Abstract
The chapter explores material, emotional, and intellectual imbalances in the endeavor of engaging in reciprocal exchange with research participants. In reference to examples from a research project on Muslim cultures in Indonesia, I show in what contexts imbalances occur and how they affect research in its various stages, from field to the desk. The experiences of being an empathetic non-Muslim researcher, dealing with research participants’ efforts to inspire my conversion to Islam, highlight emotional ambiguities resulting from the intertwinement of emotional and material reciprocities. As a practical solution of dealing with imbalances in an environment of non-acceptance for the researcher’s worldviews, I present the tandem research model as a fruitful form of cooperation. Engaging in intellectual reciprocity with research partners supports the ability to reflect on material and emotional imbalances in research relationships, sharpening interpretative skills and the awareness of political implications of doing research.
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Notes
- 1.
Throughout this chapter, I refer to experiences from a research on “Indonesia and the Arab World,” that I conducted in Madura and Central Java in 2013 and 2014 (see Lücking 2014, 2016, 2017). The project was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research through the program “Grounding Area Studies in Social Practice” at the University of Freiburg with the grant no. 01UC1307.
- 2.
See Stodulka et al. (2019) and Appendix.
- 3.
An example of this is the compilation of historical accounts in local language as it has been achieved by Judith Beyer for her research location in Kyrgyzstan (see Beyer and Inogamova 2010). Another example is the project behind this book: Among other things, Thomas Stodulka shared the transcript of our interview with me, which I highly appreciated and fostered my realization that data are not only precious to the researcher. Furthermore, giving back the data can be a trigger for further inquiries. In ethnographic filming, this method is well known as “elicitation.”
- 4.
- 5.
Religious leader.
- 6.
NU is the largest mainstream Muslim association in Indonesia, known for its orthodoxy but also mystic traditions in Islam. NU has its strongholds in rural areas.
- 7.
Muyammadiyah is the second-largest mainstream Muslim association in Indonesia. It is associated with reformism and urban Muslim lifestyles.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Nuki Mayasari, Khotim Ubaidillah, and Kamalatul Khorriyah for our research cooperation and for valuable discussions on the ideas presented in this chapter. Moreover, I thank the participants and supervisors of the Freiburg-Yogyakarta Tandem Research Project, especially its initiator Judith Schlehe. For the insights that I gained from The Researchers’ Affects project and for the constructive feedback on earlier versions of this chapter, I sincerely thank Mechthild von Vacano and Thomas Stodulka.
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Lücking, M. (2019). Reciprocity in Research Relationships: Learning from Imbalances. 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_10
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