‘Motherhood capital’ in tourism fieldwork: experiences from Arctic Canada

Abstract

Drawing on a study of resident attitudes toward tourism development in the Canadian Arctic, this article examines the experiences of one of the authors who was accompanied by her infant son during her fieldwork. Utilising Lo’s (Sociological Perspectives 59(3):694–713, 2016) concept of ‘motherhood capital’, derived from the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we argue that the presence of her son, who joined her on five occasions between the age of 9 and 22 months, disrupted normal research roles and relationships. We describe how her son helped rather than hindered her acceptance into the Inuit communities where she was working. By using Bourdieusian theory to examine researcher experience, we move beyond the descriptive accounts that often dominate methodological discussions. Instead we aim to demonstrate the value of applying theory that is normally only used to examine encounters observed during fieldwork, to include analysing the researcher’s access and interactions. Due to the child-centred nature of the communities and the shared common ground of parenthood, we propose that Stewart’s demonstration of motherhood had the effect of dismantling several of the barriers some researchers face when entering communities for the first time. Motherhood capital facilitated her privileged access to the field and changed her perceived status from an outside researcher to an equal-status mother. This was particularly important in an indigenous context where she was always going to be seen as ‘other’. Drawing on extensive journal entries, this article adopts a reflexive approach to explore the influences her infant had on her experiences in the field.

摘要

本文以一项加拿大北极地区居民对旅游发展的态度研究为例, 考察了本文一位作者在实地考察期间与幼子同行的研究经历。利用罗明诚（Ming-Cheng Miriam Lo）(2016)从皮埃尔·布迪厄（Pierre Bourdieu）的著作中衍生出来的“母性资本”的概念, 我们认为她儿子的出现扰乱了正常的研究角色和关系。她的儿子在22个月至9岁期间曾5次跟随她做田野研究。我们描述了她的儿子如何帮助而不是阻碍她进入她调查的因纽特人社区。我们通过使用布迪厄斯理论考察了研究人员的经验, 超越了通常主导方法论讨论的描述性叙述。相反, 我们的目的是展示应用理论的价值, 该理论通常只用于检查实地工作中观察到的遭遇, 包括分析研究人员接触社区和与社区的互动。由于社区以儿童为中心的性质和为人父母的共同基础, 我们建议, 斯图尔特对母亲身份的展示消除了一些研究人员在首次进入社区时面临的一些障碍。母性资本为她进入这一领域提供了便利, 并使她从一个外部研究人员转变为一个具有平等身份的母亲。这在土著文化中尤为重要, 因为在没有孩子陪伴的情况下她经常被视为“外人”。 本文在大量的日记记录的基础上, 采用反思性的方法探讨了她的孩子对她在该地的研究经历所产生的影响。

Keywords:

• Bourdieu
• motherhood capital
• Arctic Canada
• Inuit communities
• reflexivity
• accompanied fieldwork
• resident attitudes
• community-based research

关键词:

• 布迪厄
• 母性资本
• 加拿大北极地区
• 因纽特人社区
• 反身性
• 有人相伴的野外调查
• 居民的态度
• 社区研究

Acknowledgements

Both authors would like to thank the Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. Emma warmly acknowledges the support she received as both a mother and a researcher in the Canadian Arctic. She would also like to thank her Doctoral Supervisor Professor Dianne Draper for encouraging her to continue with her studies while pregnant. Her thanks also go to the Commonwealth Association of Universities and the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation for research funding. Finally she would like to thank her son, Benjamin, for breaking the ice.

Notes

1 See Stewart (2009) for a full account of the findings.