TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose This chapter analyzes the critical move in feminist scholarship to gender the discourse on risk mediation in dangerous ethnographic fieldwork, particularly in social justice research. Additionally, I draw on a reflexive analysis of my own fieldwork in Oaxaca, Mexico, to examine the intersectional impact of social location (gender, race, class, etc.) on risk management.Methodology/approach I synthesize key literature contributions in social science and feminist scholarship on doing dangerous fieldwork. Ethnographic data includes three months of participant observation and interviews with participants of the 2006 Oaxacan uprising.Findings I argue that the following themes represent axes of gendered risk mediation in social justice fieldwork: (1) the intersectional impact of social location on varied risks and the mediation of those risks, (2) impression management as an important tool for risk mediation, and (3) ethical dilemmas within risk mediation. The key dangers and risks in fieldwork include physical danger, emotional/psychological impacts, risk to research participants, ethical dangers, separation from family through international work, risk of imprisonment, and academic/professional risk.Research limitations/implications Analysis of personal experience in the field is limited to this one researcher’s experience; however, it mirrors key themes present in the literature. Reflexive analysis of social location on risk mediation is part of a continued call by feminist ethnographers to research practical risk mediation techniques and recognize the intersectional impacts of social location on fieldwork.Practical implications This chapter provides insights that instructors of ethnographic methods might use to discuss dangerous fieldsites and how to mediate risk.Social implications A failure to recognize risk in ethnographic research may disproportionately impact researchers most susceptible to particular risks.Originality/value Although feminist scholarship has long examined social location in fieldwork, analysis of risk management is limited. Additionally, this chapter adds to this scholarship by contributing key themes that unite the available research and a list of most-often discussed risks in fieldwork.
VL  - 20
SN  - 978-1-78560-078-4, 978-1-78560-079-1/1529-2126
DO  - 10.1108/S1529-212620150000020006
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620150000020006
AU  - Rogers-Brown Jennifer B.
PY  - 2015
Y1  - 2015/01/01
TI  - More Than a War Story: A Feminist Analysis of Doing Dangerous Fieldwork
T2  - At the Center: Feminism, Social Science and Knowledge
T3  - Advances in Gender Research
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 111
EP  - 131
Y2  - 2024/04/23
ER  -