Fieldwork details
| Details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Research setting | An urban village in Guangdong, China, densely populated with garment factories, where residents are predominantly migrant workers from other regions of the country engaged, either directly or indirectly, with the adjacent factories. The factories in this area are known for their role as key contract suppliers to a fast fashion Brand operating a global supply chaina | |
| Timeb | Phase 1
| Phase 2
|
| Fieldwork contextc | Factory X
| Factory Y
|
Factory Zd
| ||
| Method | Engagement with the field
| |
| Data content | Fieldnote
| |
| Data corpuse | During fieldwork
| |
| Secondary data |
| |
| Details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Research setting | An urban village in Guangdong, China, densely populated with garment factories, where residents are predominantly migrant workers from other regions of the country engaged, either directly or indirectly, with the adjacent factories. The factories in this area are known for their role as key contract suppliers to a fast fashion Brand operating a global supply chain | |
| Time | Late March to early April 2025 (over 80 h on shop floor) Researcher A in field, two researchers in remote support | Late April to early May 2025 (over 150 h on shop floor) Researcher B in field, two researchers in remote support |
| Fieldwork context | ||
| Method | Researchers applied for a job from the village's public hiring board. After direct contact with division supervisors, researchers joined the trimming section (finishing division) as temporary workers. Throughout the fieldwork, researchers served as ordinary workers labouring under the same conditions (schedule and workload) as the others. Observation and interaction took place from within through informal and unstructured exchanges on the shop floor while labouring, during breaks and over meals, grounded in their shared identity as garment workers. Conversations with all actors were natural and unmediated. Contact with workers and supervisors was sustained after the fieldwork Fieldwork was conducted covertly in factory X and factory Y to familiarise the researchers with the research context and to develop practical skills in garment work. No data from these two factories are reported in the paper. In factory Z, fieldwork began covertly but shifted to overt participation (details explained in the paper). Verbal and adaptive forms of informal consent were obtained from participants Researchers joined the trimming section as novices, contributing to and sharing the workload while observing from within the collective. As researchers received care from the collective expressed through reciprocity and benevolence, their positionality gradually shifted, marked by a growing sense of responsibility and kinship developing towards the collective | |
| Data content | observation of the village; observation of factories, planning, work arrangement, and day-to-day operations on the shop floor observation of workers, their relationship and interaction, interaction between workers and the management, both during- and off-work conversations with workers, both during- and off-work, concerning themselves, their livelihood, their family and life tension and conflict on the shop floor, resolution, and workers' response to the system experience with the hiring and payment system reflections and personal feelings in becoming a trimmer; feelings and emotional processes of being accepted and becoming part of the collective self-reflexivity and positionality throughout the fieldwork | |
| Data corpus | ||
| Secondary data | ||
The names of the village and the brand have been intentionally omitted to prevent the factories and workers from being identified
Precise fieldwork dates have been intentionally omitted to protect the researchers; Daily working hours have been intentionally omitted to prevent any unintended and adverse consequence to the field
Due to the temporary and informal nature of factory work, labour turnover and variation are extremely high; all figures are estimations of the average
Fieldwork in Factory X was led by Researcher A in phase 1 and fieldwork in Factory Y was led by Researcher B in phase 2; while Factory Z served as the shared research site across both phases, with each researcher having worked there at different points in time. Given the high labour turnover characteristic of the sector, moving between factories are free from raising suspicion among managers or co-workers
The self-recorded fieldnote served as basis of written fieldnote. Coding and analysis were performed on the original fieldnotes (written, Chinese). Only the excerpts included in the paper have been translated into English with carefully language check
For privacy and ethical considerations, these data are only checked for triangulation purpose and excluded from publication
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