Involved and Detached: Emotional Management in Fieldwork

Anna Hedlund, Steven Sampson

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Abstract

Using examples from fieldwork among armed groups in Congo and pre-1989 Romania, this article argues against the prevailing ethos of ethnographers engagement with the people they study, in favor of a dynamic between engagement and detachment, what we call 'emotional management'. Two examples from our fieldwork are given, Hedlund on fieldwork with armed groups, Sampson on his informants being haraased by the Romanian secret police.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Entanglements of Ethnographic Fieldwork in a Violent World
EditorsNerina Weiss, Erella Grassiani, Linda Green
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter9
Pages93-116
Number of pages25
ISBN (Electronic)9781003333418
ISBN (Print)9781032333816
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023 Jun 1

Bibliographical note

page proofs of final version.

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Social Anthropology

Free keywords

  • Social Anthropology
  • Romania
  • Paranoia
  • ethnography
  • ethnographic fieldwork
  • Congo
  • Secret Police/Securitatea
  • surveillance
  • Emotions

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