If you didn't laugh, you'd cry

Emotional labour, reflexivity and ethics-as-practice in a qualitative fieldwork context

Bibliographic Data

ID4563751
AuthorsWilliam Mcgowan (0000-0003-0921-303X, University of Liverpool, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume13
Issue2
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMethodological Innovations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2059-7991 • E-ISSN: 2059-7991
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2059799120926086
OpenAlexW3033291566
ISBN9799120926086
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited36

This article takes Guillemin and Gillam's distinction between 'procedural ethics' and 'ethics in practice' as a point of departure and return for reflecting critically on a recently completed doctoral research project about political violence and terrorism. It provides an overview of the study before offering some instructive vignettes to show how ethical decision-making processes engaged with 'in the field' were an extension of more everyday and mundane reasoning than we may typically associate with such quintessentially 'sensitive research'. As the final section of this article argues, it is this everyday and mundane quality to ethical reasoning which is sometimes obscured in formal accounts of 'reflexivity'. It is hoped that this article is useful for scholars interested in the ethics and emotional practices of qualitative inquiry, as well as those researching serious violence and bereavement

Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Political science · Politics · Qualitative research · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Science and Policy Research

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access