Research emotions in the field: The view from the other side

Abstract

This article considers the significance of the emotions of the researcher in, and after, the '"field". It draws on fieldwork conducted for this book which constituted my personal "research debut" and the particular issues related to managing emotions faced by first-time researchers are considered below. Firstly, by forming close, trusting relations with respondents in the field, the researcher ceases to be an outside observer and becomes a full subject of the research process with all the emotional commitment that entails. Secondly, emotional engagement in the lives of informants generates problems that accompany the sociologist out of the field, and on their subsequent return to it. Moreover, the post-field situation itself becomes a source of reflection and emotion since revealing one's feelings publicly means risks misunderstanding by work colleagues since, for many, emotional engagement continues to be understood as signifying a lack of objectivity. © IDOSI Publications, 2013.