It may be best to have an individual plan for each ethnography. Every situation could be difficult to identify so general practices can be identified and then each person can adapt to their situation.

For example, I did ethnographic work with active criminals and I carried very little money so not to temp folks. But I also kept some cash in a hidden shirt compartment so I had a way to pay for a cab or to get somewhere. I also had a system where I checked in with people every few hours.

Looking at what to do, and importantly what not to do can be very important so decisions that have to be made in the field are already familiar. So, depending on the type of work; set up basic things: will you go into a home, will you accept rides, will you carry money--how much, will you commit a crime (and what type of crimes), and so on. Then also consider what to do (action plan) if something goes wrong.

As on final way of example I've also done field work in a mall, so that didn't require much of a safety plan at all.

Just my thoughts, not sure I added much.

Team work is a good example for securing a good safety plan. You have three different field schools. Each one may create its own team, say archaeology; the second, biological/forensic; and the third ethnographic.

This is an interesting question. I agree with Ben's comments and would add that when I teach ethnographic methods, we spend a fair amount of time discussing the importance of knowing one's own identity and one's own limitations and how those things might influence safety while collecting data. I do my fieldwork in Japan, where the main safety issues are to look both ways before crossing the street, since they drive on the left (as opposed to Americans on the right), or knowing what to do when the inevitable earthquake happens.

But more seriously, I've been in a couple of situations when I thought my safety might be at risk, but each of those was fairly unusual. There are some general things one can suggest, such as not being alone in someone's house if you don't know them well, so doing interviews or having conversations in public places, but unlike the other two field schools you describe, because ethnographic research involves living people "safety" will look somewhat different depending on the project being pursued. Perhaps you could come up with a list of best practices that help students think about how to be observant and cognizant of potential safety issues. This, of course, also helps them in the practice of becoming more observant in general.

Thank you all for your interesting responses! We will require a unique safety plan for each field school, which considers the unique risk potentials of each situation. I appreciate the specific suggestions on safety issues one might consider in a plan for safety in an ethnographic study! This will help get us started.

Thanks, Laura! This is an interesting example. I had not thought of applying the concepts of risk (probability and magnitude) and mitigation. These correspond with IRB protocols arising from the 1979 Belmont Report, which provides a pretty comprehensive framework for ethical considerations for subjects. I suppose safety of researchers can be seen in the same framework! I'm going to use this.