The ethnographic research for this project was carried out in two phases: from May to September 2014 and from June 2015 to September 2015. The first period was planned to coincide with the tournament itself (June-July 2014) and enabled me to observe both the preparations for and excitement around the actual tournament. The second period was important for documenting the legacies of the World Cup once the media attention and excitement had died down, as well as further interviews with villagers and key actors.
Before my first fieldwork trip, I was fully aware that I had to make thorough preparations. I had never visited Brasil, spoke no Portuguese, and was an inexperienced researcher. I also had many pre-
conceptions about undertaking research in Brazil. In terms of practical preparation, my first task was to learn to speak Portuguese. I sought contact with Portuguese speakers in Colchester and used Duolingo self-education tools and apps. These apps proved very helpful and I continued to use them once I started fieldwork. By the time I arrived in Brazil, I had some basic phrases at my disposal. However it took about a month before I could begin to have conversations. The second main practical preparation was to start making contacts with academics and key actors in Cuiabá and finding possible places to stay close to the villages involved in the Green River Project.
In terms of academic preparations, in addition to more focused bibliographic research, I had extensive discussions with my supervisors about ethics, safety and the practicalities of doing fieldwork. I was particularly worried about my impact as a Western researcher in the field. Riach (2009) suggests that as a researcher my research is influenced by my gender, class, national and racial attributes. Other ‘confessional tales’ by ethnographers who had ethical issues in relation to their impact in the field (Bryman and Bell, 2011, Neuman, 2003, Liamputtong, 2010) made me conscious of my potential impact on research participants. However, these concerns proved to be largely unfounded. When I arrived in Brazil, I soon realised that the deeply engrained social inequalities were much more significant than the
65 North/South divide, and my presence in some circumstances actually broke down social barriers. I was also aware of being a single female in the field. This was perhaps the biggest struggle and something I had underestimated. Before my fieldwork, I had not experienced a patriarchal society and did not appreciate how I might react to being treated as having a prescribed gender role. In this sense, being in the field had a greater impact on me as a researcher than the research participants.
Once I arrived in Brazil I spent one month travelling around, in preparation for going to the villages in rural Mato Grosso. During this time I went to Brasilia and stayed in a European back-packers hostel and Mato Grosso do Sul where I visited local tourist sights. Then I spent two weeks in Cuiabá with a
Brazilian middle-class family who could speak English. This initial period of fieldwork was important to understand Brazilian society in general. I enjoyed evenings discussing politics and reading newspapers. The time in Cuiabá was especially important as I was able to experience both the middle-class and peasant life, which enabled me to fully appreciate the social and economic divides in Brazil.
During this month of acclimatising, I met Dr Carla Valentini, a college teacher in Cuiabá . I first made contact with her in 2013 when researching academics working in the Northern Pantanal region.
Although she could not speak English she was very keen to meet and help me when I arrived in Cuiabá . Within the first week I had accompanied her on a college trip to the Pantanal where she led a tour of an eco-hotel, and she also took me to Barranco Alto so that I could begin to map the region. Carla became very interested in my project and was intrigued that such a small, rural project could have caught the attention of UK researchers. She claimed that although she lived in the city, her heart belonged in the mata (countryside). It was a sore subject that both of her teenage daughters hated spending time in the countryside and both had ambitions to move to the chique (fashionable) USA. Carla later went to great lengths to arrange my interviews with the Green Action Institute, the Mato Grosso public prosecutor, and tried to arrange interviews with Secopa and took time out to accompany when I carried them out. After my two weeks in Cuiabá , I travelled to the Pousada Itaicy, a small hotel in Pesquerio Florida, which is one of the communities involved in the Green River Project. While preparing for fieldwork, I had
66 made contact the hotel owner Robson, through a search of hotels near Barranco Alto. I had emailed over 10 hotels and Robson was the only one to reply. He was keen for me to stay at the hotel as he spoke no English and had English-speaking guests arriving to stay during the World Cup. So we had provisionally arranged that I would look after these guests in return for board and lodgings. Although I was rather apprehensive about this provisional arrangement, once I arrived and met Robson I was reassured and working at the hotel proved invaluable for my fieldwork. It was close to the fishing villages of Barranco Alto I and II, and also facilitated access to key elite actors.
The Pousada Itiacy runs weekend and five day fishing packages for elite tourists from around Mato Groso and other parts of Brazil, as the River Cuiabá is famous among fisherman for Dourado,
Piraputanga and Pintado. It had eight rooms when I arrived which grew to eleven by the time I left the field. The rooms were simple in design and furniture but had access to satellite TV and air conditioning. A paved walkway towards the river led to the restaurant and covered seating area on the river bank. The restaurant was built by Robson and his late father and had wooden furniture- a luxury in Santo Antonio do Leverger. It cost R$750 (£170) for one person to stay overnight with two fishing trips, meals and drinks. Due to this reason it was only the elite classes who could afford to stay. To the outside, the hotel seemed a paradise in such a rural location, Robson would often profess to having the best Wi-Fi in Brazil as it was a great feat to get Wi-Fi in the area.
Due to the rural location of the hotel I stayed on the premises as did other workers, this closeness meant I created relationships very quickly with the other workers. However, my closeness to the hotel owner’s wife meant that gaining their full trust was difficult. I shared my room with other workers who generally did not stay longer than two or three months before moving onto other jobs. During my second stay in 2015 Robson carried out renovations on the hotel and workers’ rooms. Throughout most of this period of fieldwork I slept in the hotel owner’s apartment on the floor, but occasionally shared a hammock with another female worker, and on some occasions we were given a guest bedroom.
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