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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Ana-Maria CirsteaORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Despite the ongoing ‘reflexive turn’ in migration studies, intimacy continues to be cropped out of methodologies. This article explores how intimacy can enable us to produce knowledge in a way that is grounded in and sensitive to our participants’ lives. We reflect on our experiences of building intimacy during our two respective ethnographic projects. While one project analyses the solidarity practices of citizens and migrants at the Franco–Italian border, the other explores the experiences of a Romanian family in London. Although researching seemingly divergent topics, we find methodological convergences and come together to propose the concept of ‘intimacy as method’. Positionality is central to intimacy, as who we are as early-career female researchers shaped how we built intimate and caring relationships with our participants. Cultivating intimacy, however, also presented challenges, including ethical considerations in how we conduct research, and how we represent our interlocutors and engage them in knowledge production. In sitting with the discomfort which is central to intimacy, we found its analytical potential as it granted us novel insights into our participants’ lives. By reflecting on both the potential and challenges of intimacy, we argue that migration researchers can use ‘intimacy as method’ to conduct more equitable research in migration studies.
Author(s): Cîrstea A-M, Pescinski J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Migration Studies
Year: 2024
Volume: 12
Issue: 3
Print publication date: 01/09/2024
Online publication date: 26/06/2024
Acceptance date: 09/05/2024
Date deposited: 31/07/2024
ISSN (electronic): 2049-5846
Publisher: Oxford University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnae020
DOI: 10.1093/migration/mnae020
Data Access Statement: The participants of the two research projects on which this paper is based did not consent to their data being shared publicly. Due to the sensitive nature of the research, supporting data is not available.
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