Sitting Through Discomfort: Reflexivity on Research With Dangerous Men in Danger Zones

This work draws on the methodological complexities of listening to, and holding space, for 32 coloured men who self-identify as gangsters and who subsequently sustained a permanent spinal cord injury (SCI) as a result of violence. The men all reside in peri-urban neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa (SA). Life story interviews focused on their journeys of becoming violent men, and the meanings they attached to constructions of masculinities, before and after their injury. Using feminist epistemological and ontological approaches, I reflect on moments of sitting through discomfort in doing research with dangerous men. The discomfort of sitting in these interview settings fosters a lens of sensitivity to the physiological details and bodily performances through which narratives of traumatic experiences are told and analysed. Furthermore, the discomfort of sitting through stories of pain and suffering also impacts the content, direction, and shape of the narrative. Grounded within a pedagogy of discomfort, this form of ‘sitting’ helps show the significance of vulnerability for the (co)production of knowledge, and expands on the nuances in researching interpersonal violence, trauma, and ‘becoming’.