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47 | automne 2002
Les risques du métier

Engagements problématiques en sciences sociales
The risks of the profession: undertaking research in dangerous fieldworks
Edited by Valérie Amiraux and Daniel Cefaï
Couverture du numéro 47
More about this picture
Credits: "El sueno de la razon produce monstruos" GOYA - Musée natioanl del Prado
222 pages - 20 €
ISBN 2-7475-3432-4

Every field is unique. So is the perception that the investigator has of his research-object : distant, tired, critical, empathetic, amorous, frightened... The range of different ways to react to events, to manage daily interactions, to maintain an axiological neutrality or to get politically involved with the actors is unlimited. This diversity does not, however, eclipse a common experience of sensitive fieldwork : the hardships of loyalty and of treason, of trust and of culpability, of fear and of terror in some cases. Through the story of real-life experiences, this issue explores the dilemmas and the ambiguities of investigation in the social sciences. Social scientists reflect upon their confrontation with violence and war, the compatibility of research and political involvement, the close relationship between investigation and one's own biography and the difficulties of a militant anthropology. These considerations should allow the reader to identify the analogies between situations very different at first glance... and to anticipate the risks of the profession.

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