When I started exploring water access in Senegal, the goal of my research was to test the legal-rational Weberian paradigm through an ethnography of the everyday experience of the State. In the central region of the country, a team of servants attached to the Water Supervisory Ministry were charged with the maintenance of water access. Citizens mostly depicted these agents as “caimans”: Greedy predators who were always asking for money. Witnessing illegal transactions on the field, yet they did not seem to all belong to the same moral world. Asking the protagonists to explain themselves always led to a dead end. Another type of ethnographic engagement was required. To access the inner life of the corporation, I came to work as an apprentice. Or, more accurately, to make sense of my presence I was offered the role of the apprentice by my informants. When it all began as a way of witnessing illegal transactions, my apprenticeship led me to build trust and feelings. As an apprentice, I became part of the moral economy of a particular group of street-level bureaucrats. Being an apprentice gave me a position where I could not only become a good observer or listener but a decent feeler. Accordingly, this article addresses ethnography not only as a method but as a positionality.

中文翻译：

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感觉像凯门鳄：腐败的身体体验

当我开始探索塞内加尔的水资源获取时，我的研究目标是通过对国家日常经验的民族志来测试法律理性的韦伯范式。在该国中部地区，隶属于水务监督部的一组仆人负责维护供水。公民大多将这些特工描述为“凯门鳄”：总是要钱的贪婪掠食者。现场目睹了非法交易，但他们似乎并不都属于同一个道德世界。要求主角自己解释总是会导致死胡同。需要另一种类型的民族志参与。为了进入公司的内部生活，我来当学徒。或者，更准确地说，为了理解我的存在，我的线人让我扮演学徒的角色。当这一切始于目睹非法交易的一种方式时，我的学徒生涯使我建立了信任和感情。作为一名学徒，我成为了一群特定的街头官僚的道德经济的一部分。作为一名学徒，我不仅可以成为一个好的观察者或倾听者，而且还可以成为一个体面的感觉者。因此，本文不仅将民族志作为一种方法，而且作为一种定位。