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Taking the fun out of it: the spoiling effects of researching something you love
This reflexive analysis of two sports ethnographers’ studies of an aerobics class and a swimming pool explores the effects of doing fieldwork on a physical activity that one loves. While using our bodies as phenomenological sites of perception initially created an epistemological advantage, researching the familiarly beloved not only ‘took the fun out of’ the activity, but also more profoundly challenged our ‘exercise identities’. Emulating poor technique, enduring interactional awkwardness, and deep acting role performances, combined to take their toll, so that ‘going native’ became a matter not just of intellectual disadvantage but of ontological destabilisation. Doing activity-based ethnography on something personally special is a double-edged sword: on the one hand elucidating awareness, but on the other depriving the researcher of pleasure and ‘spoiling’ aspects of their identity.
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Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Qualitative ResearchISSN
1468-7941Publisher
SAGE PublicationsExternal DOI
Issue
6Volume
16Page range
615-629Department affiliated with
- Sociology and Criminology Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2016-03-14First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2016-03-14Usage metrics
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