Letting failure be

Covid ‐19, PhD fieldwork and to not (want to) learn from failures

Bibliographic Data

ID20153296
AuthorsChayanika Saxena (0000-0003-0434-9923, Department of Geography National University of Singapore Singapore, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume44
Issue2
Pages322-338
Publication date2023-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSingapore Journal of Tropical Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0129-7619 • E-ISSN: 1467-9493
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/sjtg.12477
OpenAlexW4327618960
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited50

The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has prompted researchers to rethink their fieldwork. My doctoral fieldwork plans, which involved conducting ethnographic research amongst Afghan refugees and migrants in New Delhi and Kolkata, were upended because of the recurring waves of the pandemic and the lockdowns/curfews that were imposed in their wake (2020−2022). Locked out of my field, my inability to conduct my research as planned amounted to a failure that could not be redeemed, especially because of time constraints. Using autoethnographic vignettes of my encounters in the lead up to the eventual suspension of in‐situ fieldwork, I critically reflect on how I approached and felt towards failures in/of field and how these encounters speak back to the discourse on failure in academia. In doing so, this article advocates for the need to revisit failures simply for what they are, without necessarily demanding and/or (self) expecting that we recast them as stepping stones towards success. By challenging the neo‐liberal desire to re‐present failures in a productive light, I argue we can make greater room for more supportive discussions around failures without committing ourselves to the task of having to find triumph in (every) adversity

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Ethnography · Field (mathematics) · Pandemic · Political science · Public relations · Refugee · Sociology · COVID-19 and healthcare impacts · Law · Medicine · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Virology

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