Fieldwork and qualitativemethods. New thinkings needs from latinamerican geographies

Abstract

This paper wants to introduce some mainlines and concepts that orientate recents discussions in fieldwork and qualitative methodology research in human geography, specially in anglosaxon school. Authors consulted belong to radical, cultural or gender geography or inscribe their work in these trends. In spite of their political comittment and their intention of overcoming contradictions risen from neopositivistic points of view - with their constraints for understanding actual social, cultural and political processes - some of their considerations not only preserve empirical-realistic elements but show difficulties for understanding processes that take place in perifery as well. This paper analizes, firstly, the state of the debate around the use of qualitative and quantitative methods, secondly, it reformulates some of the problems discussed by anglosaxon school through our field experience.