Escande-Gauquié, Pauline <br/><br/>
Close-proximity fieldwork: Toward observant participation 

 -  2023.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Analyzing fluctuations in nearness (Le Marec, 2010) during my research among French film professionals led to a particular hermeneutic. The purpose of this paper is to make accessible the conditions for the production of knowledge through research involving “observant participation” (Soulé 2011) among professionals in the sector, which I have carried out during the past ten-plus years. It will look at, reflexively, the “far-yet-close” element of nearness, associated with a subjective element in my interaction with these professionals. Probing these ways of relating to nearness and “infra-ordinarization” (Souchier 2018) in interaction with actors in my field led to considerations that are at the core of current research into the development of an “anthropology of the near” (Augé 2012). The paper will present the way in which this approach based on the near brought about “blind” material and the need to also understand research-related intellectual work through “life experience” (Wright Mills 1960). The study’s findings show how this axis fluctuating between far and near brings about a form of “oscillatory dynamic” (Huynen 1997) that is highly operative in research.