Research as experienced

This is an attempt at putting down how I experienced ‘research’, while conducting an ethnographic field work at a fishing village as part of a project to understand experiences of ‘uncertainty’. I will first describe for the reader what seeded/triggered this write up—the unease I experienced during my initial days at the village. This shall be followed by detailing my disposition with respect to the particular project in question here and how I arrived at the village. In the second half of the paper, through reflection, recollection and excerpts from my field notes, I will try to illustrate how notions of consent, rapport, data etc shaped and constrained my experience during (and of) the field study and what effect it had on my being. I do not intend to argue for or against certain practices or arrive at some conclusion, but wish to seek resonances and conversations with those who may have had similar experiences.