Abstract
Moments of illness and dying are fieldwork experiences that are difficult to address. Despite their increasing salience as a research focus, dealing with research interlocutors, close friends and kin who suffer chronic illness or are facing death, confronts researchers with drastic emotional difficulties. A combination of compassion and closeness constitute some of the most prominent feeling-states in studying the role of social dynamics, personal beliefs, and professional investment. At the same time these feelings also open up questions regarding the emotional consequences for researchers when they become “too close” with the people or situation that they seek to understand. Addressing illness and dying may unravel fieldwork as a site of shared existential vulnerabilities.
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Neves, M.A., Baltag, T. (2019). Dealing With Illness and Dying: Introduction. In: Stodulka, T., Dinkelaker, S., Thajib, F. (eds) Affective Dimensions of Fieldwork and Ethnography. Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20831-8_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20831-8_16
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