摘要：This article deals with fieldwork in challenging research contexts that make preparation for fieldresearch particularly difficult. Challenging contexts include generally insecure places, politicizedcontexts, and unknown settings. Drawing on our experience in the field, we discuss four challengesthat are common across these contexts: access, positionality, researcher well-being, and researchdesign and data collection. Bringing together insights from fieldwork with urban elites and in thecountryside, this paper describes problems that occurred in both settings and identifies a set of interpersonalskills that helped the authors to tackle the challenges of the field and seize the opportunitiesit offered. This article posits that recognizing the importance of certain interpersonal skills, namely:openness, empathy, humility, and flexibility, precedes the identification of practical tools. Interpersonalskills, instead, focus on a general attitude that underlies researchers’ capacity to make informedchoices about specific courses of actions, preparing fieldworkers to be prepared to confront problemsonce they arise.
关键词：Fieldwork; Research Strategy; Challenging Contexts; Qualitative Research
