It has been said that ethnographies operate a dubious alchemy by transforming gold into lead, by translating the richness of field experience into a static text. Can we imagine ethnographic writing that opens possibilities, that acts as a generator of multiple meanings and narratives rather than as a trace of an interpretive process that has already passed? Plurivocality, co-construction of knowledge, and participatory approaches might address issues of authority, but in the end the ethnographic text still often feels as an end-result. What strategies have you employed, or would like to explore, that would rather make the ethnographic text a starting point for the production of multiple meanings?
I'm not an ethnographer, but very often, reading ethnographic and even scientific texts, I have the sensation they do not respect narrative structure, just to stick to academic patterns, that gives, most of the time, a totally boring, indigestible text.
I'm not an ethnographer, but very often, reading ethnographic and even scientific texts, I have the sensation they do not respect narrative structure, just to stick to academic patterns, that gives, most of the time, a totally boring, indigestible text.
I think Michael Uebel gives a very good steer with Lingis, the affective texture of whose work is very strong. Katy Stewart, in Ordinary Affects, writes quite differently from her more conventional A Space by the Side of the Road, but multiple meanings are certainly present. Of course, multiplicity is a quality of the research itself, and ethnographic writing is as much about allowing it to be as it is about creating it reflexively. Text is neither the end point nor the beginning, but a snapshot, always in the middle (Stewart's take is Deleuzian). Her view is more fragmentary, more explicitly poetic than narrative, and narrative ethnographers (like HL Goodall Jr, for example) have explored different forms of text to open their accounts up. Others have moved to theatre and documentary (even art) film, and there's a substantial body of work on the latter.
Ethnographers should report facts without artificial dressing.In places where language is a problem, competent language translators should be employed for proper and correct interpretations of subjects under examination.
Katherine,
I am interested in the CIE and even membership but cannot see how to contact them on their page regarding this, other than turning up at an event and speaking to someone there which can be a disincentive for those of us more distant from the events. Can you suggest how they may be contacted? Would you, for example , be willing to forward a message to them for me?
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