Sociality shock : fieldwork, social isolation, and the generation of theory

Šumi, Irena (author)

This paper reconsiders the epistemological foundations of anthropological theory by re-interpreting fieldwork not as a site of data collection, but as a condition of radical exposure and transformation. Drawing on both classical and contemporary sources from Malinowski’s Diary to recent work on affect and embodiment, it argues that the true origin of anthropological theorizing lies not in cultural observation per se, but in the fieldworker’s disorientation, estrangement, and social isolation. The term sociality shock is introduced to replace the misnomer “culture shock,” emphasizing that what the novice anthropologist experiences is not primarily cognitive or cultural, but affective and relational: the temporary loss of social intelligibility and existential anchoring in an unfamiliar social world. Far from being incidental, this vulnerable state becomes the engine of theoretical production. Against the backdrop of postmodern reflexivity and the politics of representation, the paper critiques earlier paradigms that framed fieldwork as either an objective science or a self-reflective narrative, arguing instead for a model of fieldwork as a structured epistemological ordeal. Drawing from phenomenology, postcolonial critique, and field-based testimonies, it proposes that theory emerges through embodied confrontation through the anthropologist’s gradual re-entry into sociality under novel terms, and the rebuilding of perspective from a position of self-induced social blindness. The argument culminates in a call to re-imagine fieldwork training and ethnographic pedagogy: not as a matter of mastering methods, but of preparing the ethnographer for dislocation, affective rupture, and epistemic reconstruction. Ultimately, this work reclaims theory not as a product of analytical distance, but as the outcome of having been undone and remade in the field.

• Language: English
• Keywords: epistemology, fieldwork, sociality shock, anthropological training, ethnographic pedagogy
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FSD - Faculty of Social Work
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 1-26
• Numbering: Vol. 31, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177816
• UDC: 572:37.013
• ISSN on article: 2232-3716
• DOI: 10.0.20.161/zenodo.18035330
• COBISS.SI-ID: 263916291
• Publication date in RUL: 08.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Anthropological notebooks
• Publisher: Društvo antropologov Slovenije, = Slovene Anthropological Society
• ISSN: 2232-3716
• COBISS.SI-ID: 256898816

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Avtorica preudarja epistemološke temelje antropološke teorije, kjer terenskega dela ne razume zgolj kot zbiranje podatkov, temveč kot stanje radikalne osebne izpostavljenosti in preobrazbe. Na podlagi klasičnih in sodobnih virov, od Dnevnika B. Malinowskega do razmislekov o afektu in utelešenosti, zagovarja tezo, da resnični izvor antropološkega teoretiziranja ne leži v opazovanju kot takem, temveč v terenski izkušnji dezorientacije, odtujenosti in družbene izolacije. Avtorica namesto neustreznega »kulturnega šoka« vpelje izraz družbeni šok (sociality shock) in poudarja, da izkušnja novinca na terenu ni prvenstveno kognitivna ali kulturna, temveč afektivna in relacijska: začasna izguba družbene razumljivosti in eksistencialnega sidrišča v neznanem medosebnem in družbenem svetu. To ranljivo stanje postane vir teoretske produkcije. Na ozadju post-modernistične refleksivnosti in politik reprezentacije izriše zgodnejše pristope, ki so terensko delo opredeljevali bodisi kot objektivno znanost bodisi kot samorefleksivno pripoved, ter predlaga model terenskega dela kot strukturirano epistemološko preizkušnjo. Ob upoštevanju fenomenologije, postkolonialne kritike in terenskih priče-vanj avtorica pokaže, da teorija nastaja skozi utelešeno soočenje: skozi postopen ponoven vstop antropologa v družbenost pod novimi pogoji, in v proces ponovne iz-gradnje osebne perspektive s položaja začetne družbene slepote. Poziva k prenovljene-mu izobraževanju in usposabljanju za pripravo etnografa na dislokacijo, afektivni prelom in epistemološko rekonstrukcijo.

• Keywords: epistemologija, terensko delo, družbenostni šok, utelešena produkcija znanja, antropološko usposabljanje, etnografska pedagogika