Clark, Andrew and Campbell, Sarah (2023) Can you remember? Leaving and returning to the field in longitudinal research with people living with dementia. In: Smith, Robin James and Delamont, Sara, (eds.) Leaving the field: Methodological insights from ethnographic exits. Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 978-1526157652; 978-1526157645 (doi:10.7765/9781526157669.00020)

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Abstract

This chapter draws on the authors’ experiences of leaving and returning to the field in research with people living with dementia as part of an ESRC-NIHR-funded five-year longitudinal study of the neighbourhood experiences of people living with dementia and their families, friends and care partners. The authors deployed a range of approaches and methods that placed fieldwork and the sustained, repeated engagement with participants in particular places over a period time. The ‘field’ they were concerned with was not simply a geographically bounded location such as the neighbourhoods where participants lived, but also temporal – incorporating change over time, and social – incorporating relational ties with other people regardless of their location. Dementia can be associated with a range of symptoms including cognitive change such memory loss, declining physical abilities and communication difficulties. Over time, these can make it difficult for those participating in the research to cognitively and physically access, recognise or locate themselves in the social and spatial fields the authors were exploring. Participants may also be unable to remember previous interactions with the research team or the experiences they previously have shared. The authors’ repeated interactions with participants and their associated social networks, in the places they visited or where they lived, prompted a messy process of entering, ‘leaving’ and re-engaging with what the authors came to recognise as the field. This chapter seeks to question what it means to leave, return and remember the field as a cognitive as well as a physical and temporal location.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	dementia; exits; leaving; fieldwork; ethnography
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development > Centre for Chronic Illness and Ageing
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2023 11:44
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/44627

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