Emotions and Fieldwork

INTRODUCTION

Contributors: Sherryl Kleinman & Martha A. Copp

Editors: Sherryl Kleinman & Martha A. Copp
Book Title: Emotions and Fieldwork
Chapter Title: "INTRODUCTION"
Pub. Date: 1993
Access Date: May 01, 2014
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Newbury Park
Print ISBN: 9780803947221
Online ISBN: 9781412984041
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412984041.n1
Print pages: 2-4
©1993 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods. Please note that the
pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
University of Sussex
©1993 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE Research Methods

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412984041.n1

INTRODUCTION
Lacking awareness of [our] own emotional responses frequently results
in [our] being more influenced by emotion rather than less.

Alison Jaggar (1989, p. 158, emphasis added)

In this book we take a sociological look at fieldworkers' feelings and how they relate
to the research process. We use the symbolic interactionist perspective (Blumer,
1969; Mead, 1934), especially where it informs the growing subfield of the sociology
of emotions. As symbolic interactionists, we assume that emotions are social and
cultural products but that individuals have some control over them. As Arlie Hochschild
(1983) said, “Social factors enter not simply before and after but interactively during the
experience of emotion” (p. 211).

Our culture dictates feeling rules (Hochschild, 1983)—how we are supposed to feel
in different situations—depending on our roles. For example, we expect physicians to
feel compassion, even sadness, for their dying patients, but not to become depressed
about them. In addition, we share display rules—how we are supposed to express our
feelings. We want [p. 2 ↓ ] physicians to demonstrate concern for their patients through
a caring glance or gesture, not through uncontrollable sobs.

Field researchers learn—through their teachers, texts, and colleagues—how to feel,

think, and act. As members of the larger discipline, fieldworkers share a culture
dominated by the ideology of professionalism or, more specifically, the ideology of
science. According to that ideology, emotions are suspect. They contaminate research
by impeding objectivity, hence they should be removed.

Field researchers also know that their feelings somehow affect their research. But do
fieldworkers admit that they have feelings? Do they learn to take their feelings into
account as they analyze their data? We suspect most would answer, “Not often.” We
doubt that others encourage fieldworkers to systematically reflect on their feelings
throughout the research process. In addition, fieldworkers infer the value of emotions

Page 3 of 5 Emotions and Fieldwork: INTRODUCTION

University of Sussex
©1993 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE Research Methods

in their discipline by reading what their teachers consider important qualitative work.
Classic ethnographies either omit researchers' emotions or relegate them to a preface
or an appendix.

Qualitative researchers hear mixed messages. On one hand, they are told that
their emotions can hinder good research. On the other, they are told that they will
not understand participants unless they form attachments to them. Consequently,
most of us act like quasi-positivists: We allow ourselves to have particular feelings,
such as closeness with participants, and try to deny or get rid of emotions we deem
inappropriate. Fieldworkers, then, do emotion work (Hochschild, 1983), molding their
feelings to meet others' expectations.

In 1990, I (Sherryl) was asked to write an account of my experiences studying an

alternative health organization (Kleinman, 1991). I found myself writing about the
feelings I tried to ignore during the research and how they were now helping me analyze
the data. At times I felt paralyzed by this study, even though I successfully completed
other projects (e.g., Kleinman, 1984). This was my first experience of “analysis block.”
Several sociologists wrote to me after the chapter was published, thanked me for my
honesty, and told me that my account had been therapeutic for them. Martha and I
talked about why my story made such an impact. What stands in the way of our facing
up to, or discussing with others, the feelings we experience in the field or at our desks?
And what are the costs?

We will examine fieldworkers' feelings about their professional identity (chap. 2), their
work (chap. 3), and the people they study (chap. 4). In [p. 3 ↓ ] the conclusion, we
use an extended example from one of our field studies to highlight the points we raise
in earlier chapters. The appendix demonstrates how to include feelings in fieldnotes.
Throughout this volume, we discuss how the ideology of science shapes our research
practices. By working in a profession infused with scientistic notions, field researchers
inevitably lose—we compromise our studies and experience feelings of incompetence.

As fieldworkers, the practice of writing about field researchers without observing or

interviewing them makes us uncomfortable. What are our data? In addition to our own
experiences, we rely on published confessionals, some studies of anthropologists

Page 4 of 5 Emotions and Fieldwork: INTRODUCTION

University of Sussex
©1993 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE Research Methods

(Jackson, 1990a, 1990b), graduate students' accounts of their fieldwork experiences,

and feedback from our colleagues.

We begin, then, by calling for a field study of fieldworkers, especially in sociology.

Perhaps this kind of study is rare because we do not want to put our colleagues' (and
our own) secrets into print (but see Platt, 1976). Perhaps we also fear that quantitative
sociologists will find out the truth—that our work is as subjective as they suspected.

With our caveats in order, we now turn to our ruminations on emotions and fieldwork.

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412984041.n1

Page 5 of 5 Emotions and Fieldwork: INTRODUCTION