Trust-building as a Methodological Issue: The Selective Use of Lao Dialects with Unregistered Lao Labourers in the Borderlands of Ubon Ratchathani
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This article discusses the fieldwork methodological problems of trust-building. Hoping to be included as an insider by the informants, the researcher attempted to employ the most similar accent with the transnational undocumented Lao labourers along the Thai-Lao border on various occasions. Adopting the theoretical framework of ethnography, positionality, and trust-building, the researcher conducted a number of research fieldworks along the Thai-Lao border in Ubon Ratchathani and Champassak from 2019 to 2023. Taking great effort to employ the most similar Lao accent with the informants when collecting data, the researcher expected that trust would be enhanced and they would be included as an insider by the informants. In contrast, the informants were suspicious about the researcher. This article argues that a researcher should spend sufficient time in the field rather than trying to change their accent, despite it being similar to the informants’. Trust will therefore be enhanced. Throughout the research conducted from 2019 to 2023, document analysis, participant observation, and interview methods were employed. The methodological problems with trust-building were found when the data was collected using participant observations and interviews because the positionality of the researcher plays a crucial role in these data collection methods.
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