In praise of awkwardness in the field: Increasing our understanding of relational concepts by reflecting on researchers’ emotion work

Jante Schmidt; Simon Van der Weele; Melissa  Sebrechts

doi:10.1177/14687941231186024

In praise of awkwardness in the field: Increasing our understanding of relational concepts by reflecting on researchers’ emotion work

Jante Schmidt
, Simon Van der Weele
, Melissa Sebrechts

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

In this article, we develop a new avenue for understanding the informative value of researchers’ emotions for qualitative research by deepening our understanding of awkwardness in the field. With this, we aim to develop Arlie Hochschild’s notion of ‘emotion work’ further as a methodological tool. Awkwardness concerns discrepancies in researchers’ emotions that require and reveal emotion work. The argument is that reflecting on emotion work performed by the researcher in awkward situations is a way to gain insight into what we call ‘relational concepts’: concepts designating phenomena that reside and/or emerge in relationships between at least two persons. We show what this looks like in practice by presenting cases of awkwardness from three qualitative research projects revolving around such relational concepts, namely, recognition, dependency and dignity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	813-831
Number of pages	19
Journal	Qualitative Research
Volume	24
Issue number	4
Early online date	5 Jul 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941231186024
Publication status	Published - Aug 2024

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: The research project conducted by Melissa Sebrechts on ‘recognition' was part of the Long-Term Care Partnership (Amsterdam, Netherlands). Sebrechts gratefully acknowledges the partnership for its financial support of her PhD research. The research project conducted by Simon van der Weele on ‘dependency' was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare,and Sports (VWS) [contract number 201700274.003.009]. The research project conducted by Jante Schmidt on ‘dignity’ was supported by ZonMw [grant number 70-73000-98-096].

Funders	Funder number
Long-Term Care
Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport	201700274.003.009
ZonMw	70-73000-98-096

Keywords

Awkwardness
Qualitative research
Qualitative fieldwork
Participant observation
Researchers' emotions
Emotion work
Reflexivity
Sociology of Emotions

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title = "In praise of awkwardness in the field: Increasing our understanding of relational concepts by reflecting on researchers{\textquoteright} emotion work",

abstract = "In this article, we develop a new avenue for understanding the informative value of researchers{\textquoteright} emotions for qualitative research by deepening our understanding of awkwardness in the field. With this, we aim to develop Arlie Hochschild{\textquoteright}s notion of {\textquoteleft}emotion work{\textquoteright} further as a methodological tool. Awkwardness concerns discrepancies in researchers{\textquoteright} emotions that require and reveal emotion work. The argument is that reflecting on emotion work performed by the researcher in awkward situations is a way to gain insight into what we call {\textquoteleft}relational concepts{\textquoteright}: concepts designating phenomena that reside and/or emerge in relationships between at least two persons. We show what this looks like in practice by presenting cases of awkwardness from three qualitative research projects revolving around such relational concepts, namely, recognition, dependency and dignity.",

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In praise of awkwardness in the field: Increasing our understanding of relational concepts by reflecting on researchers’ emotion work

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