Låt dem undra? Självetnografi, skevhet och skavande känslor

Abstract

Feminist and queer scholars have acknowledged ethnographic endeavors as an intimate, bodily and emotional venture for decades. This article proposes autoethnography as an affective and queer methodological style which highlights emotions as assets that can guide empirical production. The text argues that a queer and affective practice of autoethnography combines self-reflection and affective elements as analytical and navigational tools. By focusing on the researcher’s emotions, this methodological approach showcases the porous framework of ‘the field’ and challenges the idea of ethnographic fieldwork as happening in a geographically, culturally and temporally fixed place. This way of doing autoethnography is suggested to unpack ethnographic concerns such as: underlining the relationship between researcher and empirics; drawing attention to emotion regulation processes; attending to affective atmospheres; identifying significant components for further study; and shattering temporal, spatial and cultural frameworks for conceptualizing the empirical field.