Sexuality in Researcher–Informant Fieldwork Study Relations
Type de matériel :
79
Sexuality — here referring to a set of words and acts potentially exchangeable between a male or female researcher and a male or female informant and involving sexualized bodies and/or imaginations — raises important methodological issues in sociology. Manifestations of sexuality have been known to impede or facilitate fieldwork, and to cause incidents that can be more or less serious. Fears or discomfort around sexuality are also likely to affect how studies are constructed and the initial research question defined. And yet with the exception of studies bearing directly on the subject, sexuality is almost never mentioned and is therefore extremely unlikely to be analyzed in connection with methodology. This article, based on a critical review of French methodological literature, deciphers the reasons for this remarkable silence. To counter its adverse effects on knowledge acquisition, and in the interests of risk prevention, I argue here that all fieldwork relations contain a hidden sexual script, and that recognizing that script would help us to objectivize manifestations of sexuality in the field.
Réseaux sociaux