Abstract
This essay is a methodological reflection on conducting research in extreme contexts, the impact of this on researchers’ emotions, and its subsequent use in theory building. The essay draws on personal experience of conducting research on the Greek island of Lesbos in the aftermath of the European refugee crisis in 2017 and 2018. The essay adds to the literature on reflexivity, theory building and metaphors, spanning both the macro perspective of global grand challenges and the micro perspective of individuals’ emotional burdens. It proffers the metaphor of a “settled emergency” to describe a multi-faceted situation encountered in the field that can also be found in many organisational contexts in which an unbearable situation is perpetuated by informal dynamics.
The term “shit show” originates from an interviewee’s answer: “We call it the ‘shit show’ to be honest. […] The number we are talking about, really isn’t so big that Europe can’t deal with it. And it’s just a lack of political will. And where is all this money going? I mean, there are people living in Moria camp now, and winter is like weeks away. They haven’t even got summer tents. […] It’s just politics. […] It’s wanting to discourage people from coming. It’s wanting to make an example. […] It’s just plain inhumane mismanagement. […] The shit show doesn’t start on this island; it’s starting in the countries that people are being forced to leave. You know, most of them, they would love to go home” (Professional Aid Worker).
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Notes
- 1.
Based on information provided by the municipality of Lesbos.
- 2.
Based on author’s own count and listing.
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Acknowledgments
This essay evolved over years, and I have many to thank. I benefited from feedback at the Academy of Management Discovery workshop, the VU Business and Society workshop and the EGOS conference. Thanks also to Mark van der Giessen for the first joint attempts of sensemaking in the field. A special thanks to Peter Bamberger and Arno Kourula for supporting major leaps. Thank you Joep Cornelissen and Gabriele Jacobs for continuously exercising a counter-checking distance and scrutinising my theory building over the years.
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Langenbusch, C. (2021). Welcome to the “Shit Show”: Leveraging Emotions for Theory Building. In: Jacobs, G., Suojanen, I., Horton, K., Bayerl, P. (eds) International Security Management. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42523-4_8
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