Pleasure, Pain, and Procrastination: Reflections on the Experience of Doing Memory-Work Research

• Published in: Qualitative research in psychology Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 231 - 248
• Main Authors: Frost, Nollaig A., Eatough, Virginia, Shaw, Rachel, Weille, Katie Lee, Tzemou, Effy, Baraitser, Lisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis Group 01-07-2012; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: faith; feminism; Memory; memory work; Qualitative research; reflection
• ISSN: 1478-0887; 1478-0895
• DOI: 10.1080/14780887.2010.500355

The focus of this article is the process of doing memory-work research. We tell the story of our experience of what it was like to use this approach. We were enthused to work collectively on a "discovery" project to explore a method with which we were unfamiliar. We hoped to build working relationships based on mutual respect and the desire to focus on methodology and its place in our psychological understanding. The empirical activities highlighted methodological and experiential challenges, which tested our adherence to the social constructionist premise of Haug's original description of memory work. Combined with practical difficulties of living across Europe, writing and analyzing the memories became contentious. We found ourselves having to address a number of tensions emanating from the work and our approach to it. We discuss some of these tensions alongside examples that illustrate the research process and the ways we negotiated the collective nature of the memory-work approach.