Working within hyphen-spaces in ethnographic researchimplications for research identities and practice

Resumo

Ethnographers often find themselves wrestling with choices about their relationship with respondents: choices experienced by researchers engaged in many other methodologies. This article examines the agentic and political nature of those relationships using the notion of hyphen-spaces: a concept that offers a way of recognizing their complexity, making choices about how to position ourselves and work within them, and understanding the implications for research identities and practice. Drawing on Fine's notion of working the hyphens and personal experience of ethnographic fieldwork in a tea plantation in Sri Lanka, we propose four hyphen-spaces of insiderness-outsiderness, sameness-difference, engagement-distance, and political activism-active neutrality. We believe an understanding of these relationships will help us become more informed and ethical researchers interested in engaging in different methodologies. Finally, we emphasize the fluid and agentic nature of researcher-respondent identities and the implications for practice.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Artigo científico

Ano

2013

Instituição

Sage Publications Inc

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Inglês

Acesso

Acesso restrito

DOI

10.1177/1094428113489353

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/23324

Palavras-chave

EthnographyQualitative researchInterpretivismConstructivismPsicologiaConstrutivismo (Psicologia)Pesquisa qualitativa