Title: Researching emotions and the emotions of researching: the strange case of Alexithymia in reflexive research

Authors: Matthew J. Brannan

Addresses: Keele Management School, Research Institute for Public Policy and Management, Keele University, UK

Abstract: Despite the recent 'reflexive turn' in fieldwork-based sociology, and its organisational variants, empirical research often seems to ignore the role of the researcher's emotion in the collection of data and the creation of textual representations. The paper offers a retrospective autoethnographic account to argue that the separation of the physical act of research from its emotional experience is unsustainable. The paper offers a critique of the institutional framework of PhD study, which often seems to perpetuate a certain inattention to issues of emotionality within the research context, and argues the emotional experiences are key fieldwork experiences and an essential part of ethnographic study.

Keywords: emotions; research; retrospective accounts; autoethnography; reflexivity; ethics; researcher emotions; emotionality; doctoral research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2011.045969

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2011 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.322 - 339

Published online: 23 Mar 2012 *

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