From Church to Café: Ethnographic Encounters and Methodological Reflections
摘要
This chapter examines the methodological approaches employed during the ethnographic fieldwork for this book. It emphasises the need for a fluid and dynamic research methodology within diasporic communities. It explores how my shifting positionalities in relation to research participants influenced data collection, interpretation, and engagement across diverse settings, including churches, homes, cafés, and social gatherings. The discussion highlights the need for flexible and adaptive methodologies, particularly within Pentecostal and Afro-diasporic contexts, where spontaneity, embodiment, and sensory expression are integral to lived religious experiences. The chapter examines the ethical and practical challenges of audio recording, digital ethnography, and continuous notetaking, and highlights how insider–outsider dynamics shape trust, access, and representation. By reflecting on these tensions, this chapter argues for a methodological stance grounded in reflexivity, care, and participant agency. The chapter highlights fieldwork as an ongoing act of border work, a relational and ethical negotiation between the researcher and participants through which knowledge, belonging, and healing are co-constructed.