A Realistic Approach to Sociological Observation: Daniel Bizeul's Study on Nomadic Populations in France

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[...] Results - What are the contributions of the field survey The field survey profoundly disrupts the sociologist's approach. Not only in view of a recommended case study method that is not really realistic (as explained above), but also in that it comes to deny or confirm part of the sociologist's preliminary analyses. Indeed, in the information gathered before the first contact with the population, Daniel Bizeul had recompiled numerous testimonies of personal experiences with regard to this population, coming to distort the idea he had of the group. [...]

[...] Critical Discussion and Conclusion Through this study of the nomadic population in France, Daniel Bizeul refutes established approaches in sociological observation and transmits to the reader, not only a faithful image of this population over several years, but above all a realistic process of sociological and ethnographic analysis. He also shares with us his own feelings by following this population and immersing himself in a context that is so different from his own personally: « My own personal life, which I was anxious to keep hidden from travelers has also prevented me from creating close ties and thus also highlights the limitations of a sociologist, as a human being, immersed in an environment that is littered with elements that are of a 'human' character, rather than a 'purified' subject of study. [...]

[...] Daniel Bizeul wrote this article in 1999, which he titled « Faire avec les déconvenus. An investigation in a nomadic environment, to summarize his preparatory work and the approach of his investigation among a particular nomadic population in the 1980s. Daniel Bizeul is a former sociology teacher at the Catholic University of the West in Angers and at the University of Nantes, who has already published articles in French Review of Sociology (1998). He is also a member of the research group « School, Work, Institutions of the University of Paris VIII. [...]

[...] How to carry out a sociological study that is therefore purified of this human aspect, of this unforeseen aspect that emerges day by day within the studied population? It's not that the sociological approach should aim to be purified, and devoid of the unforeseen that does not fit into the aspects of the study, but rather it must reflect these aspects of everyday life to understand the population of the study. With the words of the author: « The narrative restitution includes as proper to the unfolding of the investigation the role of the ordinary ingredients of social life. [...]

[...] Regarding this first contact, Daniel Bizeul notes that many sociologists, before the 'field' survey of their observation, give themselves to analyses that they prolong over time and with a rather doubtful utility. In fact, he concludes that many of them only fear this first contact with the population they are studying, but that their preliminary analyses do not necessarily prepare them in the best way for this first contact. The production of statistics and these preliminary studies, which prove themselves within the public authorities who can easily draw recommendations from them, is a misleading and ineffective way to start a sociological analysis. [...]