Methodology
Prior to this work I conducted field research in Athens in 2003 for my MA. At
the time I lived in Halandri and spent my days mainly with the local Roma population,
but also at various hospitals and private clinics across the city. Since 2003 I returned to
Athens several times, maintained my contacts and conducted informal field research
within the various spaces and with the various people I found interesting. I returned to
Athens for my dissertation research in 2006. When I arrived initially the city was nearly
deserted. Most local people were still on vacation and vacationing foreigners were
concentrated in the tourist areas or were still lingering on Greek islands. The outlying
suburbs, like Halandri where I planned to make my home for the year, were quiet.
However, in the following months the city and its suburbs livened up and I began to
explore the surrounding areas and to conduct participant observation among several
populations I was interested in. For this project random sampling was not a viable
strategy. Instead I conducted opportunistic sampling relying on social networks. Sample
inbreeding was avoided by seeking multiple diverse entry points from different social
strata reflecting important dimensions of each research population. Eventually I met a
number of key contacts4, established research relationships with them, and conducted
hours upon hours of unstructured interviews.
Of note, I also spent quite a bit of time completely lost in Athens (my love of
shortcuts through the urban landscape often led me in unexpected directions), and in this
way got to know the city and many of its surrounding areas. Being lost eventually
became another field method for me. On some of my forays into the city I would take the
4 These contacts included government employees, important organizers and spokespeople associated with
the various communities I engaged with, and others whose specialized knowledge I was interested in.