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It takes a team to participate - Refining working participant observations through multiple researchers
Dalarna University, School of Culture and Society, Human Geography.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3517-6650
Örebro University, Örebro.
Dalarna University, School of Culture and Society, Tourism Studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1845-7001
2025 (English)In: Area (London 1969), ISSN 0004-0894, E-ISSN 1475-4762, Vol. 57, no 3, article id e70012Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Sustainable development
SDG 5: Gender equality
Abstract [en]

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.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. Vol. 57, no 3, article id e70012
Keywords [en]
collaborative methodology, embodied labour, hotel housekeeping, Sweden, team approach, working participant observation
National Category
Work Sciences Human Geography
Research subject
Research Centres, Centre for Tourism and Leisure Research (CeTLeR)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-50451DOI: 10.1111/area.70012ISI: 001453651400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105001539009OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-50451DiVA, id: diva2:1951242
Available from: 2025-04-10 Created: 2025-04-10 Last updated: 2025-12-10Bibliographically approved

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Thulemark, MariaDuncan, Tara

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf