ways we perceive and react to the people, places and environment around us (Milligan
2005; Kim-Prieto et al. 2005). As Anderson and Smith (2001, 7) state, “At particular
times and in particular places, there are moments where lives are so explicitly lived
through pain, bereavement, elation, anger, love and so on that the power of emotional
relations cannot be ignored.” Consideration of emotions is therefore central in any
attempt to understand how social relations mediate the ways in which “lives are lived
and societies made” (ibid), and the dynamic sense of whom and what we are.
While much of the literature on emotional geographies has focused upon the
emotional processes involved in doing research (cf. Widdowfield 2001; Hubbard et al.
2001; Meth with Malaza 2003), Bennett (2004) supports a body of literature in the
wider social sciences (e.g. Katz 1999, Barbalet 2002) in stressing the importance of
considering the emotions of the ‘researched’ in enabling contextual understanding of
the ‘rules’ and structures that help shape emotional behaviour and well-being.
However, eliciting such emotive and often sensitive information raises a number of
methodological and ethical issues, particularly when research is carried out in other
cultural contexts in which open displays of emotion may be relatively restricted or
differently defined.
Using solicited diaries in the Caprivi Region
This research was conducted in the Caprivi Region, located in the far north-east of
Namibia. Subsistence cultivation and livestock husbandry play a central role in
livelihoods, although most households are involved in an array of activities to meet
food and cash requirements. The Caprivi’s status as one of the least developed regions
in Namibia (Mendelsohn et al. 2002) is primarily caused by decreasing life