Ethical dilemmas and emotional outbursts in contact with the homeless. An ethnography of Non-Profit Organisations in Lyon

Abstract

Meeting vulnerable people raises ethical issues and exposes researchers to unexpected emotions. This article aims to narrate the personal and interpersonal difficulties I encountered during my ethnographic investigation of non-profit organisations helping the homeless. While I was confronted with shocking and striking situations that questioned my relationship with volunteers and the homeless, two elements are fundamental to consider when it comes to meeting vulnerable people: the relationship to them and the relationship to oneself. The purpose of this article is to question ethical assumptions and to investigate the adaptability of affect-oriented methodologies (Moriceau, 2019; Gherardi, 2018) for sensitive fields. Finally, I defend the idea that benevolence towards informants and oneself allows for the best conduct of research in relation to vulnerable people.