Female ethnographers often appear to be more aware of their sexual status and its impact on fieldwork and relationships than their male colleagues (Okely 1992: 19, Coffey 1999: 79). Similarly, the behaviour of female fieldworkers is often more closely scrutinised than that of male fieldworkers (Mascarenhas-Keyes 1987: 187), and many female ethnographers’ accounts detail gender-specific issues and challenges that arose during their research (e.g. Moreno 1995: 220, Whitehead 1976, Middleton 1986). This paper draws on the authors’ experiences in two different rural British communities, conducting research using a combination of methods including participant observation and tape-recorded interviews. Catherine Maclean's research examined migration and social change in ‘Beulach’, a remote rural parish in the north of Scotland, while Fiona Gill's research focused on issues of identity in ‘Bordertown’, a small town near the border between Scotland and England. In both cases, while gender was not initially a focus of the research, it became increasingly salient during the fieldwork period. The paper discusses the similarities and differences between the authors’ research experiences, and the factors that account for these. The authors’ research is set in the wider context of ethnographic community studies. The paper explores the emotional impact of the fieldwork on the authors, and the consequences of this for the research. It concludes that although female researchers have to consider and deal with gender-related research problems not faced by their male colleagues, this also has positive consequences as the experiences of female ethnographers encourage a reflexive and self-aware approach.

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Although succession planning has been a fertile topic of investigation among rural sociologists, its temporal elements have been neglected. This has resulted in static analyses, with little attention paid to the influences of the past and future on present decision-making. This article introduces a consideration of temporality, examining the influences of past and future on the development and expression of farming identities. I argue that temporality plays a critical role as farmers struggle with conflicting senses of time and responsibilities to different generations.

The Internet has changed the nature of the archive from a paper-based treasure trove overseen by the trained archivist to one of an open, multi-vocal, democratic source with no one in control. New forms of archives have emerged -for example, the haphazard collection of ephemeral -and they now exist alongside the formal public record that has more traditionally been understood as the archive. This article analyses what these changes mean to social scientists working with data that emerge from or are stored on the Internet. Using a small case study based on our own research, we consider ways of thinking through and managing this challenge. We suggest this shift from the institutional to the intimate, from the state to the individual, from the public to the private has changed the way scholars access and interact with data.

Abstract. This paper is an exploration of national identities among sports people in a community in the Scottish Borders. This group experiences a split in their identities. Publicly, they are ascribed an ambiguous national identity by the surrounding national communities. Privately, and among fellow community members, they unambiguously assert national identity. This paper examines the way this split is managed, arguing that the performance of public ambiguity is expected, but is supported by the private performance of nationality. National identity is analysed specifically as a performance, and sport is the context in which this performance takes place.