Fieldwork, ethnography and the empirical affect montage

Stodulka, Thomas; Dinkelaker, Samia; Thajib, Ferdiansyah

doi:10.4324/9780429424366-16

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…For, as Reed and Towers (2023, p. 262) have aptly noted, researchers "both effect and are affected by the shared experience of research". This discussion unfolds by first exploring how exposure to diverse perspectives on violence engenders a proliferation of roles, intensifying the complex web of expectations and responsibilities faced by researchers within the field (Sriram et al 2009;Stodulka et al 2019). Subsequently, I address the emotional repercussions of the encountered stories, underscoring the challenges of navigating multiple roles within and beyond 'the field'.…”

Section: Becoming An "Emotional Chameleon"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Listening to, Reconstructing, and Writing about Stories of Violence: A Research Journey Amidst Personal Loss

Avram

2024

Genealogy

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This article explores the interplay between my life and research on responsibility in the context of (past) collective violence and state repression in Romania, my country of origin. Reflecting on the five-year research process, I delve into my multiple and shifting positionalities during data collection, analysis, and presentation, pointing to the fluid identities of researchers along a continuum in which their backgrounds, professional roles, as well as dynamic negotiations in ‘the field’ and personal experiences intertwine and affect research at every stage. In particular, I explore the impact of my personal experience of loss and grief after the sudden death of my mother on my research, revealing its influence on reconstructing and writing about stories of violence. In doing so, research unfolds as a journey where personal and professional lives merge, showcasing knowledge production as an inherently subjective endeavor. Building on this, I advocate for recognizing the influence of emotions and personal experiences on narrative interpretations as well as for considering the intertwining between research and personal life’s as central facets of positionality and reflexivity.

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Section: Becoming An "Emotional Chameleon"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Listening to, Reconstructing, and Writing about Stories of Violence: A Research Journey Amidst Personal Loss

Avram

2024

Genealogy

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“…Emotional engagement is thus advocated as an essential and inevitable part of the ethnographic research process, from fieldwork to analysis to presentation of findings (Behar 1996; Davies 2010; Jackson 2013: 312; Kleinman & Copp 1993; Stodulka, Dinkelaker & Thajib 2019). In ethnography as an immersive relational practice, emotional dimensions have epistemic value: that is, in developing relationships, understandings, and knowledge (Lo Bosco 2021: 13).…”

Section: Emotional Engagement In Ethnographic Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnographic closeness: methodological reflections on the interplay of engagement and detachment in immersive ethnographic research

Pilbeam,

Greenhalgh,

Potter

2023

Royal Anthropological Inst

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With the reflexive turn in the social sciences, emotional engagement is an inevitable and crucial part of data‐gathering and analysis. However, there is a glaring gap in methodological discussions to this end. Presenting ethnographic research into end of life with people living at home in England with heart failure, we argue for a methodological blend of engagement and detachment that shifts throughout the research process, and that sensory experience is a core part of engagement. We offer ethnographic examples which present and explore some alternatives to emotional engagement and objective detachment: (1) moving with participants to facilitate engagement during fieldwork through shared sensory experience; (2) detachment as a different way of relating when exiting the field and drawing participant relationships to a close; and (3) ethnographic closeness as the interplay of engagement and detachment in participant debriefing and data analysis. Based on well‐established anthropological concepts, and taking both engagement and detachment as embodied and relational, we develop a notion of ethnographic closeness in which detachment is a necessary part. Our detailed methodological discussion thus offers theoretically grounded possibilities and alternatives for approaching and managing the core tension of ‘how close is too close?’ in ethnographic practice. Further contributions supporting researchers in navigating ethnographic research are needed.

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“…Specific methodological tools also increase risks, depending on the researchers’ personality, including their capacity for empathy as well as their tendency to people-please (Alley, 2018). While researchers must be aware that the risk of getting too close grows under conditions that lower the symbolic distance between researchers and participants, “incidental findings” prompted by intimacy can never be completely avoided and have been extensively recognized structural parts of qualitative research with human subjects (Stodulka et al, 2019).…”

Section: Defining “Crumbs”: Emotional Entanglements and Data Collecti...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although I never used that information in publications or conferences, this apparently trivial exchange helped me realize that the research methods we take for granted, that we feel so comfortable with as a researcher, are anything but natural and comfortable for participants and that the time allotted for an interview is rarely enough to allow participants to adjust to the method. Despite researchers’ attempts to make participants comfortable, any research setting is at most a well-arranged reconstruction of an everyday setting and a certain degree of uncomfortableness cannot be avoided (Bondi, 2003; Haraway, 1988; Stodulka et al, 2019). Reflections produced by various scholars (Alley, 2018; Shokooh Valle, 2021; Springgay, 2021) show that participants react to this uncomfortableness by either sharing too little or by sharing too much because they feel they have to.…”

Section: Transforming Emotional Entanglements In Ethical Occasionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

More Than “Crumbs”: Emotional Entanglements and Situated Ethical Strategies in Qualitative Research

Pitti

2022

American Behavioral Scientist

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Emotional entanglements developing between researchers and participants are an unavoidable experience in qualitative research, whose methods largely rely on emotions, intimacy, and relationships. Despite urged to exercise reflexivity, researchers rarely have the opportunity to deconstruct the emotional aspects of their investigations, which are often perceived as problems rather than as resources. Drawing on feminist methodology, this article argues that emotional entanglements should be considered neither as methodological “troubles” that must be avoided at all costs nor as strategies to gain richer data, but as important ethical moments that can help researchers reconsider, re-adjust, and update the tools they employ to collect and disseminate data. Using “confessional tales” written during qualitative studies I have conducted with young people involved in a variety of subcultural practices, I explore strategies for dealing with emotional entanglements in a meaningful and ethical way. In so doing, this article aims to add to the literature on the tensions between formal ethics and ethics in the field.

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Fieldwork, ethnography and the empirical affect montage

Cited by 18 publications

References 1 publication

Listening to, Reconstructing, and Writing about Stories of Violence: A Research Journey Amidst Personal Loss

Listening to, Reconstructing, and Writing about Stories of Violence: A Research Journey Amidst Personal Loss

Ethnographic closeness: methodological reflections on the interplay of engagement and detachment in immersive ethnographic research

More Than “Crumbs”: Emotional Entanglements and Situated Ethical Strategies in Qualitative Research

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