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- Title
Racial Oppression and Social Research: Field Work Under Racial Conflict in South Africa.
- Authors
Schutte, Gerhard
- Abstract
An understanding of the relationship between social researcher and subjects is crucial not only for the design and execution of one's own fieldwork but also in assessing the research of others. The paper systematically examines the practice of fieldwork under the adverse conditions of racial oppression in South Africa during the hey days of Apartheid. Under conditions of oppression the field worker, more than in any other situation faces the question: "On whose side are you on?" Partisanship is closely linked to the issue of trust. Drawing on a series of field experiences including lily own, the author constructs a typology of social relationships in which tile field worker is either trusted or distrusted on the one hand, by his, mostly black subjects and, on the other, by an oppressive white government. The effects of these qualitatively different relationships on the production of descriptive material are analyzed.
- Subjects
SOUTH Africa; RACISM; PREJUDICES; RACE discrimination; OPPRESSION; PARTISANSHIP
- Publication
Qualitative Sociology, 1991, Vol 14, Issue 2, p127
- ISSN
0162-0436
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/BF00992191