The explosion of the mirror: Uneasy reflections on fieldwork

Abstract

The aim of this article is to make visible the mechanisms of data production with which we elaborate our scientific production. Based on qualitative research conducted with non-domestic cleaning workers, both women and men, in the city of Córdoba (Argentina), we seek to critically reflect on how, with whom, and why we do qualitative research. Among the main findings, four analytical dimensions are addressed: the tension between horizontal and/or hierarchical relationships that are built during the research process; the tendency to romanticize the objects of research and the effects that such romanticization may have on the process under scrutiny; the often “toxic”relationships we establish with the theoretical frameworks we work with; and the collision between “native categories” and “theoretical categories,” a process that occurs when the field tells us something different from what is expected. These reflections are not intended to be a methodology manual, but rather to bring to the table those aspects that emerge during fieldwork and are sometimes left out of ethnographies.