Paper short abstract:

Drawing on various temporal and spatial registers that converge, give meaning and calibrate value in the Istanbul Grand Baazar, the paper reflects on the identification and 'management' of radical scalar shifts in processes of 'locating the field' in anthropological fieldwork.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic research in the context of the iconic trade of rugs and kilims in the Istanbul Grand Bazaar, this paper will reflect on the impact of scale in processes of 'locating the field' and qualifying 'context' in anthropological research. Taking stock of the various temporal and spatial registers that converge, give meaning and calibrate value in the Istanbul Grand Baazar, the paper reflects on methodological challenges concerning the identification and 'management' of radical scalar shifts in ethnographic fieldwork.

Acknowledging anthropological methods in their unique and powerful potential for capturing complex phenomena at various levels and registers of everyday life, the paper explores how those radical scalar shifts and dissonances that increasingly qualify 'context', by the same token, increasingly problematise the process of 'locating the field'. Drawing on research concepts developed through collaborative, multidisciplinary and multi-sited efforts, the paper argues for the importance of anchoring processes of 'locating the field' in a critical approach to the notion of 'location' in the first place.