Odds and Ends

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper I reflect on the odds and ends of research – that is to say, the fragments of notes, the miscellanea of drafts, the offcuts of applications, the keepsakes of fieldwork; in short, the archival remains of unfinished research. Through a discussion of failure, loss, the incomplete, and the abandoned, the paper poses questions about the threshold of endings. At what point does something fall by the wayside, never to be returned to? More pragmatically, what might we do with our “loss libraries”? And how might we pick up or return to those concepts, field-sites, or collaborators that we once shared, however temporarily, a trajectory with?

在本文中, 我反思了研究的散碎部分:笔记的片段、草稿的杂集、应用的冗余部分、实地考察的纪念物;简而言之, 就是未完成研究的档案性遗留。通过对失败、损失、不完整和舍弃的讨论, 本文提出了“何时结束”的问题。何时中断并且不再重启?更切实的:如何处理“遗失库”?如何才能找到、回到我们曾经(尽管是临时性地)分享过的概念、场所和合作者?

En este escrito reflexiono sobre los retazos de la investigación –o sea, los fragmentos de notas, la miscelánea de borradores, los recortes de solicitudes, los recuerdos del trabajo de campo–, en pocas palabras, los restos de archivo de indagación inacabada. Por medio de una discusión del fracaso, la pérdida, lo incompleto y lo desechado, el artículo plantea interrogantes sobre el umbral de los finales. ¿En cuál momento algo queda a la vera del camino, para nunca retornar? En términos de mayor pragmatismo, ¿qué podríamos hacer con nuestras “bibliotecas de pérdidas”? ¿Y cómo podríamos retomar o volver a esos conceptos, sitios del trabajo de campo o a los colaboradores con los que alguna vez compartimos una trayectoria, así hubiese sido temporalmente?
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)286-293
Number of pages8
JournalGeoHumanities
Volume9
Issue number1
Early online date22 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
I am grateful to Charlotte Veal and Ruth Raynor for the provocation of “Creative Endings” and for their support throughout. I would also like to thank Tim Cresswell and an anonymous referee, for their generous and generative comments, as well as Joe Gerlach for helpful feedback on an earlier draft.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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