Paper short abstract:

Considering ethnographic practice as relational and intersubjective and deeply intimate, the presentation addresses methodological challenges in relation to positionality and ethics in a fieldwork with young people living with the virus of HIV in zones of marginality and social exclusion.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on my fieldwork with young people living with the virus of HIV in zones of marginality and social exclusion in Maputo in Mozambique, the aim of this presentation is to discuss the methodological challenges in medical anthropology research to better understand people’s experiences of illness, body and care. These questions arises from a methodological consideration of my PhD thesis, in which I examine the politics of adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy and how they affect seropositive teenagers. The arrival in the field, its extended timeframe and the first encounters, led me to a slow but constant reformulation and reflection of possible new methods and tools to implement.

The presentation addresses the challenges encountered in relation to positionality and ethics in the field. Considering ethnographic practice as relational and intersubjective, I will show how, while working with vulnerable people, detachment and neutrality lose their meaning. Central instead are the sense of ethics and political responsibility that I will discuss during the presentation. I’ll then analyse the use of creative methodological tools and the possibility of co-creation and participation in the research by the young people I met. Therefore, I will show the challenges I faced in setting up a support group for young HIV-positive people and in the use of visual techniques, such as photovoice and bodymapping, which enabled to get in touch with aspects of their emotional lives that were hardly accessible in words.