Policy Press
Fourteen Emotions in community research
Abstract
This chapter argues that emotions help people with ‘meaning making’, and offer different experiences of the world through a different lens. It does so in the context of women’s writing, as writing connects ordinary women and gives them the opportunity to articulate feelings not expressed or shared before. In academic social science, emotions have historically been associated with the irrational and quite opposed to the objective scientific search for knowledge. However, in the last decade or so, sociologists have recognised that ethnographic research cannot be clinical and detached from human emotions. We can say ‘emotions do things’ — they move us but also connect us with others.
Abstract
This chapter argues that emotions help people with ‘meaning making’, and offer different experiences of the world through a different lens. It does so in the context of women’s writing, as writing connects ordinary women and gives them the opportunity to articulate feelings not expressed or shared before. In academic social science, emotions have historically been associated with the irrational and quite opposed to the objective scientific search for knowledge. However, in the last decade or so, sociologists have recognised that ethnographic research cannot be clinical and detached from human emotions. We can say ‘emotions do things’ — they move us but also connect us with others.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Series editors’ foreword xiv
-
Introductions
- What kind of book is this? 3
- Policy, practice and racism: social cohesion in action 7
-
Community histories
- Introducing Rotherham 17
- How can historical knowledge help us to make sense of communities like Rotherham? 29
- Some poems, a song and a prose piece 33
- Who are we now? Local history, industrial decline and ethnic diversity 41
- Silk and steel 53
- History and co-production in the home: documents, artefacts and migrant identities in Rotherham 59
- Tassibee: a case study 69
- Identity 73
-
Community ways of knowing
- Methodology: an introduction 87
- Collaborative ethnography in context 91
- Safe spaces and community activism 107
- Emotions in community research 115
- What parents know: a call for realistic accounts of parenting young children 123
- Where I come from and where I’m going to: exploring identity, hopes and futures with Roma girls in Rotherham 135
- Introduction to artistic methods for understanding contested communities 151
- What can art do? Artistic approaches to community experiences 157
- Using poetry to engage the voices of women and girls in research 173
- The Tassibee ‘Skin and Spirit’ project 183
- ‘The Rotherham project’: young men represent themselves and their town 193
-
Communities going forward
- Re-imagining contested communities: implications for policy research 201
- What this book can teach us 205
- References 215
- Index 231
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Series editors’ foreword xiv
-
Introductions
- What kind of book is this? 3
- Policy, practice and racism: social cohesion in action 7
-
Community histories
- Introducing Rotherham 17
- How can historical knowledge help us to make sense of communities like Rotherham? 29
- Some poems, a song and a prose piece 33
- Who are we now? Local history, industrial decline and ethnic diversity 41
- Silk and steel 53
- History and co-production in the home: documents, artefacts and migrant identities in Rotherham 59
- Tassibee: a case study 69
- Identity 73
-
Community ways of knowing
- Methodology: an introduction 87
- Collaborative ethnography in context 91
- Safe spaces and community activism 107
- Emotions in community research 115
- What parents know: a call for realistic accounts of parenting young children 123
- Where I come from and where I’m going to: exploring identity, hopes and futures with Roma girls in Rotherham 135
- Introduction to artistic methods for understanding contested communities 151
- What can art do? Artistic approaches to community experiences 157
- Using poetry to engage the voices of women and girls in research 173
- The Tassibee ‘Skin and Spirit’ project 183
- ‘The Rotherham project’: young men represent themselves and their town 193
-
Communities going forward
- Re-imagining contested communities: implications for policy research 201
- What this book can teach us 205
- References 215
- Index 231
