Alongside my enthusiasm about access to the field and the process of
integrating with the observed public, I was concerned about another differ-
ent matter: how a researcher also is subjected to the field which, in a way,
is imposed throughout the observation period. And this intense experience
led me inevitably to look at it critically.
A RESEARCHER IN THE HOT SEAT?
Methodological questions commonly associated with the observation situa-
tion (participation, distancing, role, etc.) are often presented as theoretical
decisions that are made before fieldwork, during its preparation phase,
namely “not in action.” But during the observation, “in action,” my
choices had to be constantly renewed and adjusted. And this continual
process of adjustment, explored here, is closely linked to “a set of non-
reproducible and hardly controllable personal and situational factors”
(Olivier de Sardan, 2000,p. 434) that are often kept separate from the
reflexive analysis because, according to some, “that part of the presence in
the field is (fortunately) not strictly speaking professionalisable, (...) even
though it unquestionably has effects on the professional production”
(Olivier de Sardan, 2000, p. 434). It seems necessary to me to integrate “the
effects” of “that part” into the methodological reflection.
In order to fully understand the object of this paper, the reader needs to
knowpart of the backdrop to my research. In speaking of this, the point is
not “to engage in empty talk and thereby contribute to building an idea-
lized, and indeed mannerist and narcissistic, image” (Bizeul, 1998,p. 775).
On the contrary, this exercise is perilous. “To speak of the job of fieldwork
with all honesty entails a risk: that of appearing in an unfavorable light as
an analyst lacking imagination, and as a poor investigator” (Bizeul, 2007,
p. 69). In my view, the point is to avoid reproducing a relative opacity in
empirical research with regard to the concrete difficulties that researchers
face, especially with regard to the underlying methodological issues at
stake. While research reports often include a presentation on the conditions
in which fieldwork took place, it is mainly about the quality of the relation-
ships between the researcher and the observed actors and about the compli-
cations that arose in that context. The difficulties commonly noted are
those that exist independently of the researcher as an individual and
attributable solely to peculiarities of the methodological tools (contamina-
tion of the investigation situation, etc.), to the sector observed (recurring
An Observation Situation: When the Researcher’s Scenes Interact 47