Saqqummersitaq

In 2019 a broadcast from Denmark’s Radio (DR) highlighted severe social problems among children and young people in Tasiilaq in East Greenland. The broadcast also highlighted severe shortcomings in social care and child protection measures. The broadcast claimed the municipality and its employees either failed (or responded inadequately) when receiving concerned professionals’ referrals. In this article, the point of departure is in the situation in Tasiilaq reported in the DR broadcast "The town where children disappear” – and based on a series of qualitative interviews with public employees in Tasiilaq. Through a social policy lens, the paper explores the situation in Tasiilaq. Among other things, the paper explores the situation reported by the broadcast from the perspectives of low-level public sector employees.' By analysing some of the employees' challenges, i.e., the referral reporting procedure in the municipality and the lack of decision-making competences locally, this article compares the findings from the broadcast to the employee's perspectives. Ultimately, this comparison illustrates the challenges of protecting children and young people from serious harm in Tasiilaq.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the methodological concept of reflexivity supports fieldwork and knowledge creation when doing fieldwork in Greenland.

The paper primarily focuses on how researchers navigate unfamiliar contexts, build trust, and interact with actors in the field. Based on fieldwork in two very different settings, the authors describe how reflexivity plays a significant role in Greenland research.

This paper reports on two separate fieldwork studies. The two studies interweave as they explore the reflexive journeys taken in the two very different contexts. While reflexivity plays out in two different social contexts, the two studies explore how researchers respond to unfolding events.

Study A) set out to investigate homelessness in Tasiilaq but changed direction to embrace new developments in the local context. A unique opportunity arose due to a broadcast sent via Denmark’s Radio. Thus, the researcher in the field responded by broadening his interview guide and focus.

Study B) discusses how leadership unfolds in a fish processing factory in Nuuk. The researcher emerged in everyday organizational life, observing day-to-day management based on participative observations and shadowing techniques.

Fieldwork is an evolving, fluid, and ever-changing enterprise. Despite their outset, all research projects can change course or fold due to challenges or unforeseen circumstances (Perry, 2020; Rasmussen, 2020).

During fieldwork, the researcher establishes relations within a setting and must build and maintain trust throughout (ibid).

We discuss how the research emerge and unfold as a reflexive journey where research questions and general inquiries are formed by the empirical activities and theoretical input and qualified by an intuitive and interpretive research process (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2009; Mead, 1932).

When we refer to this reflexive process, we mean the reflexive process advanced by Mead (1934) as “turning back of the experience of the individual upon himself” (Mead, 1934, p. 134). The reflexive “turning back experience” in fieldwork provides access to new understandings delivering explanatory abstractions about the field of study (Yanow, 2009). Reflexivity comes about through the researcher’s intuitive reactions, active roles, and field relationships.

This paper explores the interactions and processes that empower researchers to qualify and change research questions during fieldwork. Turning to the concepts of reflexivity, reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action gives a valuable understanding of the processes that qualify research projects while they are happening. Reporting on two separate fieldwork studies in Greenland, the paper explores how the researchers respond to unfolding events in the two different Greenlandic contexts. Study A) investigated homelessness in Tasiilaq but changed direction to embrace new national and local developments. A unique opportunity arose due to a broadcast sent via Denmark’s Radio. Consequently, the researcher in the field responded by broadening the interview guide and scope of the study. Study B) discusses how leadership unfolds in fish processing factories in Nuuk and Maniitsoq. The researcher emerged in everyday organisational life, observing day-to-day activities based on participant observations, shadowing, conversations, and interviews.

En udsendelse fra Danmarks Radio fremhævede i år alvorlige sociale problemer blandt børn og unge i Tasiilaq i Østgrønland – og udsendelsen fremhævede også alvorlige mangler i den sociale indsats. I udsendelsen hævdes det, at kommunen og dens ansatte ikke reagerede eller ikke reagerede tilstrækkeligt nok, når de modtog underretninger fra fagfolk. I denne artikel tager vi udgangspunkt i situationen i Tasiilaq gennem DR’s udsendelse ”Byen hvor børn forsvinder” – og med afsæt i en række kvalitative interviews med offentligt ansatte i byen. Vi anlægger et socialpolitisk perspektiv på temaet som en case ved bl.a. at se på situationen fra de offentlige ansattes perspektiv – og gennem analyser af mulige udfordringer i en del af en offentlig socialadministration, som dels skal udføres lokalt i Tasiilaq, og dernæst en distanceret efterbehandling på den anden side af Indlandsisen i Nuuk. Hvilke udfordringer giver det i den fremtidige beskyttelse af byens børn og unge?