PDF (PhD Thesis) - UWE Research Repository - University of the ...

Moving towards Co-Inquiry through Sharing Poetry in the
Ward
The Washing Machine Leak
Into the floor
Falling down through a black hole
A floor so wet with tears
Of years and years
Just a washer at the back
Out of sight
Not quite so snug as it might
Dripping slowly with the pain of caring
Oh so silently so sparingly
Clare Hopkinson 13/2/04
At the start of the co-inquiry (March 2003), I fell through the floor of my
kitchen. A washer hadn‘t been fitted properly to the cold water supply at
the back of the washing machine causing a very slow leak that travelled
underneath the floor vinyl and rotted the floorboards. I was taken aback
that a small problem could cause a major disruption to my household. I
wrote the poem above about this experience and was surprised to find I
had unconsciously linked the emotional cost of caring. I was not aware of
this while crafting the poem. The poem questions the impact of caring, for
me as a nurse and teacher, and asks: what is the emotional labour of
caring (Smith 1991)? Hochschild (1983) originally proposed this term and
suggested in interpersonal relationships at work, people engage in the
management of their emotions, which she referred to as ―emotional work‖.
She carried out an empirical study on air-stewardesses and showed they
had to suppress feelings to sustain an outward appearance of conviviality
which she argued was an active and gendered process.
Later, I recognised the pattern of emotional labour in other poems I had
written (this insight came through re-reading and reflecting on the different
poems). On 3 further occasions during the inquiry years, I had problems
with flooding and started to wonder if these episodes were a metaphor so
81