Embodied ethnography in psychology: Learning points from expatriate migration research

Abstract

Interviews and observation are often the preferred methods when psychologists conduct fieldwork. However, psychology can learn from recent developments in anthropology and sociology. Here researchers use their own embodied sensations in participatory research as a way to investigate less verbalized, more hidden, sensorial, and affective aspects of the life-worlds they are studying. In this article, I use case examples from research on privileged migrants (expatriates) to demonstrate how significant insights can emerge when we apply an embodied approach in our research. Migration is not only behavioral, social, verbal, or imaginative events but includes the migrant’s body—its sensory experiences and emotions. Thus, we need to embrace additional methods to investigate multifaceted psychological processes such as migration.