Feelings in the Field

Abstract

Despite the recent theoretical debate over the importance of addressing emotions in fieldwork, most European undergraduate programmes in anthropology still lack methodology courses that specifically focus on the emotional impact of doing research. In this article, I draw from my research with activist parents of autistic children in Portugal to explore the affective dimensions of fieldwork experience. In particular, I give an account of how I have dwelled on the emotional challenges that I faced, how these have resulted in vehicles of understanding and affected the analysis of my work as an anthropologist. While fieldwork experience always entails unexpected and surprising emotional challenges, I argue that as anthropologists we can surely benefit from more tailored support networks, safer spaces for discussion, and better pastoral care.

A catalyst for change: Developing a collaborative reflexive ethnographic approach to research with hospital doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In evolving the ethnographic approach for MIME, facilitating connection between participant and researcher was key, to ensure we overcame the ‘not being there’ and fostered a strong sense of connection with participants across the digital distance. In particular, we recognised that ‘emotions have an essential role in building our field relations’ (Lo Bosco, 2021: 9), and were conscious that emotional tone might be more difficult to gauge and convey in text-based messaging, as other researchers have noted (Chen and Neo, 2019). However, as researchers, we observed that MIME enabled us to become more deeply emotionally connected and invested in participants’ lived experiences than online interviews had; ‘going home’ with participants via their smartphone, over the 3 months as we watched, listened and empathised about their work, we also shared jokes and holiday plans, cheered successes and commiserated over negative events, both professional and personal.…”

“…However, the connected and intimate nature of MIME through the use of smartphones and WhatsApp completely removed such boundaries. The ethnographer whose ‘field’ was engaged through social media could be ‘suddenly thrown into fieldwork’ at any time, producing an experience equal parts ‘reassurance to fatigue and exhaustion’ (Lo Bosco, 2021: 12). While this was not without its challenges to the researchers on a personal level (Humphries et al, 2022), it builds on ideas of immersion in the field that are at the heart of the practice of ethnography; namely, that in undertaking immersive participant observation one is ‘always “on”, that is, playing the role of being the participant observer and never able to escape’ (Musante, 2015: 268).…”

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

“…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). However, many accounts available in literature where researchers leverage emotional engagement in analytical methods remain confessional in style (e.g.…”