This research project is conducted as a descriptive case study with the aim to provide an understanding on how knowledge production takes form within Work Integrated Political Studies (WIPS), and by extension, Work Integrated Learning (WIL). Specifically, it seeks to provide a hermeneutical understanding on how political knowledge production takes form when a work placement is situated within academia (and when the employment trajectory is that of an academic career), as opposed to a non-academic career.

The collected data are field notes taken throughout my 7 months’ work placement (09/2020-04/2021) at the Department for Political Studies at University West: Trollhättan, Sweden. The field notes have been produced based on an autoethnographic method. Guided by the background of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s “Elements of a Theory of Hermeneutic Experience”, the analysis is conducted based on an abductive approach to the autoethnographic methodology.

The analysis derives concepts from the field notes which reveals that when a work placement is situated within academia, then knowledge production can be understood as (a) rigorous, as it demands thorough groundwork, (b) transformative, as knowledge is accumulated along with the production, (c) conscious, as it makes the researcher aware of the idiosyncrasies that are connected to the subject matter under inquiry, and (d) responsive, as it acknowledges issues in need of being addressed.