Exploring Repeated Sport Event Volunteering Through Longitudinal Field-Based Research

This case provides a commentary of the key methodological procedures implemented to qualitatively explore consecutive volunteering across a series of major events showcasing competitive international hockey. Throughout, we attend to the central tenets of the research design, longitudinal field-based research, by describing the approaches taken to access, build, and maintain a growing sample of participants, while concurrently collecting and analyzing rich qualitative data from this peer group. In doing this, we provide a commentary of the decision-making processes underpinning such strategies, and present an academic rationale for their selection. Central to this case study is a focus upon the implementation of what is a predominantly field-based research project. Of principal concern within this case study is therefore the reporting of the lived experience of the researcher "in the field" as he sought to recruit participants to the study, and subsequently elicit rich qualitative data from them. Communicated within such accounts are the thought processes and problem-solving strategies of the field-based researcher as he sought to navigate the novel social milieu that he had immersed himself within to glean an in-depth insight into the world of the hockey event-volunteer. In addition, we discuss the steps that we took to enhance the quality and rigor of the findings alongside the theoretical basis for doing so.