The inside of an ethnographic immersion with the Homeless in Nancy. Tactics, drifts and emotions of the researcher in the field

Abstract

Centered on the “backroom” of the ethnographer engaged on the field with homeless people, this article intends to detail the pangs and techniques of the ethnographic method. These are realities specific to the investigation, usually smoothed out - or even erased - from research reports which stick to an overhanging presentation of the methodology and to the argumentation of the results. Thus, this text first presents the tactics and the “DIY” implemented to access the field, maintain and integrate oneself there, not without emerging blunders and potential drifts from the researcher. We then discuss emotions and affects subjectively felt by the investigator in the field, aiming to explain what this says on the subject under study. In other words, we propose a detour through the subjectivity of the researcher to better comprehend the street world and its indigenous norms.