Fieldwork developed at Morningside Park in New York City offered me an opportunity for self-reflection. Social sciences manuals on research techniques usually explain how to prepare and carry out research observation, how to collect information and how to analyse it (Moss, 2002). It is less frequent to find perspectives on the reflexivity, positionality or autoethnography of researchers in relation to this observation technique (Moss, 2001; Dear at al., 2011). This paper aims to reflect on the researcher’s observation experience. My observations at the park focused on: informal children-nature relations in an urban park setting, at different times of the day, weather conditions, and varying landscapes. This experience created a warehouse of perceptions, emotions and reflections which inform not just what happened and is observed there, but also what the researcher perceived, felt and recorded as part of the investigative process.
I first approached the park from an outsider’s perspective, without knowing much about the park and its history, without preconceived ideas and biased images moulded by news, academic literature or informal talks. I was totally open just to observing it, and my initial observations were of its welcoming everyday beauty in an urban public green space. My point of view appeared to be very different from the opinions I received locally. Locals had feelings of insecurity and fears about my own experience as a mature woman doing fieldwork alone in a urban park. I realised literature on urban parks also focus much more on fear, vulnerability and safety than in feelings of wellbeing, contemplation and joy. This paper examines my outsider’s point of view and positionality and how these informed my observation during fieldwork (Adams et al., 2015). Reflections are developed from a critical feminist autoethnographic perspective.
Mots clés : autoethnography|fieldwork|observation|safety|urban parks
A105184MP