Bereavement and responses to death; emotions in research; reflexivity and positionality; feminist ethic of care; meanings of ‘family’; Senegal
Abstract :
[en] This paper reflects on the methodological complexities of producing
emotionally-sensed knowledge about responses to family deaths in urban
Senegal. Through engaging in ‘uncomfortable reflexivity’, we critically
explore the multiple positionings of the research team comprised of UK,
Senegalese and Burkinabé researchers and those of participants in Senegal
and interrogate our own cultural assumptions. We explore the emotional
labour of the research process from an ethic of care perspective and reflect
on how our multiple positionings and emotions influence the production
and interpretation of the data, particularly exemplified through our differing
responses to diverse meanings of ‘family’ and religious refrains. We show
how our approach of ‘uncomfortable reflexivity’ helps to reveal the work of
emotions in research, thereby producing ‘emotionally sensed knowledge’
about responses to death and contributing to the cross-cultural study of
emotions.
Research Center/Unit :
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Disciplines :
Human geography & demography
Author, co-author :
Evans, Ruth; University of Reading - UK
McCarthy, Jane Ribbens; Open University - UK
Bowlby, Sophie; University of Liège, UK
Wouango, Joséphine ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales > Département des sciences sociales
Kébé, Fatou
Language :
English
Title :
Producing emotionally sensed knowledge? Reflexivity and emotions in researching responses to death
Publication date :
2017
Journal title :
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
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