The name is absent

Appendix 1

and when working in difficult conditions), on the grounds that they become focused on
particular provocative phenomena following traditional field methods pursuant to their
research question and loose sight of what can be thought of as broader generative
potentials, gathering assemblages, or generally, processes leading to change. These
researchers eventually leave the field and must later reorient their data or place it within a
dynamic model developed outside of the field. Of course, this is not a problem for every
researcher, and especially those returning to the field after having spent time there before.
A research tool like MERIA can offer, even to these experienced anthropologists, an
opportunity to remain more directly connected with morphogenic process which might
otherwise be obscured by one's subjectivity: expectations and reactions to situations and
conditions in the field, which is a real concern for researchers working with
disadvantaged populations such as Roma that endure sometimes extreme
discrimination.¹² Let us consider this point further.

Beyond those researchers who witness injustice, discrimination, and other
difficult conditions in the field that can certainly elicit particular response and sometimes
shape investigation, other researchers also apply a particular set of expectations to reality
on the ground (wittingly or unwittingly). It is folly to think that the researcher can
abandon these perspectives or somehow leave them behind when conducting research.
Some anthropologists have embraced this situation and advocate for a “follow your
astonishment” (Shweder 2000) technique thus formalizing the projection of expectations
and subsequent exploration of particular deviations. In interviews with researchers who

¹² I do not suggest here that MERIA somehow cancels or neutralizes my reactions to particular situations
in the field, on the contrary, the organization indeed helps me to focus my reactions in a constructive
manner that will not harm my research, consultants, etc. I simply intend that the MERIA, in addition to this,
helps me to remain focused on broader processes which might be otherwise obscured by my expectations
and reactions (conscious or not) to the conditions in the field.

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