The Challenges of Doing Dirty Research

• In Event: Methods and Theory in the Sociology of Sexualities

Abstract

While social science research has thoroughly reflected on researchers’ positionality vs. their field and informants, inter-researcher positionality has been less rigorously explored. This paper examines stigma management and positionality surrounding “dirty research”. I develop a theory of “dirty research” that expands the definition of this concept, identifies its core tenets, and reflects on its consequences and perils for a wide range of scholars. This theory examines the fluidity of “dirty work” and, by extension, “dirty research”, suggesting that the latter should also extend to the study of “dirty people” and “dirty activities”. I also assess the academic and personal consequences and perils potentially associated with conducting “dirty research” and the ways in which these consequences vary by researchers’ intersecting identities and demographics. I then reflect on my own positionality and experiences in conducting “dirty research”, noting both my privileged position and the challenges that nevertheless persist. I end with thoughts about future directions for scholars who engage in “dirty research” given the serious challenges of stigmatization and marginalization.

Author

• Eran Shor, McGill University, Dpt. of Sociology