NCRM videos

Thomas Y. T. Tang - Understanding Emotions in Protests

06-11-2019

Thomas Y. T. Tang from The University of Manchester presents 'Understanding Emotions in Protests: Eliciting Emotional Narratives in Walking Interviews' at Methods Fair 2019. Abstract: Recent social scientific research has shown increasing interest in emotions and this urges researchers to apply innovative methods to discern emotions. This presentation discusses the use of walking interviews in deciphering emotional experiences in social movements. In the extant literature, walking interviews have been a useful method in exploring people’s relationship with space. Using five walking interviews drawn from a larger data set as examples, this presentation further demonstrates how walking interviews can be deployed in unpacking activists’ emotions in protest spaces. Four major ways of eliciting data about emotions are identified. First, walking interviews allow the spatial environment to become a cue for interviewees to evoke and recall emotional events. Second, interviewees can draw on the physical environment as a prop to articulate their emotional experiences. Third, the physical environment offers a way to interpret the socio-spatial context of emotional experiences. Fourth, walking interview is a way for interviewees not just to talk about emotions in space but talk emotionally in space. This presentation concludes by discussing some practical issues about conducting a walking interview, including photo and video takings, voice recording, time management, and the use of Google Map after the interview.