Proximity and positionality: situating knowledge through the experiences of quantitative air quality data collectors working in participants’ homes
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Shurety, Elara
Kelly, Frank J
Varaden, Diana
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Data collection is a vital part of the research process, and those who conduct this work play a foundational role in shaping research. Despite this, the experiences and perspectives of frontline data collectors are often left underexamined by research teams and in wider literature. This paper presents the findings of a reflexive, qualitative study of 10 fieldworkers from a research project examining indoor air quality and childhood asthma in London, where multi-method quantitative data collection was undertaken in the homes of 110 participating households. Throughout, this paper underscores how fieldworkers’ positionalities influence both the emotional intensities of data collections and the production of knowledge. It examines the epistemic opportunities for research teams that can be gained from attuning to fieldworkers’ insights. Through attuning to place, this paper underscores the significance of the research setting, focusing here on the home-based data collection. This is considered with reference to the fields of environmental health, exposure science, and public health, where the growing interest in indoor ecologies and the intersection of housing and health necessitates an appraisal of home-based quantitative data collection.
Date Issued
2026-08-01
Date Acceptance
2026-04-28
Citation
Social Science and Medicine, 2026, 402
ISSN
0277-9536
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Social Science and Medicine
Volume
402
Copyright Statement
© 2026 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/42105402
PII: S0277-9536(26)00418-1
Subjects
Data collectors
Fieldwork
Homes
Methodologies
Positionality
Quantitative
Humans
Air Pollution, Indoor
London
Housing
Data Collection
Asthma
Qualitative Research
Child
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
119342
Date Publish Online
2026-04-29