{"title":"At home in the field, in the field at home? Reflections on power and fieldwork in familiar settings","authors":"Arda Bilgen, Anita H Fábos","doi":"10.1177/14687941231206770","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231206770","url":null,"abstract":"Critical epistemologies and methodologies have over time challenged the static and mono-dimensional approaches to fieldwork, allowing researchers to contemplate and conduct their research in spaces of in-betweenness. Despite this important shift, the essentialist idea that both ‘the field’ and ‘home’ in a fieldwork setting must be actual places persists. In this article, we challenge the conceptualization and operationalization of ‘home’ not only as the juxtaposition to ‘the field’, but also as the embodiment of a place in a specific temporality. We argue that the postulation of ‘home’ as a constant disregards the non-predetermined and unpredictable nature of fieldwork relationships that are often complicated by implicit and explicit power dynamics, especially in places researchers identify as ‘home’. We demonstrate that unequal power relations, especially (1) between the Global North and Global South, (2) between majority and minoritized groups, (3) among genders, and (4) between elites and non-elites, require us to envisage ‘the field’ and ‘home’ in relative terms. We propose the reconceptualization of fieldwork place as a hybridized space that conjoins ‘the field’ and ‘home’ as ‘field-home’, particularly at a time when research mobility is restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this way, we extend the literature on issues related to power, positionality and reflexivity in qualitative research, and provide practical insights for those preparing for fieldwork.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135732560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Under threat”: handling threats during ethnographic fieldwork","authors":"Guillaume Dumont","doi":"10.1177/14687941231206756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231206756","url":null,"abstract":"I make two points about the role of threats for ethnographic fieldwork in contexts suffused by interpersonal violence. First, the experience of implicit and explicit threats operates as a powerful cultural agent that significantly transforms fieldworkers’ relationship with the field. Second, subjecting oneself to threats can become a central component of the ethnographic immersion into the field. The notion of “threat wisdom” connects these two points by capturing the emerging competence to handle threats and resulting from “becoming threatened,” “becoming threatful,” and “becoming threat wise.” To develop this argument, I discuss insights from my fieldwork with homeless people using cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, in Barcelona.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":"90 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135968952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Engaging with hard-to-reach children and parents using a creative methodology","authors":"Kylie Poppe, Angela Abela","doi":"10.1177/14687941231202378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231202378","url":null,"abstract":"This paper delves into the creative methodology adopted whilst engaging in a research study with five families whose young children (aged between 8 and 10 years old) were excluded from school due to social, emotional and mental health difficulties. The complex needs surrounding these families often lead to them being labelled as hard-to-reach and therefore challenging to engage in research. This paper will explore these challenges, the ethical dilemmas that emerged, the constant observation throughout, the reflexivity and flexibility required by the researchers and the relationships forged. Using various creative methods as part of the Mosaic approach both the children and their parents were able to play a part in the meaning-making process throughout the research journey. The culmination of the research study took place in the format of a multi-family group session which provided a safe space for an intergenerational encounter allowing for the children’s and parent's authentic voices to continue to be heard.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135969106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rebecca O’Hanlon, Chris Mackintosh, Hannah Holmes, Rosie Meek
{"title":"Conducting ethnographic research in male-dominated environments: Reflections of a(n) (emotional) female researcher","authors":"Rebecca O’Hanlon, Chris Mackintosh, Hannah Holmes, Rosie Meek","doi":"10.1177/14687941231206785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231206785","url":null,"abstract":"This article contributes to the field of qualitative research by shining a light on the additional and invisible work demanded of female ethnographers undertaking research in male-dominated spaces. It draws on an 18-month ethnographic study exploring the potential of sport and physical activity as a tool to support the transition of male veterans from the military into civilian life. Previous literature has explored the experiences of female ethnographers, hinting at some of this additional necessary work. This study builds upon this, to highlight the invisible and additional management processes required of female ethnographers in male-dominated spaces, including the management of events, managing image and gender performance and the multi-layered demands of managing emotions. This article argues that a greater degree of effort and labour is demanded of female ethnographers, which should be acknowledged in academic writing alongside the provision of support when entering male-dominated research spaces.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136358539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Post-research reflexivity in qualitative research: Through cloaks and cross-threading","authors":"J. Clark","doi":"10.1177/14687941231196386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231196386","url":null,"abstract":"This interdisciplinary Note is a creative form of writing that engages in post-research reflexivity through a process that it terms ‘cross-threading’. Using the trope of a cloak, which it links back to the author’s childhood imaginings of having an invisibility cloak, it cross-threads through the medium of this cloak a series of thoughts and feelings about a recently concluded research project (led by the author) exploring some of the ways that victims-/survivors of conflict-related sexual violence demonstrate resilience. Drawing on empirical data from Bosnia-Herzegovina, it illustrates the utility of the cloak as a thinking practice in relation to some of the stories that interviewees told, and it highlights the relevance of the cloak as a way of thinking about resilience. It also discusses the cloak as an identity, and in so doing it draws attention to an important aspect of the research process that is rarely talked about – the feelings, emotions and anxieties that researchers might experience when a major study or project ends. This Note concludes by underlining the potential benefits to researchers of having an acoustic cloak.