Finding the field: Notes on the ethnography of NGOs

Studying globalization challenges disciplinary traditions that implicitly p rivilege a geographically demarcated field and classic models of ethnograph ic fieldwork. Understanding transnational processes calls for innovative, m ultilocal research strategies that both capture people's perceptions of cha nge and analyze the interconnecting systems. Although the study of large, " southern" NGOs that link international donors and community-based groups of fers one such strategy, it also generates a series of methodological compli cations associated with discerning the contours of the ethnographic field i tself and the researcher's position in the volatile NGO sector. These issue s are addressed in relation to the author's current fieldwork in Andean sou thern Peru.