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Much care has been paid to reflexivity, including considering emotional sensitivities in relation to face-to-face interviews. However, less attention has been paid to the impact of sensitivities on the process of data analysis and the presentation of research findings. This paper focuses on what constitutes 'the data' to be analysed, who analyses and interprets the data, what is silenced and what is made public, and what this might mean for feminist research practice in areas considered to be 'sensitive'. It examines these issues by focusing on research on abortion decision-making in which the views and emotions of the researcher were profoundly challenged by women's constructions of narratives containing a theme of abortion regret. The paper demonstrates how theoretical perspectives – in this case, feminist standpoint theory – can be used in sensitive research, to allow the researcher to resolve such tensions by providing a means through which greater attention can be paid to the context of participants' narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As units of analysis, documents are often seen as unproblematic, easily accessed sources of data. This research note discusses and reflects on a research project where documents were not easy to access and instead prompted significant negotiation, contained disturbing information and images and had an emotional impact on the researcher. A reflexive account is provided in this paper, which draws upon feminist methodological theory and explores the researcher’s experiences of using documents in research. The paper concludes that documents should not always be categorised as a low risk data source, rather issues such as access difficulties, ethical dilemmas and potential emotional harm, should also be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years there has been an increasing use of visual methods in ageing research. There are, however, limited reflections and critical explorations of the implications of using visual methods in research with people in mid to later life. This paper examines key methodological complexities when researching the daily lives of people as they grow older and the possibilities and limitations of using participant-generated visual diaries. The paper will draw on our experiences of an empirical study, which included a sample of 62 women and men aged 50 years and over with different daily routines. Participant-led photography was drawn upon as a means to create visual diaries, followed by in-depth, photo-elicitation interviews. The paper will critically reflect on the use of visual methods for researching the daily lives of people in mid to later life, as well as suggesting some wider tensions within visual methods that warrant attention. First, we explore the extent to which photography facilitates a ‘collaborative’ research process; second, complexities around capturing the ‘everydayness’ of daily routines are explored; third, the representation and presentation of ‘self’ by participants within their images and interview narratives is examined; and, finally, we highlight particular emotional considerations in visualising daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of multiple measures for the operationalization of subjective well-being (SWB) is highly recommended, as each approach brings exposure to different errors. To supplement the approaches proposed in the literature, the paper at hand outlines a complemental text mining technique – sentiment detection – which presents an efficient solution for big data analyses. Empirical findings from its application to 466 semi-structured life satisfaction (LS) interviews are contrasted with happiness and satisfaction ratings derived from the interviewees themselves as well as from external raters. In addition, detailed insights are presented into the use of emotive language in LS interviews and into relations between base emotions for the following affective features: anger, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, trust, fear, and anticipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the role of 'emotional labour' in conducting sensitive research. As such it begins to unpick the emotional and embodied consequences of working with data which covers sensitive subjects, in this case perinatal death, and considers how such responses are likely to impact on the analysis of data. We draw upon two doctoral studies which explored parental experiences of perinatal bereavement. We argue that researchers need to understand and consider carefully how emotions experienced during the research may impact upon the findings. By exposing the authors' own positionality in this research based on their own experience of perinatal loss, we acknowledge that we are actors in research which has an impact on the process and final product of the studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the phenomenon of the death of informants. Based on his own experience with the long-term (1999-2016) research of Voyvodovo - the only Czech village in Bulgaria, the author shows what the death of one's informants means for the research and the researcher. The author argues that any long-term fieldwork entails emotional involvement of the researcher, and so the departure of his or her informants has a deep impact on the researcher's well-being. The articles also address methodological consequences of the death of informants, namely, the case when the death of all of them leads to a situation that the group ceases to exist. The author shows that with the last member's passing away Malinowski's 'native's point of view' is lost forever. The author also suggests that the topic of death of informants should be included into educational curricula for fieldwork training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the methodological complexities of producing emotionally-sensed knowledge about responses to family deaths in urban Senegal. Through engaging in ‘uncomfortable reflexivity’, we critically explore the multiple positionings of the research team comprised of