The State is the Secret For a Relational Approach to the Study of Border and Mobility Control in Europe

This chapter seeks to guide researchers who conduct qualitative research in state agencies or other institutions that are characterized by bureaucratic secrecies. It looks at guiding researchers in how to identify, “read”, and interpret the challenges and pitfalls in bureaucratic field sites, and how to make them actually meaningful and productive in the research process. The chapter introduces the metaphor of the “difficult terrain” to illustrate the specific obstacles, challenges, and pitfalls that the ethnographer is likely to encounter in bureaucratic fields. Challenges and pitfalls that relate to the features of “difficult terrain” are not simply obstacles, but contribute to the research process, and shape the way the field interacts with the ethnographer. The chapter aims to develop the metaphor of the “difficult terrain”, and entering bureaucratic fields entails specific challenges. It explains in detail how the specificities of bureaucratic fields, and their inherent secrecy in particular, exert an influence on ethnographic field research.