a conference believes that this data is corrupted by my unexpected action.
Does not this radical option leave out other possible perspectives of analysis?
“This point of view brings up the idea of ‘pure’ behaviors vs. those that are
‘impure’, perturbed, not worthy of being treated by ethnography. On the
contrary, I aimed to show that the ethnographer is a full member of these
field situations which he contributes to shapealong with the other people
presentthrough his mere presence and through the assignments of identity
of which he is the object. Thus emerges a critique of the image, often con-
veyed by our science, of groups to capture, to understand, in coherence and a
primary identity” (Schinz, 2002).It seems that this data is useful in the con-
text of the analysis of my main research object: what was the police officer’s
reaction after my active participation? What does it say about their trust in
their professional practices? Can my emotions bring forth aspects of the field
that I had not yet considered (Whiteman, Mu ̈ller, & Johnson, 2009)? In any
event, this incident certainly enriches my methodological reflection: how
should I adjust my attitude in the days following this police intervention?
After this incident, I looked at the question of engagement with and distan-
cing from the field in a different way. Distance and insensitivity were no
longer synonyms; the point was no longer not to feel emotions or not to have
any biases, but rather to be aware that I would need to make something of
them in the field, and also when I would expect it the least. I adopted a more
flexible pragmatic approach in which I could adjust my relationship with the
field scene more freely. I tried to reduce the feeling of constraint. But it was
hard for me to transfer learned lessons with certainty from one situation into
others, because of the “element of surprise” inherent to the field.
Throughout the observation period, I was able to solicit the professional
scene as a resource in the interpretation of my actions in the field of
research. A triangulation between the field scene, the professional scene,
and the personal scene enriched my reflective process.
Yet at that time, still only a few days after the incident, my expectations
were not only at the level of analyzing the incident. I was also still engaged
in my personal scene. I needed to cope with this feeling of failure before I
could fully invest again in the field scene. When I was not in the field scene
or in the professional scene, I invested in the family scene.
The Family Scene: The Less Said the Better?During my period of observation, I invested in this field as in a place of
rest with some expectation of comfort. The family scene is the opposite of
An Observation Situation: When the Researcher’s Scenes Interact 55