Relatively normal? Navigating emergent sensitivity in generating and analysing accounts of ‘normality’

ABSTRACT

This article describes methodological and ethical issues associated with examining discourses of ‘normality’ in the context of the normalisation of HIV and relationships.  It considers how sensitivity was anticipated, encountered and managed in the recruitment of participants and during research interviews, discussing the implications of these in this project.  It reflects on the tensions present when generating data on topics externally deemed to be ‘sensitive’ but considered ‘normal’ by participants. In doing so, it has wider relevance for research on experiences that were once prohibited but are now considered normative in some settings, such as gay marriage. However, highlighting the importance of ‘the normal’ in notions of stigma, it concludes that potentially any research project that examines or questions ‘normality’ may give rise to sensitivity, emphasising the importance of reflexivity in assessing and managing sensitivity throughout the research process.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• serodiscordant relationships
• sensitivity
• normalisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tom Witney

Tom Witney is undertaking PhD research into the lived experiences of gay/bisexual men in serodiscordant relationships in the UK.

Peter Keogh

Peter Keogh is Deputy Associate Dean for Research Excellence and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Well-being, Education and Language Studies at the Open University. He is interested in how people with HIV and those at risk for HIV manage their sexual, intimate and social lives as the epidemic unfolds. In particular, he is interested in looking at the ways in which biomedical and governmental processes interact with sexual and intimate lives.