Empathy in research process: Study of women in sex work in India

The reflexive approach to explaining the process of data collection entails recognizing the delicate balance between being ethical and having empathy for participants, particularly vulnerable populations, whose life experiences may differ from those of the researcher. Conveying and displaying empathy is emotion work that can be a strain on the researcher because of the tenuous connection between relating to the narrative of the participant and maintaining confidentiality and remaining ethical. Drawing from research on women sex workers in India, I examine the research process, particularly empathy as emotion work that is involved in the interview conversations. Contributing to the area of qualitative research methods, I discuss the implications of the researcher’s emotion work noting that it may ease and diminish the differential power between the researcher and the researched, but it is not eliminated.