Introduction

This introduction to the special section on ‘Transnational family ties and accompanied research in anthropological field research’ deals with research that is conducted in the company of family members. It is a topic that, although still marginalized, is receiving increasing attention, as the review of the literature on the subject to date in the paper shows. Accompanied field research leads to collaborative knowledge production and raises important ethical questions that need to be explored further. Reflections on the multifaceted realities of anthropologists, including the impact of their family ties in research settings, provide important insights into positionality, relationality and family normativity. This introduction underscores the importance of theoretical and epistemological discussions of accompanied fieldwork and explores the reasons why they are still scarce and often ignored. The special section takes into account the realities of transnational researchers. All articles are co-authored by researchers with transnational family ties. The authors have conducted research in their spouses’ countries of origin, accompanied by their partners and children. They discuss how this research setting influences their positionality as researchers, highlighting the role of their spouses and other family members in anthropological knowledge production. The articles are the results of a panel of the working group ‘Family in the field’ at the conference of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA) 2023.