Dealing with the Shadows in the Field: Narratives of Smuggling in Kilis Town on the Turkish-Syrian Border

Abstract

A parallel but different working of economic and political rationality than the rationality of nation-state could be clearly observed on the borders: law of illegality, unregulated trade and informal relationships. The irrational organizations and relations of the border complicate their investigation through a systematic research methodology and techniques. How then the border researcher should explore irrational, inconspicuous and even uncanny events and develop his or her tools to conceive the ‘unconceivable’? How he or she can keep to carry out the research while his or her research identity is constantly undermined? This paper discusses the field experience that I have obtained during the research on Kilis city at the Turkish-Syrian border. The discussion of the paper addresses mainly to the efforts that I have made in order to identify potential interviewees and access them. Drawing on critical anthropological studies, I will dwell upon the relationships and encounters during the fieldwork and demonstrate in which ways the narratives of smuggling have evolved both as possibility and setback to the fieldwork and shaped my research strategy