So, this morning the university notified us that the plans to go to Amsterdam aren’t able to go ahead due to the CoVid-19 virus. This news has been unanticipated and very unfortunate, as I was looking forward to getting there and getting started, I feel as if we have been landed in a fairly sticky situation, as if we have to go back to the drawing board and start all over again. But, there may be a chance that we don’t have to completely start all over again, as for the city of Liverpool conveniently being on our doorstep, especially at this time of need for a similar environment to gain research experience. We must come to terms with the fact that Liverpool is as close as we are getting to Amsterdam, so now we must think of ways to convey any possible links, in effort to re-enact similar research aims and to of course continue exploring our chosen topic. Plus, virtual fieldwork has been mentioned as a possible alternative and although it will not be the same as we hoped for, it will however allow us to use the contacts we had already developed beforehand; you never know we might find that virtual fieldwork could be more popular as some may suspect an email interview, phone-based interview, Skype conversation or e-information exchanges as less pressuring as it is in their own time, also they should not be conscious of the time taken to answer the questions; which might mean their answers being well thought out and more detailed as for them having the time to think rather than having to answer there and then.
It looks as if our first plan of action will be informing our contacts, to update them on the most recent circumstances and to consider what alternative ways we can achieve our research aims.
Faye's International Fieldwork Blog 