An Introduction – Choosing a Topic and Becoming an Affective Researcher

Abstract

A piece of frequently given informal advice to those starting in the world of research is to ‘pick a topic you'll be able to stick with for three or four years’ – and often that's the end of it. This chapter suggests that we should understand the importance of confronting the ‘affective gap’ in how research is currently conceived. It does so by considering how usually we do not engage with the issues underlying this ‘sticking with’ and what allows us to sustain our attention and effort across the years of a research project. Through a case study of my own confrontation with the question of how I chose and changed my own PhD research topic, this chapter introduces the idea of affective research through an exploration of the concept of affect and its relevance to research. The first part of this chapter explores affect through a brief overview of four different scholarly literatures, to provide an initial framework and some clarity for what is often an opaque subject. This is then grounded through an affective engagement with the issue of choosing a research topic and how this affects our research. It concludes with a brief overview of the other chapters in the volume.

Citation

Gibson, A.G. (2022), "An Introduction – Choosing a Topic and Becoming an Affective Researcher", Gibson, A.G. (Ed.) The Affective Researcher (Great Debates in Higher Education), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-333-820221001