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43756195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Doing rural community-based action research (CBAR): Community perceptions and methodological impacts","authors":"Amy M. Magnus, Kristen Rai","doi":"10.1177/14687941231188884","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231188884","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers conducting community-based action research (CBAR) become immersed in their field site, developing close relationships and enabling members of the community to pursue social action. We contribute a nuanced analysis of the impact of CBAR on those who participate in the method, particularly participants who live rurally. Situating this work in the history and prior methodological examinations of CBAR, we demonstrate the critical relationship between this research approach and the rural landscape. Our findings speak to two research questions: how do participatory- and otherwise community-based, action-oriented research methods impact those who participate in research? And, how do researchers and research participants make sense of this impact? Using interview, observation, and photographic data, our analysis indicates that community members’ perceptions of CBAR exist on a spectrum situated around two key, but fluid, positions: the ‘trusted outsider’ and the ‘affective collaborator.’ Our findings provide researchers with a stronger methodological foundation to approach community-based, action-oriented research with an ethic of care. Further, our findings provide methodologists with a better understanding of the multi-directional impact of doing CBAR and the ways we can use this information to do CBAR ethically and effectively. In this way, our paper contributes to a growing body of scholarship regarding the practice and impact of collaborative, community-based research approaches.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48893166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creating with ‘voice without subject’: An aesthetic reconceptualization of voice","authors":"Mariske Broeckmeyer, Leni Van Goidsenhoven","doi":"10.1177/14687941231189976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231189976","url":null,"abstract":"This methodological paper connects posthuman conceptualizations of voice with artistic research and examines whether it opens toward different registers and levels of embodied and aesthetic forms of knowing that cut across normative accounts of what it means to know. We start from what Patti Lather calls ‘a praxis of stuck places’ and ask how to give voice to experiences such as chronic illness and pain, while at the same time disrupting representational forms of illness and pain. To investigate this, we first critically engage with the popular genre of the health diary and its representational form. Secondly, we explore how Lisa A. Mazzei concept of ‘voice without subject’ can support us in disrupting the normative and representational production of voice, while working with a failing voice. Finally, we analyze the sound installation, A Borrowed Diary—made by M. Broeckmeyer, and explore how it opens up alternative approaches to voice and chronic pain. We will argue that making ‘voice without subject’ work, touch, and resonate can impact the lives of people who often remain unheard, in that it acknowledges experiences and expressions that are mostly not validated. Creating with ‘voice without subject’ makes tangible how personal experiences, however, temporarily, contribute to the bigger picture of how we look at and listen to people with illnesses and/or disabilities.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48996608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Writing strategies in autoethnography and memoir: Methodological legacies from three activist-scholars","authors":"L. Carspecken","doi":"10.1177/14687941221138403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941221138403","url":null,"abstract":"Autoethnography and autobiography are powerful means to link personal experience with cultural and political contexts. In this Note, I argue for blurring the boundaries between the two research genres. I discuss memoirs from the United States, England and Egypt—by Ida B. Wells, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Nawal El Saadawi—noting their approaches to truth and their narrative strategies. The authors were social activists and public intellectuals, whose work was accessible to a wide audience. Drawing on their examples, I invite contemporary qualitative researchers to expand our perspectives on autoethnography, and to acknowledge writing from a broader pool of genres, times, and places. We can increase our field’s ability to inspire change by reclaiming its history and scope.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46980905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jante Schmidt, S. van der Weele, Melissa Sebrechts
{"title":"In praise of awkwardness in the field: Increasing our understanding of relational concepts by reflecting on researchers’ emotion work","authors":"Jante Schmidt, S. van der Weele, Melissa Sebrechts","doi":"10.1177/14687941231186024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231186024","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we develop a new avenue for understanding the informative value of researchers’ emotions for qualitative research by deepening our understanding of awkwardness in the field. With this, we aim to develop Arlie Hochschild's notion of ‘emotion work’ further as a methodological tool. Awkwardness concerns discrepancies in researchers’ emotions that require and reveal emotion work. The argument is that reflecting on emotion work performed by the researcher in awkward situations is a way to gain insight into what we call ‘relational concepts’: concepts designating phenomena that reside and/or emerge in relationships between at least two persons. We show what this looks like in practice by presenting cases of awkwardness from three qualitative research projects revolving around such relational concepts, namely, recognition, dependency and dignity.","PeriodicalId":48265,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49476369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}