ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the key frameworks and theoretical concepts that inform the analysis of the salsa circuit throughout this book, as well as the methodology and methods chosen to conduct research. The first section consists of a thorough review of literature on salsa, building on existing literature from a musicological, social anthropological and post-colonial perspective. The second section clarifies the chosen theoretical perspectives concerning mobility, ethnicity and gender. It briefly revisits the reflections from the field of (transnational) migration studies relevant to this study, namely the development of a transnational perspective as an epistemological stance based on the critique of “methodological nationalism”. Further, it discusses recent conceptualisations of (im)mobility in the heterogeneous field of mobility studies, which consider several forms of human movement in one theoretical framework. The field of the salsa circuit necessitated a specific set of methodological moves, between field sites, the virtual world and dance floors, and between participant and observer. The third section explains how I conducted the multi-sited study at salsa events in Europe and Cuba, including multiple research phases over a period of three years. This book is based on short-term, embodied research and qualitative interviews with 36 female and male salsa dancers holding different positions in the salsa circuit.
