of positions to adopt, or on the contrary is it the reaction to a position that
is uncomfortable, to the point of being unendurable?
After my “moving to action,” it is not easy to answer these questions or
understand my change of position. What resources will be needed in order
to understand my reading of my actions?
“...At this exact moment...” a rupture occurs in the field scene. I feel constrained; I
am like the young woman; I want to scream. I see the young man being violently immo-
bilized specifically so that the young woman may collect her things and now she drops
everything to worry about the fate of the one she complained about to the police. But
what annoys me above all is that the policewoman dealing with the young woman has
done absolutely nothing, in my opinion, to alleviate the tension of the situation. Yes, at
that moment I want the situation to calm down and for the policewoman to convince
the young woman to collect her things as quickly as possible. This is because I think I
am realizing that as long as the young woman is in the room, the young man will
remain agitated and the immobilization he is undergoing will not stop. I can no longer
stand to watch what appears to me as passivity on the part of this policewoman. Then
it happened. I lost my temperand in what a way! From a passive observer I turned
into an active one. I turned to the other person in the room who, like me, had only little
control over the present violence. I took it out on this young woman. Exasperated, I
speak up: “What do you want?”
At first, I am not worried about the impression I am leaving on this
young woman or the police officers; I am totally centered on myself as I
undergo this rush of emotion. But very quickly I am overcome by an unplea-
sant feeling: I’ve failed; I’ve abandoned my position; I quite obviously could
not manage the situation. I experienced this transition as a rupture and as a
real professional failure. I was locked up in a situation which until then still
seemed to allow a certain flexibility of attitude. But at that moment I no
longer knew how to “play the field” (Fielding, 2006,p. 287).
What is crucial here is to question my choice of action “while in action,”
inother words “the link between feeling and action that was established
between the actors present” (Le Breton, 2004,p.7).
The Personal Scene: Self-Awareness and ReflectionsArupture occurs in the field scene and I am brought back to other scenes,
back to the “backstage.” The personal scene is called into question; I have
to deal with a conflict. “[The clash] requires confronting people, ideas, and
visions of the world. But more precisely, it requires juggling the paradox
between distancing and proximity as well as constantly working on oneself,
which can fall within the scope of the clash itself” (Boumaza & Campana,
2007 ,p.9).
An Observation Situation: When the Researcher’s Scenes Interact 53