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Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad

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<strong>Qualitative</strong> research <strong>in</strong> practice<br />

Anne:<br />

Well, <strong>the</strong> first one was that I got re-orientated and that<br />

was because, actually, <strong>in</strong> my field journal you can see<br />

that <strong>the</strong>re was a level of tension and expectation about<br />

me go<strong>in</strong>g back <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>re, and that was about my be<strong>in</strong>g<br />

<strong>in</strong> a very different role ...I was aware that even<br />

though I’d talked to people about <strong>the</strong> fact that I was<br />

com<strong>in</strong>g back as a researcher, for most people, as soon<br />

as <strong>the</strong>y saw me, I was Anne <strong>the</strong> social worker not<br />

Anne <strong>the</strong> researcher. So it gave me a chance to reorientate<br />

myself and o<strong>the</strong>r people to that new role. It<br />

also gave me a chance to see clearly what I suspected,<br />

that <strong>the</strong>re were some spaces <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Valley that already<br />

were shared public spaces, where <strong>in</strong> fact homeless<br />

people and ma<strong>in</strong>stream community people did have a<br />

reasonable level of <strong>in</strong>teraction, but that those spaces<br />

had changed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> four years that I hadn’t been<br />

work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Valley. It gave all sorts of people a<br />

chance to get used to me and that was really important<br />

. . . One of <strong>the</strong> th<strong>in</strong>gs that happened all <strong>the</strong> time<br />

was that constantly people would come up to me and<br />

say, ‘What are you do<strong>in</strong>g? What’s <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> book? What<br />

are you writ<strong>in</strong>g down <strong>the</strong>re?’ A lot of <strong>the</strong>m were<br />

homeless people I knew but a great number of <strong>the</strong>m<br />

were just local people who felt that this was <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

space too and <strong>the</strong>y wanted to know who I was, writ<strong>in</strong>g<br />

<strong>in</strong> this book, and what I was writ<strong>in</strong>g about ...<br />

Informal <strong>in</strong>terviews <strong>in</strong> public spaces<br />

Anne:<br />

Phase two was like <strong>the</strong> active engagement—I was <strong>in</strong><br />

those public spaces I’d identified <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> first phase and<br />

my purpose was to talk to anybody that used those<br />

spaces. ‘What do you th<strong>in</strong>k about this place? What do<br />

you like about <strong>the</strong> Valley? Why do you come here? Is<br />

it <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g? Does it make you feel scared?’ Anyth<strong>in</strong>g<br />

that people wanted to tell me about <strong>the</strong> Valley, I<br />

wanted to hear . . . So <strong>in</strong> between encounters I’d be<br />

sitt<strong>in</strong>g down tak<strong>in</strong>g some notes and if I was just sitt<strong>in</strong>g<br />

around look<strong>in</strong>g for some <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g people to have a<br />

talk to I’d be tak<strong>in</strong>g a note of what I was see<strong>in</strong>g. So it<br />

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