TOTAL INTIMACY AND FIELDWORK ON THE ROAD
-> At the beginning what I needed to do first and foremost was to define the field. Due to its mobile and multi-sited character, the key step turned out to be emphasising the interactional content of the research, i.e. the relation (which at least involved some emotional connection) and direct contact (multi-sensory and most often physical) between me and my driver and the rest of the economic migrant environment (drivers, workers etc.). As a result, the field that I had chosen still had its “location” and was always localised somewhere, mostly in human bodies. Nevertheless, the experience that I gathered when conducting my studies on tractor unit drivers made me doubt whether the field is as negotiable as I had thought before. The study procedure that I adopted did not allow me to negotiate roles, and separate the private from the observed. There was no time or space for that. Close, intimate and often embarrassing coexistence with my key informer – my driver, interlocutor, cabmate and to some extent, associate, was inevitable in the studies I conducted. Everything that we did had to be connected, regardless of what and when it took place and how we did it.
-> The three-metre space of the tractor unit cab, although closed, physically allowed me to make observations from a high and wide-angled perspective. I did not only observe the places that we passed, but also buildings and people working in monitored industrial zones with very limited access (e.g. factories, foundries, processing plants, forwarding centres) (see also Urry 1999). There were also other consequences of conducting research in a small, cramped place which was on the move and constantly changed its geographic location. Most of all, there was no possibility to take a break from interactions between the researcher and the research subject. We were both forced to accept completely different priorities stemming from our professions: a tractor unit driver on the one hand and an anthropologist on the other hand.
-> This lack of time and space to negotiate the rules governing this relation I treat as demystification of the field as a process since it underwent compression. In practice, it meant I had to enter the field instantly. The idea to study truck drivers came to me in June 2011. I went to the field a month later. I did not have a opportunity to observe it in detail before and see what it was like. I only had some preconceptions about it. The field understood as co-habitation, cooperation and coexistence instantly materialised and the concept of participant observation was assigned a new meaning. This three-metre field made me become suspicious of participant observation. The cab was, of course, a part of my field, but a part which I had to stay in all the time. Participation and the said observation were so intensive that the traditional definition of this research technique did not seem to be enough. The notion that describes that specific 24-hour state the best is, in my opinion, total intimacy: bodily, emotional, intellectual, ritualised and daily intimacy, especially as regards actions and reactions connected with work. |
-> This small and mobile field moving on the road and always making stops along the road, allowed me to experience to an almost full extent what drivers experience in their work: their professional daily lives, which, as is usually assumed, are mobile and multi-sited. These experiences were very intensive perceptively since they consisted of a multitude of distinctive, multisensory stimuli that could not be avoided in any way. These were the sounds which the western culture identifies as noises: hums, whirrs, all types of drones, pitter-patter, hissing; smells of bodies, trucks, machines, the carried load, places and work carried out in those places; tastes of specific food (literally “home”, or even nationalised, food as the drivers eat home-like food, e.g. the Polish drivers eat hunter’s dish, poppy-seed dumplings, cutlets, stuffed cabbage, pancakes, pork chops, soups and vegetable salads); bodily experiences: from temperature through wavy motion, vibrations, jerking, tilting from jumping on the trailer in order to take the carried goods; images of never-ending motorways, national roads, car parks which we passed, bridges, industrial zones, fields and flickering lights. This unavoidable existence in the centre of the reality which I wanted to be my new study field allowed me to observe everything very closely (micro/zoom perspective), in a kind of embarrassing way, sometimes difficult to endure, complicating the research process and changing my perception of this process. The field forced me to ask some questions concerning how, in anthropology, it is often mystified, overinterpreted and assigned additional meanings (in terms of situations, relations and actions). If those meanings were to be explained scientifically, they would have to match some theories and notions, which unnecessarily complicates many things that are actually simple and one-dimensional.
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TRACTOR UNIT SPACE MANAGEMENT: THINGS AND BODIES
-> Spatiality, ergonomics and comfort provided by the unit depends on the make of a truck. Makes differ in terms of seat and bed construction, window tinting, number and availability of compartments, quality of air conditioning, heating and the sound system, shock absorption and lighting. During my studies, I lived and travelled in a Volvo cab, which could be described as comfortable if two adults had not co-habited in it. The most problematic aspects turned out to be the fridge, which was too small, and scarcity of compartments. This generated constant mess, which (especially towards the end of the trip) led to conflicts between me and the driver. My tendency to overproduce rubbish and messiness caused by taking too much luggage (clothes, shoes, cosmetics, books and most of all electronic equipment) were quickly revealed. Some objects turned out to be particularly out of place, for example, an umbrella and a tripod, which could not be hidden anywhere and had to be constantly moved from one place to another. There was also a problem with my cowboy boots, because they carried a lot of mud into the cab when I was wearing them, which spoilt its home-like character.
