From kitchen to classroom: reflections on fieldwork in China in the early 1990s

Abstract

This article reflects on life and field-work in China at the beginning of the 90s, starting from the premise that the personal  and  professional  dimensions  of  ethnography  are  inseparable  and  that together they shape social research in  the  field.  It  develops  a  personal  methodological   genealogy,   focusing   specifically  on  the  limiting  effects  of  bureaucracy on the work of social sci-entists, and the human relations skills that are fundamental to social research and  the  quality  of  its  results.  Finally,  it  defends  fieldwork  as  necessary  for  an understanding of the ideology that supports the cultural values of the social space in which the researcher operates.