This edited book examines what it means to conduct global fieldwork under conditions of political, technological, environmental, economic and health-related turbulence. Bringing together contributions from sociology, anthropology and criminology, it analyses how researchers approach and re-approach field sites, negotiate access, collect data, and reflect on positionality, translation, ethics and methodological adaptation in transregional contexts.

Across case studies set in East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, contributors discuss multi-sited ethnography, digital ethnography, prison interviews, research on migration, queer nightlife, power elites, medical drones, offshore labour and fieldwork with adolescents. The chapters show how borders, surveillance, platform technologies, changing funding regimes, climate pressures and post-pandemic conditions reshape qualitative research practice. Rather than offering universal rules, the volume provides grounded methodological reflection on conducting field-based research when fields are mobile, contested or difficult to access.

By placing turbulence at the centre of analysis, the book contributes to debates in global sociology, qualitative methodology and decolonial and reflexive research practice. It will interest scholars and postgraduate students working on ethnography, transnational research, field methods and the politics of knowledge production.

Yvonne Berger is a Sociologist and Professor of Applied Social Sciences at Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Her work focuses on qualitative social research, biographical research, Global Sociology, social inequality, and China studies, with particular interests in translation, transnational interconnectedness and postcolonial perspectives.