What’s love got to do with it? <i>Live methods</i> and researching with children who have experienced domestic abuse and social work intervention

When Tina Turner sang ‘What’s love got to do with it?’ she could have been singing about live methods . This article reflects on my experience as a reluctant ethnographer with children during COVID-19. I argue that it was ‘love’ for the community I was researching with that led me to use live methods . In this article I reflect on how love is the driving force in live methods . Taking inspiration from bell hooks, Audre Lorde and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, I explore how love does indeed have everything to do with live methods and is not ‘a second-hand emotion’ but can definitely break your heart. My reflections are based on an 18-month multimodal ethnography that I undertook for my PhD studies with children who have experienced domestic abuse and social care intervention. The multimodal ethnography began in March 2020 just as the restrictions for COVID-19 in the UK began. Whilst I had originally planned for in-person methods, the children and I had to quickly navigate and negotiate a way to continue the research. On reflection I can identify elements of Back and Puwar’s manifesto in my methods, but undergirding my research was something I now recognise as love. In this article I reflect how I reluctantly came to my methodology and methods not because of my sociological sensibilities but due to the love for the families I was researching with. I reflect and argue how love needs to underpin live methods .