2025/03/26 by Maria Thulemark, Susanna Heldt Cassel, Tara Duncan · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics #Participatory Visual Research Methods #Mental Health and Patient Involvement
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/area.70012
openalex publication_date 2025/03/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract This paper explores the collaborative methodology of conducting working participant observation in a team setting to study the experiences of hotel housekeepers in Sweden. It aims to refine and extend the method of working participant observation by highlighting the benefits of a team approach to intensive ethnographic fieldwork. Drawing on critiques of ‘traditional’ geographical methods that rely heavily on interviews, the researchers immersed themselves in the physical labour of housekeeping alongside housekeepers, engaging their own bodies as research instruments. The research team navigated the complexities of embodied labour, reflecting on how their own identities (gender, age, nationality) influenced interactions and observations. The study emphasises the importance of collective reflection and dialogue between researchers, who debriefed each other daily, transforming individual experiences into shared analytical insights. Taking this approach challenges methodological conservatism by integrating feminist and intersectional perspectives and demonstrates how working participant observation can provide deeper understandings of workplace hierarchies, bodily labour, and power dynamics. By focusing on the bodily presence of both researchers and workers, the study highlights the unique insights gained through participatory, team‐based ethnographic research in service work.