Since all of your field work and research this semester will depend a great deal on your having access to a sub-culture, it is very important to spend some energy choosing a workable field site early on. Following are some issues to consider while choosing a field site.

Desirable Features of a Field Site

• It must be a clearly defined culture, in terms of both the geography of the site and the attitudes of the people who visit it.
• It should be easily accessible, and it should meet regularly enough for you to visit the site often (like more than once a week).
• It should be safe.
• It should be a site or community you are not overly familiar with.
• It should be something you are interested in, something that will hold your attention all semester.

Problematic Field Sites

• A site with no distinct sub-culture – since the point of ethnography is to study culture, you will have trouble if you study a site that does not have a culture of its own. Ask yourself the following questions:
  
  
  • Do the people at the potential site share a sense of belonging?
  • Would those people identify themselves as part of a group linked to the site?
  • Do the people use “insider language”?
    

    For example, a restaurant would not be a good site, unless you decided to study the management and wait staff. The customers at the restaurant will not have their own culture, while the employees probably do. Of course, there are exceptions, like a group of people who always eat at the same restaurant together.

• A site you are too familiar with – if you choose a culture that you are too close to, then you will have trouble gaining critical distance from it. While you will not be expected to be “objective” about the site, it will be difficult for you to analyze the sub-culture if you are too attached to it.
  
  
• A site that is difficult to access – because of the nature of the field work in this course, it would be a mistake to choose a field site to which you do not have ample access. At the very least, you need to be able to go to your field site once a week. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
  
  
  • Is the site too far away?
  • Do your schedule and the schedule of the potential field site match well?
  • Can you get to your site often enough?
  • Can you gain access, or are there restrictions? Will the members of the sub-culture want to talk to you, or will they resent your presence?
  • Will the people at the site give you permission to research them?
    
    
• Dangerous sites – while strip clubs and biker bars might interest you as field sites, the hazards of studying them are unnecessarily high. Your site must be legal (e.g., no cockfighting clubs) and relatively safe. No grade is worth putting yourself in danger.