Negotiating emotions, rethinking otherness in suburban Melbourne

Abstract

I argue that research that tries to makes sense of emotion provides a better understanding of the politics and ethics of doing face-to-face research. Reflecting on in-depth interviews with people who live and/or work in Dandenong, an outer suburban area of Melbourne, I draw attention to the emotional dimensions of the research process. In particular I focus on moments when the exercise of white privilege made it difficult to negotiate emotions. These were moments when the intersection of my ethnicity with my position as a new settler in Dandenong made me feel excluded. The outcome was that I found it hard to value the voice of participants who were eager to help me with my research. A critical reflection of the emotions produced during such interpersonal encounters, however, has enabled me to rethink moments when the Self/Other binary unintentionally emerged. Critical self-reflexivity that is attentive to emotions gave me the opportunity to move closer to my goal of being an ethical researcher.

Sostengo que la investigación que trata de entender las emociones provee un mejor entendimiento de la política y la ética de llevar a cabo investigación cara a cara. Reflexionando sobre entrevistas en profundidad con gente que vive y/o trabaja en Dandenong, un área suburbana de las afueras de Melbourne, llamo la atención sobre las dimensiones emocionales del proceso de investigación. En particular, centro mi atención en momentos donde el ejercicio del privilegio de ser blanco hizo difícil negociar las emociones. Estos fueron momentos cuando la intersección de mi etnicidad con mi posición como una nueva pobladora en Dandenong me hizo sentir excluida. El resultado fue que me resultó difícil valorar la voz de los participantes, quienes estaban ansiosos por ayudarme con mi investigación. Una reflexión crítica de las emociones producidas durante tales encuentros interpersonales, sin embargo, me ha permitido repensar momentos cuando el binario Uno/Otro emergió inintencionadamente. La autoreflexión crítica que está atenta a las emociones me dio la oportunidad de acercarme a mi objetivo de ser una investigadora etica.

Keywords:

• emotions
• ethnicity
• white privilege
• critical self-reflexivity
• Australia

Keywords:

• emociones
• etnicidad
• privilegio blanco
• autoreflexión crítica
• Australia

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the people of Dandenong who participated in this research. I am grateful to my doctoral supervisors, Lauren Costello and Elissa Sutherland and friends in the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University. I also thank the editor and the three anonymous reviewers for their excellent suggestions which I have incorporated in this article.

Notes

1. Following Anderson (1993), I use Otherness to refer to feelings of marginalisation and exclusion in society. In this article I illustrate that such feelings of Otherness are the effect of cultural practices that privilege whiteness.

2. Ethnicity and race are markers of difference that are often used interchangeably and the theoretical distinction is slippery. In Britain, Canada and USA, these markers of difference identify ‘people of colour’ in relation to a centre that is Anglo or West European. In the Australian context, ethnic and racial categories also overlap, but ‘race’ is a marker of difference that is more often used to refer to indigeneity.

3. My research focused on stories of hope to think of intercultural encounters among residents. I understand these moments as convivial encounters where difference is valued rather than marked and stigmatised.

4. Following Hage (1998), I associate Anglo-ness with the dominant social and cultural preferences of an Anglo culture.

5. As an Anglo-Indian, a member of a minority group in India I had never been identified as ethnic. In India the term ethnic is popularly used to refer to indigenous people rather than minority groups.

6. Pseudonyms have been used to preserve anonymity.