In this presentation I will discuss the question of the politics of doing research and consider the political role of the researcher. The researcher is not any more presumed to be the objective observer behind the curtains but instead to be aware of one´s starting points. In this presentation I am interested in the question of the active subject position of the researcher.

The presentation begins with the examination on how a researcher gets involved in the storytelling during a research project in a "multicultural" suburban housing area in the City of Turku. These thoughts of the empirical research project will be intertwined with a political theatre play "Appartment 27”. In the making of the documentary play the artists looked for the true immigrant stories and the essence of a suburban area. Instead they ended up facing their own prejudices during the process. As the actors observed themselves so has the researcher meet some naive thoughts during the research project. These findings will be discussed with relation to Alain Badiou´s writings on culturalism as becoming enchanted by the differences of the ”other”. The presentation will be based on an effort to follow Roland Barthes´ footsteps in doing research where there is an new method for every new research story.