Field Methods

Self-administered questionnaires have many advantages, especially when sensitive questions are asked. However, self-administered paper questionnaires have a serious drawback: Only relatively simple questionnaires can be used. Computer-assisted self-interviewing (CASI) can overcome these problems. CASI can be part of a personal interview in which the interviewer hands the computer over to the respondent for specific questions. It also can be a computerized version of the disk-by-mail survey. The authors have used both forms with very special populations (primary school children, visually impaired young adults, and parents and children from multiproblem families, in which professional guidance for the family was sought). This article introduces CASI and reviews its advantages and disadvantages, giving special attention to data quality.

This article explores the perennial issue of social relations in ethnography. The authors argue for ethnographers to attend to and wrestle with what they describe as “relational spaces” during all phases of the research by considering these relational spaces as objects of study in and of themselves. De Certeau provided the theoretical foundation for their focus on the relational spaces of ethnography with his distinction between space and place. Using ethnographic essays from their own research with youth, the authors discuss how they engage with relational spaces, both intellectually and in practice, to deepen and build on Marcus's call for recognizing complicity in relation to multisited ethnography.

From ethnographic observations and interviews, the author discovered that the concept of obligation was important in structuring power relationships in Chicago union locals. This was pivotal because relationships of reciprocity underlie the politics of union locals and resistance to some programs from the international organization. Here, the author discusses how he used paired comparisons to test ethnographically derived hypotheses about the salience of concepts of reciprocity and obligation to move beyond qualitative ethnographic intuition to measure cultural concepts and test hypotheses. In conclusion, he suggests that such approaches and methods can enlighten our understanding of reciprocity.

To assess rates of deforestation, researchers typically use questionnaires. But do questionnaires provide accurate information about the extent of forest clearance by households? In this article, the authors provide data on the amount of deforestation in a Tsimane' Amerindian village (Bolivia) and assess informant error by cross-checking three different assessments: (1) a direct physical measure by a research team of each plot cleared from the forest, (2)an estimate by the household head of the entire area cleared by his household during the year before the interview, and (3)an estimate by the plot owners of the area cleared of each plot he owns. Results show a high correlation between direct measures and estimates of areas provided by informants; plot owners provided more accurate information than heads of households. Results suggest that asking Amerindians about the area of forest cleared will yield reliable estimates of deforestation.

Those who conduct applied field research cannot ignore the importance of the household as a unit of analysis. Academics and practitioners alike have written a great deal about the prominence of households around the world and throughout history. One of the difficulties often encountered with using the household as a unit of analysis is how best to compare households for the purpose of making relevant suggestions for how they might best reach their goals. This article introduces a tool to document how households are affected by changes in variables such as composition, economics, politics, and the natural environment. The article provides a step-by-step methodology for documenting household composition and other changes a household may experience over time. The methodology is then applied to a case study in which the benefits and drawbacks of this approach are discussed.