Part 2 - Fieldwork on-site: Let's pick up where we left off
It's September 2021. After year of online fieldwork, I finally have the green light to go to Morocco. But where do I start?
Luckily, I did not have to dwell too much on this question as I had already built a network through online fieldwork.
From screen to street
After months of digital interactions, virtual lessons, and remote interviews, the green light meant more than travel. It meant stepping into a space already shaped by earlier connections. Many of the participants I met in person had already spent time with me in online language lessons or digital check-ins. These earlier moments allowed us to meet in person with a shared history, making the awkwardness of introductions almost unnoticeable. What remained was a chance to deepen our conversations, to observe, and to open the door for silences.
Photo taken by participant during our first in-person meeting.
Continuity
Coming on-site extended my online fieldwork. It took the trust we already built and gave it additional layers. While this trust was built behind the safety of screens, in-person, it was tested in different environments: waiting for someone to arrive, taking walks together through neighborhoods and parks, tagging along for a car ride, sharing meals together, etc.
All these small moments allowed for more data collection and more participant observation.
Photo taken by Nada Heddane - What better way to connect with someone than to eat couscous on a Friday.
The added value of being there
On-site fieldwork offered something digital methods could not: atmosphere, tension, and spontaneity. Yet, this was made possible, and made deeper, because it stood on the groundwork laid online. In this sense, digital and in-person methods are not competing tools; they are parts of a continuum, each one enriching the other. Hybrid fieldwork is the way!