MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: NOT
GETTING EMOTIONALLY
INVOLVED IN RESEARCH
AMONG VULNERABLE YOUTH IN
SOUTH AFRICA
$
Diana van Dijk
ABSTRACT
Although ethnographic research requires researchers to become highly
involved in the lives of their respondents, in research reports or articles
one rarely finds how the researcher dealt with his or her involvement,
how this influenced the execution of the research, the interpretations and
the outcome. In this chapter, I would like to discuss the issues that I faced
during my research among children and young people living in so-called
child-headed households in a disadvantaged community in South Africa.Contributions from European Symbolic Interactionists: Reflections on Methods
Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Volume 44, 61 77
Copyrightr2015 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 0163-2396/doi:10.1108/S0163-239620150000044009
61
$This chapter stems from work on a PhD thesis, available online athttps://
openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/13382