Rheostatic visibility

On neurodivergent fieldwork, impulsive adaptation, and methodological craft

Bibliographic Data

ID24238505
AuthorsHussein Nasser (0009-0009-2921-4516, Organizations, Critical & Ethnographic Perspectives Research Center, Emlyon Business School)
Year2026
Publication date2026-10-18
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1466-1381 • E-ISSN: 1741-2714
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14661381261501306
OpenAlexW7222924693
LanguageEN
References cited15

Ethnographic fieldwork assumes a researcher who can be simultaneously present and analytical, embodied and observant, legible to participants while remaining reflective about that legibility. Drawing on diary entries recorded during three years of ethnographic fieldwork in France, I examine what happens when the researcher’s cognitive particularity does not conform to that assumption. I develop the concept of rheostatic visibility : the continuous, context-sensitive calibration of self-disclosure and identity expression across multiple audiences, including the self. Like a rheostat regulating electrical current beyond the binary certainty of a switch, visibility can become continuously and agentically calibrated in ways that produce methodological consequences. I argue that neurodivergent adaptation to fieldwork conditions can exceed compensation and generate methodological innovation. The multilingual, cryptographic fieldnote system I developed emerged from coping practices that only became legible after receiving an ADHD diagnosis. I conclude by calling for critical examination of the neurotypical assumptions ethnographic methodology presumes.

coping strategies · ethnographic fieldwork · neurodivergence · researcher identity · researcher reflexivity · Self-disclosure · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics