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Steven Sampson

Steven Sampson

Professor emeritus

Steven Sampson

Pursuing intimacy in a surveillance regime: Fieldwork in communist Romania. : Submitted paper, special issue on espionage and surveillance, under review

Author

  • Steven Sampson

Summary, in English

Abstract: Field research in politically authoritarian contexts poses special problems for the ethnographic project of pursuing intimacy and trust. During my fieldwork in communist Romania, both up to my denial of entry in 1985, and during my subsequent public activities dealing with Romania up to 1989, I was various surveillance by Romanian security organs, who also interrogated and harassed by informants and friends in the country. Ethnographic fieldwork is supposed to be about becoming involved in the lives of the people we study. But in this particular context, I argue the single-minded pursuit of intimacy needs to be balanced by the need for distance and detachment.

Department/s

  • Social Anthropology
  • Department of Sociology

Publishing year

2024-05-01

Language

English

Pages

1-1

Publication/Series

The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology

Volume

xx

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Berghahn Journals

Topic

  • Social Anthropology

Keywords

  • Social anthropology
  • Romania
  • securitatea
  • espionage
  • paranoia
  • fieldwork
  • secret police
  • Eastern Europe
  • ethnography
  • detachment
  • intimacy
  • surveillance

Status

Unpublished

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0305-7674