Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Time and social networks
Identities in change 43 resettled in Hird, so I knew about this field long before my actual research would have started. Despite that I have never been to Hird before, and I did not have any personal contacts there. What I supposed (and hoped for) was that perhaps the resettled families would not treat me as a complete “foreigner”, and personal relationships would be established more easily on the basis of the “common homeland". My fieldwork experiences proved these hopes to be correct3. My first visit to Hird was in September 1998 when I met my key informant V.L., who was of great help during all my fieldwork4. He arranged meetings with his fellow-villagers, introduced me to resettled families and provided background information, thus helping me to orient myself in the local social set-up. My regular visits to Hird lasted until December 1998. In the very final stage of the fieldwork, I returned to the village a few times for additional information during January 1999. In the “native village” (in Matúškovo) I did not carry out such a well-structured and systematic fieldwork as in Hird. It functioned only as a "second field”, where I was interested only in one aspect of the ethnic experience, namely in the relationship towards displaced relatives and friends living now in Hungary. Accordingly, their accounts were focused only on this limited topic, and not on the whole story of the resettlement of Hungarians. I collected personal accounts, life-stories and family histories. My writing also includes some of my earlier experiences and information obtained in some informal situations, which I also included for the sake of a more detailed and complete analysis. Conversations with my informants were partly oriented interviews made according to a previously constructed questionnaire, partly free discussions in which after some planned opening questions a free conversation followed. In principle, the style of interview, the way of conversation largely depended on my partners personal characteristics and on the situation. I tried to choose my informants to get as many approaches and interpretations as possible- thus I spoke with
