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When fieldwork hurts: on the lived experience of conducting research in unsettling contexts

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Claus, L 
de Rond, MEJ 
Howard-Grenville, Jennifer  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3737-0465
Lodge, J 

Abstract

Prolonged exposure to the lived experience of others—by observation as in ethnography or vicariously through interviews—can be deeply unsettling. Human misery is contagious. Some of what makes research unsettling is context specific. Thus, repeated encounters with, for example, those living life behind bars (Rogers, Corley, & Ashforth, 2016), victims of rape (Whiteman, 2010; Zilber, 2002), human trafficking and street-level sex workers (Eberhard, 2017), or drug addicts (Lawrence, 2017) will likely impact the one collecting data. Occasionally, contexts are not obviously unsettling but reveal incidents or exposure to the emotional experiences of others that can be. Research can also be experienced as deeply troubling for reasons not specific to context in forcing us to front up to moral questions around voyeurism and exploitation, the answers to which are often deeply personal.

Description

Keywords

44 Human Society, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 4410 Sociology, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour

Journal Title

Research in the Sociology of Organizations

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0733-558X

Volume Title

59

Publisher

Emerald
Sponsorship
ESRC (1923362)
This research was sponsored by the ESRC through the University of Cambridge ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership as well as the Benavitch Foundation of St. Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge.