Rethinking the place of emotions in the field through social laboratories

Schurr, Carolin; Abdo, Katharina (2016). Rethinking the place of emotions in the field through social laboratories. Gender, Place and Culture, 23(1), pp. 120-133. Routledge 10.1080/0966369X.2014.970138

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The insights of feminist science and technology studies (STS) into the constructed and situated nature of knowledge have proved crucial to informing feminist geography. Since the rise of emotional geographies, feminist methodologies no longer simply reflect on questions of positionality, partiality, and power relations, but also on the role of emotions in the field. In this article, we argue that a feminist STS perspective has much to offer when thinking about the way emotions are engineered, controlled, and negotiated in research processes. Our engagement with what we call ‘social laboratories’ – i.e., spaces in everyday life where (experimental) research is conducted with human beings – advances debates in feminist geography, as these laboratories crystallize the emotional entanglements feminists encounter in the field. Looking at economic experiments in Ghana and fertility clinics in Mexico, we discuss the difficulties of doing feminist fieldwork in these experimental research spaces. We argue that the constant negotiation of emotions and ethics is crucial to access, assess, and do fieldwork in research settings that do not adhere to feminist ideals, but nevertheless have gendered effects on women’s and men’s lives. Rethinking ‘the place of emotions in research’ (Bondi 2005, in Emotional Geographies, edited by Joyce Davidson, Liz Bondi, and Mick Smith, 231–246, Aldershot: Ashgate) through social laboratories forges instructive links across feminist/emotional geographies and social studies of science.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Human Geography > Unit Cultural Geography
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Human Geography

UniBE Contributor:

Schurr, Carolin

Subjects:

900 History > 910 Geography & travel
700 Arts > 710 Landscaping & area planning
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

0966-369X

Publisher:

Routledge

Language:

English

Submitter:

Julian Spycher

Date Deposited:

13 Sep 2018 15:56

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:17

Publisher DOI:

10.1080/0966369X.2014.970138

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.119202

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/119202

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