Emotions and Research

Abstract

This article discusses emotions and research from a number of perspectives to unearth the ways that emotions are implicated in the research process. The emergence of the Sociology of the Emotions urges rethinking of the relation between knowledge and emotion, arguing that emotion is necessary for knowledge. We discuss memory work in a study of emotion, and the psychosocial approach of Walkerdine and her colleagues, concerned with their own subjectivity in the research process and emotion and unconscious processes. Ethical issues raised by feminists in the case of women establishing rapport in researching women are considered, as is the emotion work demanded by particularly qualitative research. Some examples from researchers’ field experiences and potential solutions to the pains of emotions and emotion work in the field are given. The argument is made that emotions are important in the production of knowledge and add power in understanding, analysis and interpretation.

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Janet Holland

Janet Holland is a Professor of Social Research and Co‐director of the Families and Social Capital ESRC Research Group at London South Bank University. Her most recent books are (with Caroline Ramazanoglu, Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson) The Male in the Head: Young People, Heterosexuality and Power (London: Tufnell Press, 2004); (with Jeffrey Weeks and Matthew Waites (Eds.)) Sexualities and Society (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003) and (with Caroline Ramazanoglu) Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices (London: Sage, 2002).