The expression ''field research'' is normally used in social psychology to describe a type of research that is carried out outside the laboratory and in the places where everyday action takes place. In this approach, the researcher will go ''to the field'' in order to collect data that will later be analyzed and in order to do this a variety of different methods will be used, both to gather the data and to examine it. This paper reports on the initial conclusions from a series of discussions held on field research, taking as a starting point a post-constructionist perspective. Beginning with the difficulties created by the notion of ''field'' as physically determined and separate, the debate moved on to consider the arguments of Kurt Lewin in favor of a notion of psychological field in which the field is the totality of psychological facts, before settling with the notion of matrix as proposed by Ian Hacking and the wider discussion of materiality. The result was the proposal of the notion of ''theme-field'', in which field is no longer a specific place but refers to the processuality of situated themes. The paper ends by considering the implications of this approach for the research process and for the narrative practices that are used to describe it and to discuss its conclusions.
field research; field theory; constructionist perspectives; theme-field
