The Uncertain Self in Ethnographic Research and Writing

This article asks the ethnographer to revisit questions about representing the self as an ethnographic researcher in the context of fieldwork, but especially in dialogue with readers through scholarly writing. How does - or can - the ethnographer maintain transparency about how their social position...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fieldwork in religion
Subtitles:Special Issue: Shifting Sites, Shifting Selves: The Intersections of Homes and Fields in the Ethnography of India
Main Author: Bachrach, Emilia (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Equinox [2020]
In: Fieldwork in religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 15, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 113-125
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Women ethnologists / Scientific working habits / Field-research / Self-image
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
ZA Social sciences
ZB Sociology
Further subjects:B ethnographic writing
B Reflexivity
B Self-representation
B positionality
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Description
Summary:This article asks the ethnographer to revisit questions about representing the self as an ethnographic researcher in the context of fieldwork, but especially in dialogue with readers through scholarly writing. How does - or can - the ethnographer maintain transparency about how their social positions shape their research questions, access to material and fieldwork spaces, conversation partners, and theorizing? Using a particular example of the author's own experience in misunderstanding the ways in which she was received by her interlocuters in the field, this article suggests that the ethnographer must rethink how the researcher self is formed by writing about the "messiness" of fieldwork, and not relying on simple statements of positionality in ethnographic writing.
ISSN:1743-0623
Contains:Enthalten in: Fieldwork in religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/firn.18355