`Hidden Ethnography': Crossing Emotional Borders in Qualitative Accounts of Young People's Lives

Abstract

In sociology, the movement towards acceptance of emotion within research has been a slow process. Often referred to as the `reflexive' turn (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992), this development has enabled qualitative research to put forward more realistic fieldwork accounts. Drawing upon ethnographic studies on young people, this article explores the idea of a `hidden ethnography', that is, empirical data not previously published because it may be considered too controversial.The article examines how explanations of research methods in sociology are reluctant to explore the legitimacy of emotional relations developed between the researcher and the researched, and seeks to add to the literature on emotion as a male researcher studying female participants. I argue that qualitative work in sociology needs to consider the existence of the `hidden ethnography' in order to advance understanding of how studies are carried out and theory constructed.