Paper short abstract:

I consider conceptual,empirical,theoretical and purpose-related changes of my long-term fieldwork by tracking the points of arrival at different conceptual nodes and empirical opportunities.Pursuing this reveals gaps that have pushed my research in new directions and opened new horizons in its aims.

Paper long abstract:

My research in the Seto region in the South Eastern corner of Estonia since 2003 has considerably transformed over the years, from the starting point in the anthropology of development, through empirical and theoretical focus on heritage, hegemony, migration and eventually environmental anthropology. There, in relation to recently changed logging laws and their effects on the local dispossessed groups all those dimensions have become combined.

Whilst anthropology has provided the insights that have led to the transformation of my research attention, tracking this process of transformation and arrival at each new conceptual node and empirical opportunity reveals the gaps where the need for insight from other disciplines becomes highly valuable, mixing methods inevitable, and an applied approach instrumental. To reveal how such a process of transformation has helped advance both the conceptual framework of "social dispossession", and its links to heritage and environmental degradation, I will offer a case study from the region that has pushed me into the subdiscipline I had avoided out of fear for subdisciplinary purity and a lack of knowledge. Without willingness to enter unknown fields not only empirically but also theoretically and methodologically, there is little hope for interdisciplinarity. Further, interdisciplinarity flourishes in particular when its raison d'être is applied. And through such avenues, as a final stop (for now), the researchers realise what anthropology gains from other disciplines and what it can offer both in academia and beyond.