Rethinking the place of emotions in the field through social laboratories

Abstract

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.

Repensando el lugar de las emociones en el trabajo de campo a través de laboratorios sociales

Las miradas de los estudios de ciencia y tecnología (ECT) feministas en la naturaleza construida y situada del conocimiento han demostrado ser cruciales para la geografía feminista. Desde que surgieron las geografías emocionales, las metodologías feministas ya no reflexionan simplemente sobre cuestiones de posicionalidad, parcialidad y relaciones de poder sino también sobre el rol de las emociones en el trabajo de campo. En este artículo, sostenemos que una perspectiva de ECT feminista tiene mucho que ofrecer cuando pensamos acerca de la manera en que las emociones son creadas, controladas, y negociadas en los procesos de investigación. Nuestra participación en lo que llamamos ‘laboratorios sociales’ – esto es, espacios en la vida cotidiana donde la investigación (experimental) es conducida con seres humanos – avanza debates en la geografía feminista, ya que estos laboratorios cristalizan los entrelazamientos emocionales que las y los feministas encuentran en el campo. Analizando los experimentos económicos en Ghana y clínicas de fertilidad en México, discutimos las dificultades de llevar a cabo trabajo de campo feminista en estos espacios de investigación experimental. Sostenemos que esta negociación constante de las emociones y la ética es crucial para acceder, evaluar y llevar a cabo el trabajo de campo en los ambientes de investigación que no adhieren a los ideales feministas, pero que tienen, sin embargo, efectos generizados sobre las vidas de mujeres y hombres. Repensando ‘el lugar de las emociones en la investigación’ (Bondi 2005) a través de los laboratorios sociales forja lazos instructivos a través de las geografías feministas/emocionales y los estudios sociales de la ciencia.

透过社会实验室，再思考田野中的情绪地方

女性主义科学与科技研究（STS）对于知识的建构和情境化本质之洞见，已証实为提供女性主义地理学信息的关键。随着情绪地理学的兴起，女性主义方法论不再仅止于反思位置性、偏倚与权力关係等问题，更对情绪在田野中的角色进行反思。我们于本文中主张，女性主义STS的视角，对于思考情绪在研究过程中被打造、控制与协商的方式，有诸多的贡献。我们对于所谓的‘社会实验室’的参与 – 例如与人类进行（实验性）研究的每日生活空(#x95F4; – 促进了女性主义地理学中的辩论，因为这些实验室具体化了女性主义者在田野中遭遇的情绪纠结。我们检视迦纳的经济实验，以及墨西哥的生育诊所，探讨在这些实验性的研究空间中从事女性主义田野工作的困难。我们主张，不断地进行情绪与道德的协商，是在研究环境中获得、评估以及从事田野工作的关键，虽然该过程不符合女性主义的理想，但仍然对女性及男性的生活有着性别化的效应。透过社会实验室，再思(#x8003;‘研究中的情绪地方’（Bondi 2005），为女性主义／情绪地理学和科学社会学之间，打造了具有啓发性的连结。

Keywords:

• feminist methodologies
• fieldwork
• emotions
• laboratory studies
• feminist science and technology studies

Palabras claves:

• metodologías feministas
• trabajo de campo
• emociones
• estudios de laboratorio
• estudios de ciencia y tecnología feminista

关键词::

• 女性主义方法论
• 田野工作
• 情绪
• 实验室研究
• 女性主义科学与科技研究

Acknowledgments

We thank Nicole Laliberté, Heidi Kaspar, and Martin Müller for their caring support, insightful reflections, and intellectual suggestions from which we immensely benefited in the writing and revision process of this paper. The editor Pamela Moss and the anonymous reviewers involved have played a crucial role in improving the argument of the paper. We are very grateful for their encouragement to think about more creative and emotional ways of presenting our work. Finally, we thank the research participants who made our research in the social laboratories in Ghana and Mexico possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. While employing Thrift's notion of ‘engineering,’ we do not engage in the dispute between feminist geographies of emotions and more-than-representational geographies of affect in this article. Following Ahmed (2004), we think that such a distinction between precognitive affect and conscious emotions is not very fruitful; we consider emotion and affect to be inseparable from each other.

Additional information

Funding

The research was financed by the generous support of the Branco Weiss Fellowship and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Notes on contributors

Carolin Schurr

Carolin Schurr is a Branco Weiss Fellow in the Department of Geography at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. Her work focuses on the expansion of markets of assisted reproduction in the Global South.

Katharina Abdo

Katharina Abdo is a PhD student and lecturer in the Department of Human Geography at the Goethe University of Frankfurt. Her research examines how new markets of agricultural microinsurance emerge at the nexus of climate change adaptation and poverty reduction.