-> A tractor unit cab consists of the driver’s and passenger’s seats, a bunk bed and a complex dashboard. Although it is cramped and small, it is suitable to be divided into specialised zones. Apart from the sleeping zone, the key zone was a “large” area between the seats. The distance between them, although it was only one metre long, was crucial when some tensions or conflicts appeared. And those were inevitable. We also used this zone for preparing food, i.e. cooking, cutting etc., it served as an IT centre where we could hardly find room for our laptops that we used for navigation and listening to music. The seats, of course, were our work stations.
-> A tractor unit cab consists of the driver’s and passenger’s seats, a bunk bed and a complex dashboard. Although it is cramped and small, it is suitable to be divided into specialised zones. Apart from the sleeping zone, the key zone was a “large” area between the seats. The distance between them, although it was only one metre long, was crucial when some tensions or conflicts appeared. And those were inevitable. We also used this zone for preparing food, i.e. cooking, cutting etc., it served as an IT centre where we could hardly find room for our laptops that we used for navigation and listening to music. The seats, of course, were our work stations.
-> Although at the beginning the driver and I established how to organise our things in an orderly way, we were not able to adhere to this agreement in practice. Since I had more things than the driver, I inadvertently took over the cab space, destroying the previously established order. Each time we wanted to control the chaos that I caused, we utterly failed. The things I needed for work were everywhere. I had to have my equipment and notebook at my disposal. I was doing my job constantly, regardless of whether the cab was on the move or not. I documented everything with my tools (field notes, the researcher’s notebook, in this case taking the form of letters, which I later folded into ships, photographs, video and audio recordings). What particularly clattered our space were suitcases, bags and backpacks, which we had to keep on our beds during the day and on the seats at night. Other things that caused disorder were towels and washed underwear. They were doubled in number and thus exacerbated the feeling of discomfort. We took our bedclothes and a carpet with us. A carpet carries a symbolic value for many drivers as they feel that “if there is a carpet, there is home”. Therefore, the carpet always had to be clean, meaning it could not have any crumbles. There were many objects that we shared: cosmetics, dishes, food and virtual goods, such as films, music and computer games.
-> What can be gathered from the description so far is that, to some extent, our seats and beds were the most personal places for us. Naturally, when we were on the move, the driver’s seat was always taken by the driver and the passenger’s seat – by me. However, we did sometimes sit in each other’s places. Whenever I could, I sat on the driver’s seat. This seat was air-cushioned, so I often reduced its pressure: just for my pleasure and to make my audio recordings. For comfort, I also adjusted the height of the seat and its angle, which again caused chaos in the driver’s ordered world. On the other hand, the driver sat on my seat whenever I left the cab, even if it was only for a few minutes. He moved my things, e.g. the notebook, the recorder or my clothes. For a driver, the passenger’s seat is associated with leisure. For him, this seat is not connected with work, serves as a kitchen and a kind of a “living room” where he can watch films, eat his food and observe what is happening outside without being disturbed. Therefore, my presence significantly affected the typical routine of the person who had decided to take part in my research. |
-> That chaos that I caused was very troublesome for my driver and it disturbed the established order of the cab life that he cyclically reproduced. Drivers working for the company which owned the tractor unit I lived in, work shifts. They go on four or five-week routes and then they spend a week at home. After the break, they hardly ever get on the same truck again. The trucks are not assigned to one driver, so every time they come back to work drivers have to organise their cabs from scratch. Drivers treat cabs like home, so they always fill them with the same objects, which is supposed to evoke a feeling of being at one’s own place. Hence, cabs contain bedclothes, carpets, teddy bears, family photos, TVs and all kinds of decorations. The things that drivers take with them need to have their own place. They are properly sorted and put into pre-established compartments. Treating the cabs like home or a living space is manifested in certain behaviours and habits. You can never enter a cab with your shoes on. Shoes have to be left on the stairs and the inside of the cab is always tidied up and cleaned. The mess that I brought in with me to his world, made it impossible for the driver to recreate this space of a home cab, which he was used to doing. In other words, he could not completely take over the cab.Paragraph. Kliknij tutaj, aby edytować.
