User:TortillaDePapas/Draft:Fieldwork
Collection of information outside a laboratory, library or workplace setting / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fieldwork (also field studies or field research) is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across academic disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct field research may simply observe animals interacting with their environments, whereas social scientists conducting field research may interview or observe people in their natural environments to learn their languages, folklore, and social structures.
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Field research involves a range of well-defined, although variable, methods: informal interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the group, self-analysis, results from activities undertaken off- or on-line, and life-histories. Although the method generally is characterized as qualitative research, it may (and often does) include quantitative dimensions.