Shadowing and gendered fieldwork roles in the Brussels Bubble

Abstract

This article contributes to wider methodological discussions about gender and undertaking fieldwork in and around European Union institutions, by focusing on shadowing as a particular ethnographic practice and the performance of gendered roles in fieldwork. The article is based on two ethnographic research projects and 16 shadowing placements, which were conducted in and around European Union institutions (2018–2020). As co-authors, we reflect on what our respective shadowing experiences reveal about gendered roles in fieldwork and how these are performed in the ‘Brussels Bubble’. We show how the fieldwork roles emerged at different stages of shadowing, how we performed them dynamically and what they reveal about gendered micropolitics in the ‘Brussels Bubble’. We call on researchers to be intentionally reflexive when doing shadowing as part of their fieldwork, to avoid uncritically performing the types of gendered roles that typically emerge within institutional settings and interpersonal relations.