Doing research in a Pandemic: Shared experiences from the fieldwork.
We are living in Corona Times.
A pandemic is an inexorable reality. We find ourselves negotiating the very basic elements of existence daily. When the most ordinary aspects of living are now extraordinary, reflecting on the unraveling of events and its impact on society as a whole is an impossible task. A few might try, but I’m afraid such predictions will soon turn into time capsules only to reveal the current state of anxiety to future generations.
At this moment, we are all figuring things out as we go. I particularly believe the mindful thing to do is to focus on the present and take one day at a time. That’s why I want to share with you my experience doing research based in the UK during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
This article is not intended to be some sort of handbook on how to research challenging circumstances but a way to build a collective account of research experiences that might help the community as a whole.
Grounded experience is at the heart of ethnographic thinking.
Sharing difficulties, strategies, and discoveries during research is not only part of the method but a way for us to prepare ourselves for what is to come.
In a time where social research has to go through a significant methodological change to conform to current limitations, which will have an impact on the future of the field itself, it is indeed not the right time to make bold statements. Many researchers are not yet equipped to deal with these ethical and technological novelties. It can be a daunting experience, no doubt.
However, if there is one thing that we believe as Anthropologists is in the human capacity to adapt and to extract knowledge from chaos.
To understand a specific culture, ethnographers expose themselves to alien customs for long periods. The goal is to reflect on other ways of living on their terms, seeking explanations about their social dynamics within that particular frame of thought. In the process, the researcher must suspend their morality, habit, judgment, and force themselves to live just like their research subjects.
The same mindset is applied to the research strategy. The ethnographic method creates an open framework capable of adapting effectively to fast-changing empirical contexts.
As ethnographers, we go into fieldwork with just a few questions in mind just to let the field reveal itself to us through the making of research. We pretty much learn by doing. Adaptability, transparency, methodological thinking, and empathy are fundamental tools that enable the researcher to respond to complex demands as a means to produce knowledge.
My current research project was designed before lockdown. Oh, those pre-pandemic days.
It is an International, multi-layered, and complex project predicated on the ethnographic method. It involves various stages of fieldwork running simultaneously in different countries recruiting participants from communities of interest and experts.
The original research strategy enabled extensive contact between researcher and research subject. Researchers would go to the participants’ homes and accompany them in everyday activities.
Two weeks before fieldwork starts, the UK put lockdown measures in place. After many conversations, the team decided to move forward with the project migrating it entirely to digital platforms.
We would no longer rely on embodied experience and face to face interactions. Time with participants was reduced to a two-hour remote interview split into two video call sessions, one at the beginning and the other at the end of fieldwork. To compensate for the lack of real-time interaction, we designed a diary method where the participants would send us pictures and videos during the whole period of fieldwork.
We chose platforms according to their level of usage among the team and the participants. We didn’t build a digital platform especially for the project such as an online forum or consumer panel. We wanted the experience to “feel natural” for the participants and take advantage of platforms already embedded in their lives. The research team was also familiar with the kind of content produced on those platforms.
The issue of language is central to Anthropology and people inhabit digital environments in distinctive ways.
Each platform has a certain social dynamic, content, an expression of feeling, and emotion that gives shape to experience, to different ways of being. We continue to search for meaning just as we would in traditional ethnographic fieldwork.
If you want to dig deeper into digital ethnography I highly recommend you to read this guy. One can argue if there’s a thing such as digital anthropology in a world where everything is digital. However, we can’t deny the specificities of digital mediums and how they shape sociality.
Going back to research: At first, we were worried about two things:
The ways through which anxiety around the COVID-19 would affect participant’s narratives and consequently research outcomes. After all, we still had a job to do and a study to deliver;
The impacts of shifting to digital platforms on the quality of data.
The first issue is relatively easy to solve. A qualitative interview has to follow a structure of interaction. We select participants according to recruitment guidelines, create a semi-structured interview guide and mediate the meeting according to moderation techniques. This all seems very obvious but not so much for people outside the research world.
During uncertain times, we should strive to preserve fruitful relationships with collaborators.
We, as researchers, have to put effort into communicating the technicality of our work to all parties involved. Especially during times such as these, this ability could determine the success or failure of a project. Miscommunication creates unnecessary friction in a moment where we should build trust.
The same goes for handling interviews. People are going to talk about Coronavirus.
Maybe a few participants could get sick during research. Researchers are also human. We are experiencing the same anxiety as they are. Get in touch with the participants before the session to introduce yourself in a friendly manner. Prepare yourself for the possibility of diverging from the script during the session. Plan ahead and use the warmup time before the interview to talk about COVID-19 so it won’t interfere with the data collection. Crack a few jokes now and then. Keep it as light as possible.
I didn’t experience any issues during fieldwork because of the pandemic. I was able to extract all expected data and establish a great research relationship with the participants. It was good for the participants and myself to talk about something other than Coronavirus. Except for one mild case, none of the participants had any health issues related to COVID-19 during fieldwork. This can still change until the end of the project.
It is soothing to listen to other’s experiences during times like these. Doing research during a pandemic can be a powerful way to embrace our humanity. Regarding the research process, it’s all about being prepared and maintaining constant and clear communication with participants and the research team.
That brings me to the issue of digital mediation and interaction.
I had already done research on digital platforms a few times before. My Master’s dissertation was about Digital Anthropology. I was pretty familiar with the specificity of digital interaction in the context of research. If you would like to read more about it, I have recently published an article about this research on a prestigious Anthropology journal.
During video calls, I noticed that the participants felt comfortable talking about sensitive topics and sharing their experiences. They showed me their homes, played with their pets, introduced me to family members.
Video calls during lockdown exposed our humanity and intimate lives. We can’t pick and choose the background or silence the kids playing in the backyard.
Also, there is a confessional element to video interactions that not only reflect the physical space people inhabit but also their mental space.
People tend to feel more open to sharing intimate aspects of experience because they are in “their element”. The absence of physical presence, in this case, creates a sense of safety. People feel in control of what kind of information they share with you. You are not there snooping-around, paying attention to their body language, listening to the unsaid.
You have to rely entirely upon facial expressions and parlance to build a connection.
This is exhausting but also an opportunity to get to know people differently. During the research, take advantage of this confessional structure of feeling. It is a way for researchers to “be there in the field” and to compensate for the lack of face to face interactions.
For all of those interested in reading more about method and methodology, Deborah Lupton, Professor at the Sociology, Media, and Cultural Studies Department at UNSW Sydney, put together an amazing crowd-sourced methodology guide for social digital research.
I would love to hear about your experiences working on research during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than ever we need to share experiences that might help others to solve their problems.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch through email, Twitter, or Instagram. I will keep sharing more about my research experiences as I go.
