‘Emotions behind the Screen’: Examining the Emotional World of the Researcher and the Informants in Ethnographic Research during the Pandemic
‘Emotions behind the Screen’: Examining the Emotional World of the Researcher and the Informants in Ethnographic Research during the Pandemic

Summary/Abstract: During the whole pandemic and especially during the period from March 2020 to the summer of the same year, when many countries saw general lockdowns, persons working in the field of entertainment faced a debilitating blow. One such group consisted of the street musicians of Athens, whom I had studied as part of a European program conducted under the auspices of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The present paper has multiple aims. It looks at the matter of how far research carried out over the internet is effective and academically valid and it also examines the subject of the emotional world of those taking part in this process. More particularly, the paper attempts to throw into relief the feelings and emotions of researchers and, secondarily, the feelings of the informants who participated in research through the platforms Webex, Zoom and Skype. The research had started at the end of 2019 and involved fieldwork on one of the streets of central Athens, but, with the onset of Covid was subsequently conducted solely over the internet for several months until the summer of 2020. When in November 2020 another lockdown was imposed, I reverted once more to the internet as my sole research tool. By reference to interviews between informant and researcher, I tried to touch on matters of ethics and the thoughts and worries of researchers on the matter. Through reference, too, to interviews with informants, I tried to throw light on the thoughts and reflections that researchers entertain regarding their work and the problems that they faced during the pandemic.

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