UK, Senegalese and Burkinabé researchers and those of participants in Senegal and interrogate our own cultural assumptions. We explore the emotional labour of the research process from an ethic of care perspective and reflect on how our multiple positionings and emotions influence the production and interpretation of the data, particularly exemplified through our differing responses to diverse meanings of ‘family’ and religious refrains. We show how our approach of ‘uncomfortable reflexivity’ helps to reveal the work of emotions in research, thereby producing ‘emotionally sensed knowledge’ about responses to death and contributing to the cross-cultural study of emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores some of the benefits of pursuing difficult, antagonistic, research relationships in the context of biographical interviewing methods that are sensitive to spatial relationships. It argues that confronting sources of tension between researchers and informants and being more open about the emotional baggage we bring to the field as researchers yields more rigorous fieldwork with more insightful results. The argument is developed from a particularly difficult research relationship: an encounter between the author and a British expatriate diving instructor living in Hong Kong. The broader context of the research is the production of white privilege through migration and the operation of global/postcolonial landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the methodological device used in a sociological study that analyses empirically the concept of personal reflexivity. Taking into account the specific challenges of such an investigation the paper emphasises the potential of a biographical approach and the concrete parameters of its use. It is based on the experience of in-depth interviews conducted in more than one session and considers the different phases and elements of the empirical research process. Topics such as epistemological concerns, preparation of the interview guide, methodological cautions, the research relationship and the interview setting are at the centre of the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on the emotions generated by place, this paper describes a journey of emotional reactions to place, emotional reflection around cultural difference, followed by later reflection and reassessment. It is argued that the use of emotions as data can provide a mirror through which the taken for granteds of the researcher can be made visible. An example is given of the way that the concept of distance and the intersectionality of emotion, time and space as a confluence of culture and subject positions, can be used to operationalize emotions as data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressures of funding and publishing requirements often make it difficult for researchers to pay close, detailed and reflexive attention to methods as an integral part of their research work. This paper reports on a project about women's perceptions of health, health risks and osteoporosis which was designed explicitly to explore methodological and epistemological issues as they arose and were renegotiated during the research. Three experienced qualitative researchers carried out equal parts of this small piece of research, and reflected on how faced with the same topic and conditions they each did their interviewing and analysis. Through reflexive attention to their feelings of dissatisfaction with the quality of this qualitative work the authors highlight the importance of effects of project design and collaborative working on both the social and material relations of the interview itself and the experiential and contextual depth of the data. The paper concludes with a consideration of its implications for teamworking in qualitative projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tests whether collecting pile-sort data online produces results similar to those obtained with face-to-face methods. We collected pile sorts from 227 university students in the cultural domain of emotions. To test for mode and design effects, we randomly assigned participants to face-to-face or internet modes and to either a 15- or 30-item sort. We found no evidence of mode effects in semantic structure, but the level of agreement among respondents varied by mode, depending on the number of items in the task. Agreement was higher among online respondents in the 15-item task but among face-to-face respondents in the 30-item one. Because the central purpose of pile sorting is to elicit semantic structure, we conclude that online data collection is a viable option for most researchers, but the mode effect in level of agreement implies that other design elements may affect comparability of face-to-face and web-based methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growing number of people using social media to communicate with their peers and document their personal everyday feelings and views is creating a ‘data on an epic scale’ that provides the opportunity for social scientists to conduct research such as ethnography, discourse and content analysis of social interactions, providing an additional insight into today’s society. However, the tools and methods required to conduct such analysis are often isolated and/or proprietary. The Cardiff Online Social Media Observatory (COSMOS) provides an integrated virtual research environment for supporting the collection, analysis, and visualization of social media data, providing researchers with an innovative facility on which to conduct hypothetical experiments that lead to defensible results. This study presents a methodology for Digital Social Research and explains how the features of COSMOS aim to underpin it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent health care policy directives advocate partnerships between researchers and service users in setting the research agenda and conducting research. This paper seeks to explore the meaning and reality of user participation from the perspective of a parent-carer and his experiences of being involved in three recent research projects. Important