I personally love the idea of participant observation. It is so powerful to become a “part-of” in an immersive way over a long period of time.
Its riskiness is also fascinating to me as well. For example, I’m majoring in Religion and Cultural Studies, with a minor in Cognitive Science. I’ve learned that in the study of New Religious Movements or NRMs (which is held in contrast to the studies of Cults, because they have much different methodologies and aims even though they study the same groups) – is that there can be a danger of a researcher becoming a part of a “new religions movement/cult” without realizing it. They can become a spokesperson for the cult, sometimes even becoming manipulated by the new religious movement deliberately to cover up things they don’t want the world to see.
So it is useful and powerful and dangerous at the same time. I admire the commitment it takes and can imagine the great difficulity in being both participant while also attempting to hold a level of objectivity.
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