-> It is possible to achieve some privacy in the cab if one separates oneself from the external world with special curtains which can be pulled across all the windows. Curtains are an important element of communication between drivers and drivers with the police. Closed curtains mean it is time for a pause and relax. This is when the police has no right to disturb a driver. It is also a sign for others that the driver does not want to communicate with anybody (he is not in the mood for conversations, visits or car park feasts). I kept forgetting about this rule, or ignored it on purpose, because my goal was to observe everything that was happening outside. I also needed light to take my notes, read and update my audio-visual material. As a result, in my part of the cab the curtains were opened and in the driver’s part they were drawn. This generated an ambiguous signal for other drivers resulting in frequent visits. Most of the time, me and the driver were together. We were literally at arm’s length. We separated when the goods were loaded and unloaded. Whenever I could, i.e. in those places where OHS rules were less restrictive, I observed loading and unloading at close proximity, sometimes attempting to help the driver, for example, by opening and closing the door, latching and unlatching the tarpaulin, securing and unsecuring the goods with spansets, securing the sides of the trailer with special crossmembers. However, more often than not, I was a prisoner in the cab during loading and unloading, especially in German industrial zones where one has to wear a special outfit, which I did not have on my first trip (helmet, safety vest, steel nose safety boots). |
-> I spent most of the obligatory pauses with my driver, both during and outside his working hours. The possibility to go for a walk was rather limited due to strong winds and rains. Many places where we parked were simply not appropriate for walks. Others generated some embarrassing situations for me connected to physiological needs, especially at the beginning of the trip and when we were pressed for time.
-> I woke up, put my clothes on and ate breakfast with my driver. Then we impatiently waited for the instructions from the dispatcher. Together we cooked dinners, went shopping, watched films, observed others and solved problems which constantly appeared en route. We also partied with other drivers and used hot-spots together. My driver accompanied me when I talked to other drivers. Therefore, familiarity and intimacy between us had to appear very quickly. There was no other possibility since we spent together 24 hours a day sharing such a small space. Striving for one’s privacy, which in other conditions would be quite obvious, in this case was practically impossible. All types of bodily rituals, for example those connected with grooming (brushing teeth, cutting nails, brushing hair, squeezing pimples, shaving, cleaning ears etc.) had to be neutralised and shifted to the level of a family relation, in particular the relation between a father and a daughter, which is culturally deprived of any sexual undertones.
-> The daily life of long-haul drivers mainly consists in work, eating, sleeping and sometimes entertainment. My driver obviously had to change his daily routine, especially as regards the way he prepared food and its amount, as well as the entertainment. It is a mistake to think that truck drivers’ work is limited only to driving. Most drivers, with some exceptions, also load and unload the goods themselves. The goods have to be properly secured, depending on their size, value, state of matter and requirements laid down by the company who employs the forwarding company. The obligations which are most stressful and problematic for drivers are their administrative duties: filling in appropriate documents, negotiating in offices, and establishing addresses as those provided by dispatchers are often wrong.
-> I accompanied the driver by doing my own work: observing, taking notes, reading, talking, taking photographs and recordings. Similarly to me when I was interfering in his work trying to help him or do something for him, my driver also tried to streamline the completion of my project. Sometimes he disturbed my rhythm of work, distracted me, made it impossible to make up-to-date analyses or read books. However, he also often talked to other drivers about my project instead of leaving it to me, he told them who I was, brought up different conversation subjects he rightly thought to be interesting for me. He accompanied me every step of the way, took part in every conversation, by which he demonstrated his care over me. This is how I avoided many dangerous situations, for example, during long pauses when drivers drank a lot of alcohol.
-> I accompanied the driver by doing my own work: observing, taking notes, reading, talking, taking photographs and recordings. Similarly to me when I was interfering in his work trying to help him or do something for him, my driver also tried to streamline the completion of my project. Sometimes he disturbed my rhythm of work, distracted me, made it impossible to make up-to-date analyses or read books. However, he also often talked to other drivers about my project instead of leaving it to me, he told them who I was, brought up different conversation subjects he rightly thought to be interesting for me. He accompanied me every step of the way, took part in every conversation, by which he demonstrated his care over me. This is how I avoided many dangerous situations, for example, during long pauses when drivers drank a lot of alcohol.
