La sortie de terrain : négocier le désengagement entre enquêté-es et ethnographe

Abstract

When data collection ends, the relationships meticulously forged during an ethnography are confronted with particular issues. These have been curiously little discussed in the literature. One of them concerns the relational disengagement that occurs between ethnographer and respondents. In the context of embedded research, the relationships developed have often been of multiple statuses: hierarchical or professional relationships, friendships, etc. Disengaging from these relationships requires a change in the way the ethnographer and the respondent interact. Disengaging from these relationships requires time and specific strategies. Negotiations can occur, which are neither the unique responsibility of the researcher nor do concern only the researcher. Arrangements emerge between these actors (research director, ethnographer, partners, respondents...), in a particular period named “post-collection of data”. This article illustrates these relational challenges by taking an original look at the reactions and speeches of the respondents. It is based on the exit from a doctoral fieldwork conducted in a scientific network. It concludes with the idea that leaving fieldwork, which is necessarily processual, is not the mirror image of the negotiations linked to entering into a fieldwork.

Keywords

• exit the field
• survey relations
• disengagement
• embedded research
• ethnography