Multi-sited research disrupted: chokepoints and the Panama Canal

‘Following’ methodologies have advanced qualitative research by offering tools for studying phenomena spanning multiple geographical locations, economic markets and institutional settings. But how does one ‘follow’ phenomena that are disrupted and torn apart or that disappear during the research process? In this article, I borrow the concept of chokepoints from Logistics literature to chart a pathway for multi-sited approaches to follow relations from sites of disruption. Bringing multi-sited research into conversation with critical geography, Logistics scholarship and anthropologies of infrastructure, this article develops new methodological tools for studying relationality. Specifically, I suggest a three-fold methodology for following disruptions to their source, historicising how relations came to be and borrowing from Donna Haraway, ‘staying with the trouble’ of inertias, temporary stops and hurdles. The methodology is illustrated through the example of the Panama Canal, a key site of disruption from which we can follow phenomena that are neither completely fluid nor fixed.