issues, such as the need for practical and emotional support and respect for user partners, are discussed alongside key questions for participants, including, what's in it for me? Drawing these ideas together, the authors' highlight four broad issues and recommendations to inform and guide the further progress of participatory research within health and social care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do research participants feel about having their 'ordinary' lives researched? This article focuses on how research participants manage the sharing of details emerging out of their ordinary lives in the context of research - an activity which, for most, is outside of the ordinary. Despite two significant research turns - towards reflexivity and towards the 'everyday' - these experiences remain curiously neglected. Drawing on a study of small acts of help and support, I seek to push methodological debate about researching the ordinary beyond the technical challenges of surfacing or capturing the apparently mundane or 'insignificant'. I do so by arguing that background feelings rooted in the living of, and sharing about, the ordinary are analytically important in their own right; that the 'ordinary' itself, therefore, has to be managed by research participants and researchers; and that Goffman's notion of performance is a useful tool for understanding how this is done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surfaces issues about the often-used but widely under-reported practice of working with advisory fora. We critically reflect on our experiences working with an advisory network when co-designing a research study about a 'sensitive' subject. We discuss the following: 1) How the network evolved as a matter of ethical and pragmatic choices; 2) Potential issues when discussing sensitive issues 'outside' of the participatory or participant context; and 3) Practical and epistemic issues involved in (not) 'taking' advice. We suggest that although sensitive research is more conventionally aligned with more 'radical' forms of participatory practice, advisory networks can present a useful and sometimes more appropriate form of inclusion and engagement for some advisors and for some types of research study. The article should, therefore, be of interest to a wide range of academic and practice-based health and social care staff and, in particular, those who plan to use advisory fora in their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with the practice of video recording in social research. We draw on our research of institutional talk to explore the emotionality of video recording in the context of the studied situations. Drawing on insights from Collins’ theory of interaction rituals, we demonstrate a variety of situational moments in which different participants negotiate the presence of a video camera. Our analysis reveals the emotional aspects of negotiating and appropriating the presence of such technologies by all parties involved in the research process. We contribute to and extend the growing body of literature that discusses the meaning of technology for social research by emphasizing the emotionality of using video cameras in social and research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reflective account of the emotional dimensions of in-depth field research in prisons. Drawing on the work of Goffman to make sense of ethnographic processes and techniques, it is argued that performance and impression management play crucial roles in the research process. However, it is suggested that there are commensurate emotional costs associated with the roles and identities that ethnographers might enact in the field. It is argued that the finer details of ethnographic practice can be better understood when the emotional dimensions of research experiences are carefully analysed and processed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking Research Ethics Committee (REC) approval in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) is increasingly encumbered by bureaucratic rules and regulations. Termed ‘ethics creep’, such governance is challenged by an emerging body of international literature. This article contributes to such literature by documenting the emotional vicissitudes of seeking REC approval in an Irish university, for a proposed sociological study of children with asthma. Our critical discussion includes an account of indeterminate bureaucratic procedures and protocol which, despite their formally rational and rationalised status, were unreasonable, insidious and frustrating. Challenging ‘ethics creep’ and promoting critical debate underpins our discussion of the researcher’s experiences and responses when confronted with bureaucratic irrationality – arguably something that not only taxes researchers’ emotions and commitment but also threatens to ‘strangle’ HSS research and the research base more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A central feature of the majority of qualitative research is the interactive nature of data collection which generally involves direct and meaningful communication between the individuals conducting the research and the individuals participating in the research. This core aspect of data collection, however, is frequently flagged as the most concerning or potentially harmful aspect of qualitative bereavement research by research ethics boards. Further, there has been a tendency to conceptualize the bereaved as vulnerable and in need of protection in the research process. Instead of thinking that a research interview which explores the complex, personal issues of grief would potentially harm participants, it may be seen as potentially beneficial to participants when the therapeutic aspects of the interview are considered. Participants' responses to the interview process in two bereavement studies are offered as illustrations to complement the literature on the potential for the researcher-participant relationship and the research interview to be perceived as beneficial by bereavement research participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]