Ethnography and the Choices Posed by the ‘Affective Turn’

Abstract

Chapter 3 raises questions about the challenges of combining developments in contemporary social and cultural theory with empirical ethnographic research. The author critically examines the advantages and disadvantages of adopting recent theories of affect in connection to his research in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. How does a feature film relating to the aftermath of the 1990s war elicit different intensities among various audiences? How can ethnographers write about such intensities? What possibilities does the ‘affective turn’ offer to ethnographers, and what does it put out of reach? The author makes a case for ethnographic investigations that aim for analysis that goes beyond evocation through hermeneutics, conceptualisation, and critical argument. Evoking certain forms of affect without making the ‘affective turn’, he concludes that the ethnographic study of affect may be at its best when it also historicises their specific forms, tries to detect patterns in their operation, and conceptualises them in dialogue with other scholarly work.