Emotions in the Research Process: Methodological Challenges and Theoretical Reflections Part I

Emotions can both hinder and facilitate sociological research. Even though emotions surface in all types of face-to-face interviews and are shaped by its form, e(auto)biographical narrative interviews, in particular, seem to bring up strong emotions. These usually concern crucial moments of one's personal life that may be thematically related to wider social phenomena like societal cleavages, majority-minority relationships, socio-economic or political conflicts, political repression or (civil) wars. However, idiosyncratic emotions also surface in such interviews. Interviewees may openly address them or rely on different strategies to hide them. The researcher is usually affected by these emotions and should therefore not only learn to acknowledge and read them but also reflect upon their own emotions during the entire research process. In this joint session of WG08 and RC38, we would like to discuss the following questions: How do we recognize and conceptualize the emotional dynamics of the interview? How do we deal with the emotions of the researcher? What role does the research setting play in evoking emotions? How do we analyze emotions? How do write about our findings and present them to our readers? How do we teach about the role of emotions in the research process? We invite papers that discuss the influence of emotions on a research process from different methodological and theoretical perspectives.

2.12.0.0

2.12.0.0

Session Organizers:

Marina ARIZA, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, ariza@unam.mx
Minna-Kristiina RUOKONEN-ENGLER, Institute for Social Research at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, ruokonen-engler@soz.uni-frankfurt.de
Irini SIOUTI, Institute for Social Research at Goethe University Frankfurt/Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences UAS, Germany, siouti@soz.uni-frankfurt.de

Recorded Presentation

See more of: WG08 Society and Emotions
See more of: RC38 Biography and Society
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