Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork in Goma, DR Congo, I want to raise two points for discussion: 1) a methodological exploration on how to realize “deep hanging out” in times of emergency and 2) some theoretical thoughts about potentialities and limits of textual representation.

Paper long abstract:

Fieldwork, especially in contexts of violent conflict, is surrounded by a particular aura. When I returned from Goma/ Eastern Congo in 2008 friends, strangers and colleagues alike looked at me with a weird mixture of curiosity and disgust, craving for adventurous accounts on the one hand or asking with affirmative voice "but it was not really dangerous, right?"

In contrast to political scientists or other "experts" in the field of violent conflict, anthropologists as "embedded researchers" (Peters/ Richards) are often reduced to mere purveyors of anecdotes. While pondering about my data, reflecting about own experiences and trying to solve the problem of how to order disorder in the process of writing up, I realized that I got entrapped in the murky waters of representation myself - not wanting to share certain experiences, therefore playing events down, and nearly desperately trying to avoid a kind of "pornographization of violence" as Daniel (1996) has labeled it. It is a very thin line between an adequate description of a general 'situation under siege' and a self-reflexive evaluation of one's own position.

Therefore, I want to raise two points for discussion: 1) a methodological exploration on how to realize "deep hanging out" in times of emergency and 2) some theoretical thoughts about potentialities and limits of textual representation.