Chapter 11: Anything to Declare? The Politics and Practicalities of Leaving the Field

Anything to Declare? The Politics and Practicalities of Leaving the Field

Arriving and leaving are two universal human experiences (Maines et al., 1980). For development fieldwork we are encouraged to spend a great deal of time and effort preparing to arrive in our field site and research in appropriate and ethical ways. But how do we prepare for leaving? Shokeid argues that ‘the stories of departure … and the … dynamics of fieldwork journeys are as important as the opening narratives’ (2007: 222). Despite this argument, leaving has received little academic attention until recently (e.g., see Binns, 2006; Hammersley and Atkinson, 2007; Shokeid, 2007; Wolcott, 2005).

There is a great deal to think ...