Fieldwork tactics

I am trying to prepare my data for future analysis, so that when I sit down to write, I don't have to wade through 3 years of documents (PDFs, emails, interviews, transcriptions, oh my!) and process it all. This is an obvious needed step as one conducts research, but unlike more traditional scientific research, it's sometimes hard to know in advance what method will be appropriate for the data collected. And though I anticipated certain themes would come out in interviews and the various information sources I use, I am only now, 6 months into fieldwork and 2 years into studying the vaccine, feeling confident about interesting conceptual terms. I'm excited to apply these to the future interviews as well. This is part of why I have started the blog -- to explore certain trains of thought in a more moderated medium (that makes no sense, as I am the moderator of my own notes, as much as this blog...but somehow it feels different). Sources of knowledge and what information is considered legitimate are obviously of great interest to me.

The mom for whom I made the sweet potato muffins was a second interview. It was really satisfying to come back to her after listening to our first interview and feeling like I could prepare properly for it. My first few interviews had been so stilted and awkward. (I cringe when I listen to myself on the recordings.) The digging deeper part is the part I like, but I'm not terribly patient (in case you couldn't tell from earlier posts, or from knowing me) with the slow accrual that's necessary to get to the more compelling parts. I'm still trying to figure out how to connect the larger themes of vaccination that I'm hearing with my specific vaccine. I hope that I can find the overlap and the differences soon, as I sometimes feel like I'm stumbling around, groping haphazardly at things I believe are related but can't quite bring together.
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The Canadian Public Radio station CBC has a very cool podcast with science studies' thinkers. I've only listened to one podcast, with Margaret Lock, a well-known medical anthropologist, but it was extremely well-done. It explored a lot of themes I'm familiar with in her work, but it was interesting even to someone who has engaged with her theories before. I really recommend checking it out if you are remotely interested in the sorts of things I've written about thus far.