Volume 10 Issue 2 (2014): Giving Back in Field Research
Practical Realities of Giving Back

The Practical Realities of Giving Back

Ashton Bree Wesner
University of California, Berkeley
Bio
Julie Pyatt
University of California, Berkeley
Bio
C. N. E. Corbin
University of California, Berkeley
Bio
Published July 1, 2014
Keywords
  • Western imperialism,
  • extractive research,
  • structural inequality,
  • de-colonizing research,
  • subaltern knowledge,
  • emancipatory practice,
  • self-reflexivity,
  • border crossing
  • ...More
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Abstract

In this thematic section, authors consider practical ways of giving back to the communities in which they conduct research. Each author discusses their evolving thoughts on how to give back in these practical ways. Some of these authors discuss giving back by giving money, food, rides, parties, and water bottles. In other cases, authors discuss giving back by creating jobs in the short or long term, grant writing, advocacy, and education. Story-telling is also a theme that many of the authors in this section discuss. For some authors, non-material forms of giving back are critical—simply maintaining social ties to the communities in which they worked, or sharing humor. The authors consider the utility of their attempts at giving back, and in some cases present their personal philosophy or guidelines on the subject.