First Stage of Fieldwork Completed
On the 15th February, researchers and project team members convened to discuss initial research findings and agree next steps. This marked the culmination of the first stage of fieldwork, which had begun five weeks earlier at an inception meeting for the researchers in early January.
Both meetings were held in Madhupur, which marked an effective “halfway” house between our two field sites in Rajshahi and Jamalpur. Friends from the Jayanshahi Adivasi Unnoyon Parishad (JAUP) graciously allowed us the use of their office for both events.
We had allocated a full day to the inception meeting, but in the end this turned out to be quite a squeeze, having to cover research ethics in detail, and the tricky business of how best to approach semi-structured interviews. More than one researcher was used to fully structured methods, and management approaches that stress avoiding “mistakes”.
In contrast our own more flexible strategy, based on experience, was to prepare yourself for that moment when, invariably at least a dozen conversations in, you realise that you’ve been asking entirely the wrong questions to begin with and need to revise accordingly. Then there were equipment checks, translation of key materials into Bengali, and safety protocols for researchers. All in all, a packed day.
In the morning we parted company with Dilip in Madhupur town. While he headed west, crossing the Jamuna into Rajshahi, we moved north to Jamalpur. By the time we were reunited a month later, it was clear he had had the tougher time. It is premature to discuss research findings, but Dilip’s report detailed several tricky scenarios he was forced to navigate.
This was a reason the team has grown with the fieldwork; Dilip asked for additional support, so now we have Aichon Pahan as a research assistant. In Jamalpur, Shamshagor Mankin joined us as a translator for Ollie. So Samiya and Jeroen found a larger team waiting for them at the review meeting in February than was in attendance at the December kick-off.
The review meeting covered a lot of ground, agreeing revisions to our main lines of enquiry and prioritising additional issues we can usefully cover when fieldwork resumes.
The Covid crisis hit soon afterwards, so it is not clear at this stage when this will be. In the meantime, although we can’t talk about our results yet, we will be publishing some research notes from the field, as well as other news from our various project partners.