-> Living in a tractor unit cab that was on the move or parked in places with no infrastructure whatsoever was also a bodily experience. Drivers’ metabolism changes when they are on the road and adjusts to extreme conditions. Therefore, drivers rarely excrete, even though they drink and eat a lot when they are driving. They also do not need much sleep. This specific dimension of my research generated the most stress for me. I started the trip with a conviction that physiology would be its most problematic aspect. At the very beginning, it already turned out that our bodies significantly differed in terms of metabolism. Mine worked in a standard way and the driver’s automatically adjusted to his working conditions. This generated numerous embarrassing and troublesome situations which would have constituted an emotional and psychological burden if my relations with the driver had not been based on intimacy and cordiality. In such a relation, the feeling of mutual discomfort and disgust with bodily reactions would have been out of place. Thus, the whole issue became neutralised without any verbal negotiations or agreements. This does not mean that each other’s bodies were not irritating for us. Their reactions would sometimes cause conflicts. For example, we found annoying some bodily habits manifested with sounds: eating and drinking hot food and beverages that required intensive blowing and slurping, and also some sounds demonstrating pleasure after swallowing food: sighs, or relaxed chomping. There were also the sounds that accompanied boredom: frequent smacking of all sorts, playing with one’s saliva, clattering teeth.
-> Sharing three square metres of space 24/7 did not only lead to systemising our bodily habits, but also created conditions for the development of emotional and psychological connection (see also Beatty 2005: 17-37; Kleinman, Copp 1993). Whether we wanted it or not, the driver and I shared almost all experiences, so the process of entering the field became somewhat compacted. Getting on the cab for the first time, I instantly found myself in the centre of everyday reality of a person whose environment, in particular its socio-cultural dimension, was to become my new research field. As I have already emphasised, the nature of my field excluded any early negotiations and agreements as to role divisions, rules regulating our activities and establishing foundations for our everyday interactions. It was also impossible for me to hide the methods and ways of conducting research. Everything I did, wrote down, recorded or photographed was visible and accessible to my key informer – the person who I was completely dependent on. I had always tried to shorten the distance between me and my research subjects, but in this case it was simply impossible to keep the distance. The only thing we could do was to ignore our own emotional reactions that appeared en route. The psychophysical condition of one person instantly influenced the mood of the other person. Sleep deficiency, stress, boredom, longing, anger or even fury, and some states bordering on sensory deprivation when we paused for a few days, were the feelings and emotions that we both inevitably shared. In time, they brought about numerous tensions leading to unavoidable arguments. Actually, it was a norm for us to be mean to each other, reproach each other, get offended and slam the door behind us to manifest our emotions.
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-> Emotional proximity was inescapable. Towards the end of the trip, we understood each other without having to say a word even though the tension between us was at its peak. After coming back to Poland, we spent together one more day. We could not say our goodbyes and for a long time, I could not get used to the fact that I was back. For the next one and a half a month, I digitised my research and made it public on the Internet. I also kept in touch with other drivers who I had met on the road. In December 2011 and summer 2012, I conducted research which complemented the first pilot study.
-> This extreme ethnographic journey allowed me to design some further journeys, which were much more constructive, theoretically and methodologically polished and where I took into consideration the fact that the so-called mobile field does not always imply multi-sited ethnography (see Stanisz 2012). The plethora of subjects that I discovered during my “ethnographic immersion” turned out to be very wide. What I provisionally refer to as “tirowanie” (“HGV-ing”) opened an immense and incredibly creative research opportunities for me: from movement and motility, through location-dislocation, globalisation, affiliation, placement-displacement and multiculturalism to the migration dynamics in Western Europe, modernisation, or infrastructure and development policies. |
References:
Beatty A. 2005 Emotions in the Field: What Are We Talking About?, “Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute” 11:1, pp. 17–37.
Herzfeld M. 1997 Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State, New York: Routledge.
Kleinman S. Copp M. (eds.) 1993. Emotions and Fieldwork, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Stanisz A. 2012 Ruchome miejsca i etnografia translokalności, "Tematy z Szewskiej" 2, pp. 7-18.
Urry J. 1999 Automobility, Car Culture and Weightless Travel. A discussion paper, Lancaster: University Lancaster LA.
Beatty A. 2005 Emotions in the Field: What Are We Talking About?, “Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute” 11:1, pp. 17–37.
Herzfeld M. 1997 Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State, New York: Routledge.
Kleinman S. Copp M. (eds.) 1993. Emotions and Fieldwork, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Stanisz A. 2012 Ruchome miejsca i etnografia translokalności, "Tematy z Szewskiej" 2, pp. 7-18.
Urry J. 1999 Automobility, Car Culture and Weightless Travel. A discussion paper, Lancaster: University Lancaster LA.
based on Stanisz A. 2016 Three square meters. About fieldwork on the road and experience of total intimacy, [w:] Cultures of Motorway. Localities through Mobility as an Anthropological Issue, Poznańskie Studia Etnologiczne, t. 19. Red. W. Kuligowski, A. Stanisz, Wielichowo: Wydawnictwo TIPI, pp. 47-68.