Current Sociology

Please welcome our Sociologist of the Month for March 2023, Mangala Subramaniam (Virginia Commonwealth University, USA). Her article for Current Sociology Empathy in Research Process: Study of Women in Sex Work in India is Free Access this month.

Mangala Subramaniam

Could you please tell us about yourself? How did you come to your field of study?

M. Subramaniam: I’m currently a Professor of Sociology and the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA. Prior to this, I was the Butler Chair and Director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence at Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA.

I’m a sociologist and a woman of color, first-generation immigrant in the U.S. I pursued a PhD in sociology because I believe it allows for studying and understanding the social forces and systems of inequalities that impact people. My projects focus on issues that are at the center of gender politics, development, and the state. The key issues I examine include how the disadvantaged organize to make claims; the innovative forms of organizations, including community-based groups, that emerge to collectively seek access to basic rights such as HIV prevention programs or water. My goal has always been to bring to the forefront, if not to the center, experiences of the marginalized and vulnerable and a willingness to work through the knots of our structured social matrix. I firmly believe that my work challenges many of us to critically consider lived experiences of those different from that of our own. How the marginalized and vulnerable think about and demand rights has been a topic of interest for me. It is this interest that led me to examine how women in sex work perceive their rights, particularly in the context of the prevention programs built around peer surveillance and the stigma associated with those categorized as high-risk to HIV.

What prompted you to research the area of your article, “Empathy in Research Process: Study of Women in Sex Work in India”?

M. Subramaniam: As I began efforts to initiate access to and build rapport with women in sex work for my study about the perceptions of rights by women in sex work, I noted that, like in some of my earlier projects, I was conversing with a vulnerable population. As I listened to narratives of women in sex work, a population at high-risk to HIV, I developed a deeper understanding of their fears, the violence they faced, and the challenges from maintaining a ‘hidden’ identity. I listened carefully and reflected on my own privileges and the challenges of my study participants. As I explain at the beginning of the article, a comment by one participant, Gowri, who referenced ‘empathy’ explicitly, led me to ponder about my interactions with the study participants and review my fieldnotes closely. It led me to think about the emotion work that the data collection involved even though many researchers think about data as such and not the ‘work’ that went into gathering it.

What do you see as the key findings of your article?

M. Subramaniam: First, the article calls attention to the role of emotion intertwined in the data collection process. Recognizing emotion work is critical to understanding the role of the researcher and researched in gathering and analyzing data.

Second, studying vulnerable populations, such as women in sex work, requires a researcher to be cognizant of data collection time being lengthened as expressions of empathy, as emotion work, may require pause and because the researcher shares unspoken rules of feeling.

Third, creating a space for unraveling the intimate details of their lives may also be interpreted by the study participants/researched as being therapeutic. This is important to think about especially because Use of Human Subjects requires a researcher to refrain from counseling.

Fourth, prevention strategies for coping with the emotion work and self-care may be important to consider for the researcher. Little attention is paid to this aspect by institutions of higher education or their research regulatory boards.

Fifth, the study also has implications for research design, especially the time involved in data collection and be prepared for unexpected delays. Additionally, such studies can be used as part of a sequential research design that enables developing a survey following semi-structured interviews.

What are the wider social implications of your research in the current social climate? How do you think things will change in the future?

M. Subramaniam: In the current global context, marginalized groups have made a greater visible demand for rights but such protests have also seen resistance from privileged groups and even state institutions. Protest, struggle, and the urge for equality are as old as constricting structures such as gendered (and racial, class, ethnic among others) hierarchy, inequality of power, wealth, and knowledge. Protests, and struggles are legitimate expressions of claims to rights. Efforts to challenge structural inequities also reveal the complex locations of different groups of people. As the claims for rights and resistance to these claims continue, there is no doubt going to be some tough and challenging times. As an optimist, I’d say that despite the resistance to protests, there will be social change, albeit slowly.

Do you have any links to images, documents or other pieces of research which build on or add to the article? Or a suggested reading list?

M. Subramaniam: It is not possible to share images or pictures. As explained in the article, the ‘hidden’ identity of most of the study participants and based on the approval from the use of human subjects, I cannot share images. But I have some recommended readings compiled below.

• Azhar S, Dasgupta S, Sinha S, et al. (2020) Diversity in sex work in India: Challenging stereotypes regarding sex workers. Sexuality & Culture 24(6): 1774–1797.
• Gilbert K (ed.) (2001) Emotional Nature of Qualitative Research. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
• Huggins M and Glebbeek ML (2009) Women Fielding Danger: Negotiating Gender, Ethnicity, Class, Caste, and Religion in Field Work. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Kempadoo K (1998) Introduction: Globalizing sex workers’ rights. In: Kempadoo K and Doezema J (eds) Global Sex Work. New York: Routledge, pp. 1–28.
• Nencel L (2014) Situating reflexivity: Voices, positionalities and representations in feminist ethnographic texts. Women’s Studies International Forum 43: 75–83.
• Subramaniam, Mangala. Opinion piece: Strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention in Karnataka. Page 11 in Deccan Herald, July 20, 2016 [Deccan Herald is a leading English daily in India.]
• Subramaniam, Mangala. 2014. “Neoliberalism and Water Rights: Case of India.” Current Sociology 62(3): 393411.