Seven theses on critical empathy: a methodological framework for ‘unsavory’ populations

Abstract

Qualitative researchers of ‘unsavory’ populations experience a complex range of emotions as they sustain close contact with people and communities that are deemed reprehensible, dangerous, or toxic. Empathy, in particular, raises ethical and methodological challenges for scholars who must build rapport with people who may perpetuate racism, sexism, xenophobia, and so on. Drawing on existing qualitative literature and ethnographic fieldwork, I propose critical empathy as a methodological framework to account for the difficult and sometimes problematic emotional dimensions of research on ‘unsavory’ populations. Instead of trying to resolve the tensions between empathy and critique, critical empathy compels us to grapple with these tensions and make them apparent in our work.