Feeling the field: Tracking shifts in ethnographic research

Abstract

Although interest in the emotional aspects of practicing ethnography has increased in recent years, little attention has been paid to how the fieldworker's feelings express and are embedded in the research process. This chapter, based on an analysis of the authors' fieldnotes, examines how the researcher's changing experiences of ethnographic space, self, and stance are rooted in the emotional dynamics of doing fieldwork. We conclude by discussing the implications these shifts pose for fieldwork practice.

Citation

Ibarra, P.R. and Kusenbach, M. (2001), "Feeling the field: Tracking shifts in ethnographic research", Denzin, N.K. (Ed.) Studies in Symbolic Interaction (Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 195-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-2396(01)80038-7