Her ethnographic experience has put her in a position where she is able to
redefine this image in accordance with the complexities of navigating as a
police officer in the multicultural social world of Brussels.
In the fourth paper we leave Europe behind and move to South Africa.
In “Mission Impossible: Not Getting Emotionally Involved in Research
among Vulnerable Youth in South Africa,” van Dijk describes her confron-
tation with the utter marginalized in South Africa: child headed household
in a disadvantaged community. In this evocative paper the reader is con-
fronted with the emotional and ethical turmoil of the author. Being an
established citizen from a wealthy nation it seems unethical to her to
behave like a non-involved researcher when confronted with the poverty
and despair of children who have lost their parents. In this paper van Dijk
reflects on how her study affected her respondents, sometimes in a negative
way, and how it affected herself in such a way that she started to support
the child headed households in a financial way.
Van Dijk states that though ethical considerations are part of any
research project, research among children raises some particular issues.
In this paper she not only reflects on her emotional involvement, but
also on ethical issues related to the principles of informed consent, maxi-
mum benefit, and protection from harm. She also discusses the use of
interpreters in research on children and describes how the interpreters
acted as moral agents. Her paper shows that doing research among mar-
ginalized children requires emotion work and she presents suggestions
for dealing with the emotions of respondents and one’s own emotional
involvement.
For the last paper on methodological reflections we move from South
Africa to Indonesia. In “Deeper Play: Geertz’s ‘Thick Description’ and a
Balinese Temple Ritual (theOdalan)” Bakker takes a critical stance toward
Geertz’s famous notion of “thick description.” His paper is based on a
long-term involvement with Bali and Indonesia and his vast knowledge of
the relevant literature. Bakker is able to criticize Geertz because of his
knowledge of the broader cultural context of Bali, and especially the
Balinese temple ritual, theOdalan. Bakker states that we need to examine
“thick description” more carefully. In his reading of Geertz’s Deep Play,
Bakker comes to the important conclusion that there is actually very little
“idiographic description” and that much of the paper concerns general
description and analysis. His paper supplements Geertz’s essay with a dis-
cussion of a religious ceremony of far more importance than the largely
secular cock fight. Bakker touches on a central feature of Balinese society
xiv VOLUME EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION