Sex and the Fieldwork: Gender, Sexuality, Nationality, and Social Class in Research on European (Heterosexual) Men

Wojnicka, Katarzyna

doi:10.1177/1609406920938964

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…In this regard, we should always remember that regardless of whether ethnic identity is the subject of research or not, researcher's personality -especially his/her identification by «others» (informants, guides, and entire ethnic environment under study) in the «field» -should be taken into account by a researcher/interpreter as part of data. Polish researcher K. Wojnicka notes from her personal experience of field research that gender, sexuality, nationality and social class can all have implications for the research process [Wojnicka, 2020].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fieldwork of ethnic identity: theory. practice, reflection

Baigabatova

2021

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The article deals with the problems of studying ethnic identity in ethnographic fieldwork. The study of this phenomenon is currently one of the most relevant research areas. At the same time, it has a number of certain difficulties, primarily related to research methodology. Methodological difficulties are caused by a variety of theoretical approaches and concepts in study of ethnic identity. Therefore, field research remains for ethnographers the most important means of obtaining information about ethnic properties of studied objects. In addition, choice of field ethnography methods and their application in practice causes certain difficulties when research object is ethnic identity.Having based on analysis of scientific literature and foreign authors' techniques as well as her own experience, the author accumulates questions ethnographers face when conducting fieldwork of ethnic identity. As the research shows, difficulties of studying ethnic identity are associated with a number of methodological issues. Particularly, key problems are subjectivity of ethnographic research due to several factors, complex nature of researcher-informant relationship, access to research «field» and search for potential informants. In this regard, building communication and developing their own research strategies, taking into account the characteristics of studied society, are necessary conditions for successful fieldwork of ethnic identity.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fieldwork of ethnic identity: theory. practice, reflection

Baigabatova

2021

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“…Such an aspirational version of a hegemonic masculinity appears as hybrid as well, for it involves identity based on progressive as well as traditional attitudes typical of a protective masculinity (Wojnicka 2020), sustaining and at the same time breaking with existing gender and ethnic hierarchies (Trąbka and Wojnicka 2017). This hybridity needs to be addressed in the context of migration.…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interest in gender in the last two decades, however, has meant an increased interest in female migration (Charsley and Wray 2015). At the same time, migrant masculinities remained largely unaddressed in the literature (Wojnicka 2020). This situation created a paradox where migrant men are concurrently over-researched as "normative" migrants, and yet persistently understudied due to the universalization and singularity of the male migrant experience (Charsley and Wray 2015).…”

Section: Migrant Masculinities: a New Field Of Studies And Its Blind ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Migrant Masculinities through a Spatially Intersectional Lens

Wojnicka

Nowicka

2021

Men and Masculinities

Self Cite

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This article analyzes migrant narratives on masculinity through an intersectional perspective that is sensitive to spatial aspects. Drawing on research with migrants in Berlin and Munich in Germany, we unpack how (self-identified) Polish men negotiate their gender identity vis-à-vis other people in these cities whom they perceive as ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual others. We address how their social and ethnic backgrounds shape their narratives on foreign masculinities and femininities at the intersections of ethnicity and gender. In particular, we draw attention to how these negotiations are entangled with local discourses over the presence and visibility of various immigrant groups and cosmopolitan queer communities in the cities. The intersectional approach helps us to formulate how migrant masculine identities change in migration.

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“…In addition to class-related positions, gender also plays a role in how the roles of the interviewee and interviewer unfold. Gender creates expectations for interaction and continues to be highly relevant also in terms of power relations within the interview setting (Wojnicka, 2020). Compared to male interviewers, men may experience female interviewees less pressing and feel more at ease sharing experiences with them (Arendell, 1997).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Counter-talk as symbolic boundary drawing: Challenging legitimate cultural practices in individual and focus group interviews in the lower regions of social space

Heikkilä

Katainen

2021

The Sociological Review

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In qualitative interviews, challenges such as deviations from the topic, interruptions, silences or counter-questions are inevitable. It is debatable whether the researcher should try to alleviate them or consider them as important indicators of power relations. In this methodological article, we adopt the latter view and examine the episodes of counter-talk that emerge in qualitative interviews on cultural practices among underprivileged popular classes by drawing on 49 individual and focus group interviews conducted in the highly egalitarian context of Finland. Our main aim is to demonstrate how counter-talk emerging in interview situations could be fruitfully analysed as moral boundary drawing. We identify three types of counter-talk: resisting the situation, resisting the topic, and resisting the interviewer. While the first type unites many of the typical challenges inherent to qualitative interviewing in general (silences, deviations from the topic and so forth), the second one shows that explicit taste distinctions are an important feature of counter-talk, yet the interviewees mostly discuss them as something belonging to the personal sphere. Finally, the third type reveals how the strongest counter-talk and clearest moral boundary stemmed from the interviewees’ attitudes towards the interviewer herself. We argue that counter-talk in general should be given more importance as a key element of the qualitative interview. We demonstrate that all three types of counter-talk are crucial to properly understanding the power relations and moral boundaries present in qualitative interviews and that cultural practices are a particularly good topic to tease them out.

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Sex and the Fieldwork: Gender, Sexuality, Nationality, and Social Class in Research on European (Heterosexual) Men

Cited by 16 publications

References 35 publications

Fieldwork of ethnic identity: theory. practice, reflection

Fieldwork of ethnic identity: theory. practice, reflection

Understanding Migrant Masculinities through a Spatially Intersectional Lens

Counter-talk as symbolic boundary drawing: Challenging legitimate cultural practices in individual and focus group interviews in the lower regions of social space

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