Fieldwork

Students or Aspirants? Insights from an Ethnography of the Civil Services Exam Coaching Culture in New Delhi

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What this article tries to assert is that CSE aspirants in Karol Bagh and Rajinder Nagar are not just competitors in an exam with unrealistically low rates of success which makes them go through frustration and anxiety, rather, perhaps because of the nature of the exam, what its syllabus entails, and what they aspire to become in future, they have somehow collectively become active agents of change in the region, who collectively possess an agency and who’s voices are not left unheard.

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Field Reflections from MM Hills: Notes on Research, Routine, and Resilience

Fieldwork /

Coming from a background in physics, my pivot to conservation research often felt disorienting — but not aimless. Standing in MM Hills, trying to understand the intersections of gender, land, and traditional ecological knowledge, was not something I ever imagined, but it felt necessary. The early days of fieldwork were marked by isolation.

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Reflections on the Unpredictable nature of the Field

Fieldwork /

Even after finalising and conceptualising the research framework beforehand, the field can present unforeseen challenges. It can quickly turn into an unpredictable site that may defy what one had imagined before the field visit. In such scenarios, researchers must navigate the field and explore every other avenue to carry out data collection. In this article, I share how I had to make significant adjustments to my research framework, including the research tools that I had designed for the study, since the field demanded it.

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