Encountering emotions in the field: an X marks the spot
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22582/am.v9i1.57Abstract
This paper will examine the role of emotions in fieldwork by discussing the dialogical nature of fieldwork as a research tool. It is argued that fieldwork is based on information gathered through relationships, and therefore the emotional elements of those associations are relevant to the ethnographic writing that is produced. Further this paper will address how acknowledging the role of emotions as a part of fieldwork and the overall ethnographic research process is important; however, simply recognizing that emotions are a part of fieldwork is possibly to underplay their potentially more catalytic role in the learning process in as much as it is often through our emotional reactions that we come to understand."For the lay person, such as myself, the main evidence of a problem is the simple fact that ethnographic writing tends to be surprisingly boring. How, one asks constantly, could such interesting people doing such interesting things produce such dull books? What did they have to do to themselves?" (Pratt 1986:33)
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