Liminal belonging: routes into research

Abstract

What I am clumsily trying to explain in this section, then, is that being an ethnographer -a participant-observer- involved a process of ontological transformation of my self, and a continuous challenge to common-sense views upon what it means to be-with, to be part of. Indeed, participation emerged as ‘becoming a part’ resonating with other parts without being reduced to sameness. A kind of being attuned to something other that transforms you by bringing you in accord. An affection that entangles you with those with whom you are in relation (Brown & Stenner, 2001), and that should not be dismissed by saying that emotions are individual epiphenomena. Thus, while observing and suffering all these changes in my-self, I started to realise that by analysing my own transformations as a researcher, I had at my disposal a material through which to think a different way of belonging.