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34 Mobile Culture Studies | >mcs_lab> 1
(2020)Johanna
Menhard | Entanglements on and with the street
a rare capacity to set feelings and moods in action, from nostalgic memories to frustration
when they refuse to obey us. Media stuff constantly produces friction.”
This friction as well as the sensory, emotional dimensions are often hard to capture which
is why they advise, “it is a good idea to explore one’s own experiences of such processes”.39 So
what are the consequences for my ethnographic encounters and for interpreting my research
material? Focusing on affect.
First, affect must be considered in a methodological sense: Doing ethnography means that
an understanding of one’s field of research is often gained through (self-)reflection on emotions,
feelings, bodily reactions, worries, concerns, and associations during the research process. That
is because doing ethnography means connecting with, being affected by and affecting others.
Talking to others about their smartphone usage on my trip while mine was constantly dis-func-
tional and causing troubles affects the research process and how I feel and think about other
people’s relationships with their smartphones. Methodologically I can acknowledge, observe,
and interpret my emotional and sensory reactions. As Thomas Stodulka writes, emotions always
arise between real and imagined people, or people and objects, and mostly in relation to the
social and spatial environment, and therefore have a „bestechenden epistemischen Wert“ [cap-
tivating epistemic value, JM].40 A researcher’s own emotions, specific behaviour, and reactions
can be seen as research material, since they give hints to cultural patterns and meanings in the
field of research.41 Therefore, a researcher works with affects and not on affects, e.g. in fieldwork
supervision groups42 or Deutungswerkstätten43. At least that’s what some researchers who are
dedicated to the ethno-psychoanalytical tradition do.44
Second, affect in an analytical sense conceptualizes the field of research linked to Deleuze
and Guattari s´ concept of rhizomatic thinking. Rhizomatic thinking can be understood as rad-
ically thinking in connections and associations that are constantly expanding and in becoming.
It’s a form of thinking that acknowledges being in the world, being in certain contexts, being
in a specific environment accompanied by people, things, places, narratives, and discourses.
Bruno Latour´ s popular Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) is greatly influenced by this thinking
and urban anthropology makes frequent use of it. According to Bruno Latour, anything that
39 Billy Ehn/Orvar Löfgren/Richard R. Wilk: Exploring everyday life. Strategies for ethnography and cultural
analysis. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield 2016, pp. 78-79.
40 See Thomas Stodulka: Feldforschung als Begegnung. Zur pragmatischen Dimension ethnographischer Daten.
In: Sociologus 64 (2014) 2. pp. 179-205, here p. 202.
41 Almut SĂĽlzle: Kritik des reinen GefĂĽhls. Feldforschungssupervision als reflexive Methode zur Forschung mit
und ĂĽber Emotionen. In: Jochen Bonz/Katharina Eisch-Angus/Marion Hamm/Almut SĂĽlzle (eds.): Ethnografie
und Deutung. Wiesbaden: Springer 2017, pp. 111-139, here p. 118.
42 See ibid., p. 118.
43 See Maya Nadig: EinfĂĽhrung in eine ethnopsychoanalytische Deutungswerkstatt. Die Methode der ethnop-
sychoanalytischen Deutungswerkstatt. Online available: http://ethnopsychoanalyse.org/seiten/forschung/meth-
oden/deutungswerkstatt_methode.html.
44 See George Devereux: Angst und Methode in den Verhaltenswissenschaften. MĂĽnchen: Hanser 1976.
See Johannes Reichmayr: Psychoanalytische Ethnologie und Ethnopsychoanalyse. Ăśberblick und Entwicklung
2000 bis 2015. In: Johannes Reichmayr (ed.): Ethnopsychoanalyse revisited. GegenĂĽbertragung in transkultur-
ellen und postkolonialen Kontexten. GieĂźen: Psychsozial-Verlag 2016, pp. 11-43.
See Jochen Bonz/Katharina Eisch-Angus/Marion Hamm/Almut SĂĽlzle (eds.): Ethnografie und Deutung. Grup-
pensupervision als Methode reflexiven Forschens. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2017.
>mcs_lab>
Mobile Culture Studies, Volume 1/2020
The Journal
- Title
- >mcs_lab>
- Subtitle
- Mobile Culture Studies
- Volume
- 1/2020
- Editor
- Karl Franzens University Graz
- Location
- Graz
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- German, English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 108
- Categories
- Zeitschriften Mobile Culture Studies The Journal