advance the concept of linked lives by revealing
several elements of fieldwork that tend to be obscured
by the traditional process of data analysis. First, as in
Wimark (2016), we contend that examining emotions in
the context of fieldwork can unveil the embodied nature
of these emotions, their entanglement with the
researcher’s life course and how they are shaped by
interpersonal relations with research participants and
collaborators. Hence, the end of fieldwork can
constitute a turning point in the life course of individuals
involved in the research process, as separation can
trigger particularly poignant emotions, such as sadness
and incertitude, which can lead to reflection over the
possibility to change one’s life. These emotions, we
argue, constitute data that needs to be harnessed to
increase research reflexivity and validity.
Second, by centring our analysis around the
experiences of two individuals with conspicuously
different positionalities, we unveil the role of
collaborative research in changing collaborators’ and
assistants’ lives, and we also show that researchers are
dependent on their assistants. Along these lines, by
reflexively including Florence’s accounts, our work
attempts to move beyond epistemic injustice (see also
Caretta 2017). We recount our emotions to question the
implicit authority bestowed to Western researchers’
accounts (Radcliffe 1994) by illuminating the duality of
our experiences and how they have affected the
evolution of our life courses and our identities.
Third, by drawing on our own narratives, we shed
light on the expectations and constraints of our
lifeworlds (Worth 2009), and we shed light on the
possibility of moving beyond the stereotypical portrayal
of adult life by engaging with the conscious yet
challenging choice of adult education (Hopkins and
Pain 2007). Additionally, we move away from the
rendering of fieldwork as an idyllic constitutive place
and time in the life of a researcher. We illustrate that
fieldwork can be constitutive, although it may be
characterised by negative feelings and desires to escape.
Finally, as in Macmillan and Furstenberg (2016)
and Laub (2016), by focusing on the context of
our interactions and analysing them in relation to
our subjectivities and positionalities, we highlight the
composite connections of social structure, linked lives
and turning points to advance the relevancy of analysing
individuals’ autonomous and active roles and choices in
shaping their life course outcomes.
Area 2017 49.4, 415–420 doi: 10.1111/area.12342
© 2017 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
420
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and Dr
Nathaniel Lewis who helped us to improve the previous versions
of this manuscript.
References
Alwin D F 2012 Integrating varieties of life course concepts
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences
and Social Sciences 67 206–20
Bennett K 2004 Emotionally intelligent research Area 36 414–
22
Caretta M A 2015a Hydropatriarchies and landesque capital: a
local gender contract analysis of two smallholder irrigation
systems in East Africa The Geographical Journal 181 388–400
Caretta M A 2015b Situated knowledge in cross-cultural, cross-
language research: a collaborative reflexive analysis of
researcher, assistant and participant subjectivities Qualitative
Research 15 489–505
Caretta M A 2016 Member checking: a feminist participatory
analysis of the use of preliminary results pamphlets in cross-
cultural, cross-language research Qualitative Research 16
305–18
Caretta M A 2017 Striving beyond epistemic authority: results
dissemination in smallholder irrigation farming research
Annals of the American Association of Geographers 1–15
https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2016.1261686
Caretta M A and Jokinen J C 2017 Conflating privilege and
vulnerability: a reflexive analysis of emotions and positionality
in postgraduate fieldwork The Professional Geographer 69
275–83
Davidson J, Smith M and Bondi L 2012 Emotional geographies
Ashgate, Aldershot
de Leeuw S, Cameron E S and Greenwood M L 2012 Participatory
and community-based research, indigenous geographies, and
the spaces of friendship: a critical engagement The Canadian
Geographer/Le G eographe canadien 56 180–94
Domosh M 2003 Toward a more fully reciprocal feminist
inquiry ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical
Geographies 2 107–11
Elder Jr G H, Johnson M K and Crosnoe R 2003 The
emergence and development of the life course theory in
Mortimer J T and Shanahan M J eds Handbook of the life
course Kluwer Academic, Hingham MA 3–19
Finney N 2011 Understanding ethnic differences in the
migration of young adults within Britain from a lifecourse
perspective Transaction of the Institute of British Geographers
36 455–70
Fortmann L 2009 Participatory research in conservation and rural
livelihoods: doing science together John Wiley, Chichester
Fricker M 2007 Epistemic injustice: power and the ethics of
knowing Oxford University Press, Oxford
Fuller I, Edmondson S, France D, Higgitt D and Ratinen I 2006
International perspectives on the effectiveness of geography
Area 2017 49.4, 415–420 doi: 10.1111/area.12342
© 2017 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
Leaving the field
fieldwork for learning Journal of Geography in Higher
Education 30 89–101
Gallaher C 2011 Leaving the field in Del Casino V J, Thomas
M E, Cloke P and Panelli R eds A companion to social
geography Blackwell, Oxford 181–97
Gecas V 2003 Self-agency and the life course in Mortimer J T
and Shanahan M J eds Handbook of the life course Kluwer
Academic, Hingham MA 369–88
Heinz W R 2003 From work trajectories to negotiated careers in
Mortimer J T and Shanahan M J eds Handbook of the life
course Kluwer Academic, Hingham MA 185–204
Hopkins P and Pain R 2007 Geographies of age: thinking
relationally Area 39 287–94
Hunt S 2005 The life course: a sociological introduction
Palgrave Macmillan, New York NY
Jokinen J C and Caretta M A 2016 When bodies do not fit: an
analysis of postgraduate fieldwork Gender, Place & Culture
23 1665–76
Laub J H 2016 Life course research and the shaping of public
policy in Shanahan M J, Mortimer J T and Johnson M K eds
Handbook of the life course. Handbooks of sociology and
social research Springer International, Cham 623–37
Macmillan R and Furstenberg F 2016 The logic and practice of
growth curve analysis: modeling strategies for life course
dynamics in Shanahan M J, Mortimer J T and Johnson M K
eds Handbook of the life course. Handbooks of sociology and
social research Springer International, Cham 541–69
Molony T and Hammett D 2007 The friendly financier: talking
money with the silenced assistant Human Organization 66
292–300
Porter L 2009 On having imperial eyes in Piccolo F L and
Thomas H eds Ethics and planning research Ashgate,
Farnham 219–31
Radcliffe S A 1994 (Representing) post-colonial women:
authority, difference and feminisms Area 26 25–32
Reeves C L 2010 A difficult negotiation: fieldwork relations with
gatekeepers Qualitative Research 10 315–31
Rose G 1997 Situating knowledges: positionality, reflexivities
and other tactics Progress in Human Geography 21 305–20
Shanahan M J and Macmillan R 2008 Biography and the
sociological imagination W W Norton, New York NY
Stoltman J P and Fraser R 2000 Geography fieldwork: tradition
and technology meet in Gerber R and Chuan G K eds
Fieldwork in geography: reflections, perspectives and actions
Springer, Dordrecht 37–52
Temple B and Edwards R 2002 Interpreters/translators and
cross-language research: reflexivity and border crossings
International Journal of Qualitative Methods 1(2) 1–12
Wimark T 2016 The life course and emotions beyond
fieldwork: affect as position and experience Gender, Place &
Culture doi:10.1080/0966369X.2016.1219327
Worth N 2009 Understanding youth transition as ‘becoming’:
identity, time and futurity Geoforum 40 1050–60