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Empathy

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We guide our work by a set of values:

  • Empathy: Understanding others’ perspectives is the cornerstone of our approach. It allows us to connect with people deeply, offering insights that resonate with their point of view

  • ‘Thick Description’: As theorized by Clifford Geertz, we strive to provide rich, contextualized accounts, treating every discourse within its broader cultural and social frameworks

  • Inclusivity: We take into account diverse perspectives across gender, age, and cultural backgrounds, aiming to find common ground and uncover the key structural concepts that unify human experience

 

The value of our work lies in our ability to provide rich, detailed insights into people’s experiences, attitudes, and behaviors. We reveal patterns that go unnoticed in quantitative data, helping anticipate trends and identify changes in consumer behavior. At the same time, we offer the context necessary to understand what shapes these attitudes, enabling to create truly meaningful and engaging experiences.

 

It is through direct conversations—whether with experts or laypeople, individually or in groups, online or face-to-face—that we approach our work. Whereas books and films offer valuable insights into the ways people navigate their personal histories and social environments, which often differ from our own experiences. Empathy, therefore, is a tool to remain aware of our personal biases as researchers shaped by different backgrounds.

 

Understanding others' perspectives is an ongoing effort, not a skill to master. The context of each story is always shifting. For instance, while we personally experienced the collapse of the Soviet system, the sense of opportunity we found in an opening society was starkly different from the disillusionment captured in Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time, which describes the collapse of people’s familiar world.

 

As researchers, we need to approach interactions with this sensitivity: behind opinions lies a complex interplay of personal history and societal pressures. We must listen not only to what is said but also to what remains unsaid—held back by personal history, cultural norms, or fear of judgment.

 

Empathy, in this sense, helps us create space for others to express themselves freely, without projecting our emotions onto them. This idea, central to Carl Rogers’s On Becoming a Person, emphasizes unconditional positive regard, allowing individuals to open up. Our goal is not to “gather data” but to understand the people behind it in their own words and on their terms.

 

Empathy also requires navigating the tension between individuality and broader societal forces. Richard Sennett’s The Corrosion of Character shows how modern work culture alienates people from their sense of self, prioritizing efficiency over connection. We must remain mindful of how external pressures—economic instability or social inequality—affect how people communicate and perceive the world.

 

Empathy is not merely an emotional response—it’s an intellectual tool that sharpens our ability to see the world from different angles. Thus, empathy is far more intellectually demanding than "naïve listening." We engage in conversations to understand someone’s viewpoint on their terms, constantly reflecting on what the interaction evokes in us and how we can bridge gaps in understanding.

 

Ultimately, human understanding is as much about listening as it is about creating space for different voices. It’s about asking the right questions and allowing for silences, recognizing the complexities that may not be immediately clear but require time, reflection, and openness. Empathy is both broad and specific—broad enough to encompass diverse experiences, yet adaptable to each unique individual.

 

"Le perspectivisme (tel que le définissait Nietzsche) est indépassable : chacun a sa vérité, ou plutôt chacun a la vérité de ses intérêts… Toutefois, il n’est pas impossible au sociologue de travailler à objectiver des expériences qu’il n’a pas faites lui-même, à condition évidemment de savoir d’emblée que le danger permanent est de s’identifier, de « se mettre à la place ». Or, s’il y a une erreur scientifique en sociologie, c’est celle-là ; on ne peut pas se mettre à la place des autres, et pour cause : on n’est pas à la même place. Par définition, un patron ne peut pas se mettre à la place d’un ouvrier, et réciproquement. Ils peuvent avoir une psychologie très compréhensive."

 

Pierre Bourdieu « Sociologie générale »

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