How can we do ethnographic research in a controversy? Lessons and reflections from a multi-sided ethnography of badger culling and bovine Tuberculosis

Abstract

Ethnographic research of controversies with divisive sides provides valuable insight into how controversies are enacted, their heterogeneities, and how relations between sides shape interwoven identities. However, the methodology raises specific challenges for researchers, and there is a lack of insight on how to do multi-sided ethnographies. This article considers how to undertake multi-sided ethnography by reflecting on my own research into the bovine Tuberculosis controversy in England, in which I did fieldwork with people shooting badgers and people undertaking direct action against the shooting of badgers. These reflections are framed around the challenges of negotiating uneven terms of access with and between oppositional groups, negotiating a researcher's role as a knowledge resource between groups, and negotiating a researcher's own emotions and safety in highly charged contexts. I propose that it is key for researchers to hold non-aligned positions in the controversies being studied and to navigate critical distance with participants to manage these challenges. Researchers need to be both an ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ with all participant groups to maintain a degree of access across multiple sides of a controversy. Finally, I provide practical recommendations for how to undertake multi-sided ethnographies of controversies.