ESRC Seminar Series 2007-8

Emotion and Embodiment in Research (see dates here):

Emotion and embodiment are receiving more attention across a number of academic disciplines and we maintain that since fieldwork is a social process it is important to include discussion of mental and physical experiences across a range of fields of study.  We use the terms ‘emotion’ and ‘embodiment’ to refer to fundamental dimensions of the human experience. Types of emotion we address as having an impact on the research process include fear, anger, boredom and empathy.  Embodiment is used broadly to include macro categories such as gender, impairments and disability and ‘race’/ethnicity.  At a more micro level, such constraints of physicality as fatigue and hunger are also explored.

Our argument is that these issues are always part of fieldwork, though usually not regarded as part of the research, and that reaction to discussion of these dimensions may be analogous to reaction to discussion of gender in the past, i.e. largely unaware or uninterested: perceived as a peripheral concern of a minority of researchers.  It may be that this is a plausible conclusion to reach about the issues to be explored in this seminar series; it is hoped that the series can be part of the debate.  

The aim of the seminar series is to bring together research active scholars, research users and in particular, early career researchers, for the following activities: 1) to provide a forum for the exploration and theorisation of the impact of emotions and embodiment on the research process, 2) to provide a workshop environment where new career researchers can discuss methodological and teaching issues with more experienced researchers and 3) to engage research users to encourage a greater understanding of the significance and impact of research in relation to emotion and embodiment.   

Despite the ‘reflexive turn’ in fieldwork-based academic disciplines, the teaching and writing on empirical research often seems to ignore the role of researchers’ own emotions and embodiment in the collection of data and the creation of textual representations.  So the orientation of the research framework in terms of analysis may well be critically reflexive, but the conduct of the research itself is effectively positivist in treating the researcher as an ‘instrument.’  We do this to ourselves and, as Principal Investigators, to colleagues: often acting as if we are not actually embodied and do not have emotions.  We treat ourselves differently as researchers in a particular context than we would, for example, as travellers in the same context.

This raises a number of issues, not least to do with ethical responsibilities - to ourselves, our colleagues and our respondents.  For example, issues of ethics in research are often predicated on the imperative ‘not to do harm’, but this is seldom considered in terms of psychological harm to researcher or the researched.  What do we do when a respondent starts to talk about personal issues in the middle of a predictable, ‘safe’, interview?  Few academics are trained counsellors.  Might we do harm?  These issues have been raised, principally by feminist scholars, but how this is incorporated into the production of research (including written accounts), and the training of researchers, is still often disregarded.  A further example is the issues that have been raised by disabled researchers about fears around disclosure of impairment and about the implications of disclosing autobiographical emotion and experience of impairment in ‘professional’ settings.  We make claims as researchers about reflexivity and sensitivity to a range of methodological issues but still reproduce dominant norms.  What leads to this reproduction?    

We will use this seminar series as a forum to open up these relatively unexplored areas for discussion: for example – Where and when can they be relevant?  What differences can they make to formulating and answering a research question?  How do you write these issues into accounts of the research process?  If you can write them in, is this encouraged in practice by funding bodies?  How and whether you can ‘teach’ sensitivity to these issues.  Should you?  What is the pedagogic rationale for looking at these issues, for example in terms of ‘training’ researchers?  How generalisable is this approach across fields of study?

Through the seminar series we hope to discuss these and other related issues and will be inviting new and established researchers across a range of fields of study to take part in the seminars.  Each seminar will be introduced by the host researchers.  Following this, expert from a number of disciplines and with a variety of perspectives on specific aspects of research will give a presentation, followed by group discussions.  Participants will also have  opportunities to discuss their individual projects and concerns.  It is intended that the workshop format will give all those attending more opportunity to engage with the issues and with the speakers than is usual at a more formal seminar presentation.

  

Five seminars to be held at Warwick, London  Business School, Keele and Liverpool:

Seminar One	Warwick Business School	30th January 2008
Seminar Two	Keele Management School	21st of April 2008
Seminar Three	London Business School	5th of June 2008
Seminar Four	Liverpool Management School	3rd of September 2008
Seminar Five	Warwick Business School  (held at the Venice Office)	26th of August 2009