Overseas Research: A Practical Guide

Researchers in developing countries often find that the particular country in which they work presents a range of unforeseen challenges. Indeed, their ability to carry out effective scholarship is often highly dependent on these factors. The great differences between working in countries as varied as India, China, Bolivia and Kenya can often come as a shock to the system. An ability to negotiate a bewildering array of cultural and logistical obstacles is therefore essential.

Overseas Research II: A Practical Guide distils essential lessons learned by scores of students and scholars who have collected data and done fieldwork abroad. The authors fill the reader in on the many crucial pieces of advice: how to prepare for the field, how and where to find funding for one’s fieldwork, issues of personal safety and security, and myriad logistical and relational issues that often define one’s research experience abroad. As Christopher B. Barrett and Jeffrey Cason suggest, "Fieldwork is a sequence of decisions, some about the conduct of research, some about the conduct of life." The book focuses new field researchers’ attention on that productive intersection, and includes many real-life accounts from experienced professionals whose own work abroad can inform those facing the field for the first time.

Christopher B. Barrett is the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and International Professor of Agriculture, Cornell University, USA.

Jeffrey W. Cason is the Dean of International Programs and the Edward C. Knox Professor of International Studies and Political Science at Middlebury College, USA.