So, Carolin made an excellent point on my last post and it made me think a little harder about what I was saying. I realised that I am not really doing an ethnography, but rather I am using ethnographic methods (observation, shadowing, archival and document analysis, etc.) to draw out and develop an understanding of what I see happening. [Does this point up the difference between method and methodology?]
This fits well with the practice-based perspective on knowledge that I have been pursuing for some time now and also means that I do not need to exile myself any further. This practice perspective means that I can acknowledge that I interpret new experiences (including my research findings) through the lens(es) of my previous experiences and understandings of the world, rather than disregarding (or trying to discount) my conceptual underpinnings.
I still get to wear my hat but I wear it to set me apart from everyone else, so it's really not an ethnographer's hat. The up-side of all this is that I don't have to "strip down", which I'm sure is a great relief to everyone! (Especially me... it gets very cold here in winter!)
Showing posts with label exile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exile. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Eat the Cabbage
I used to blog fairly regularly and then I fell out of the habit. So now I have decided that it is time to start again.
'Researcher in Exile' is where I will keep some sort of open field journal relating to my research and my life. (In fact, I have lately found myself wondering if the two are actually different. The jury's still out on that one.) My exile is a strange and multi-faceted thing: self-imposed; a reward; a burden; physical; mental; conceptual; theoretical; practical; hypothetical; emotional; material.
I knew that I would face homesickness and that I would miss my family (and sometimes, being so far away causes me physical pain). What I did not expect to miss the people in my research network so much! At home, I would often go several weeks without physically seeing one of them, but we would be in regular contact by phone, skype or IM. I've still got that regular electronic contact with them. But now, I find myself surrounded by people who understand the world from a very different perspective to mine.
On the surface, there are only superficial differences between here and home. In fact, I quite like it here. On a conceptual level, however, I feel like I am marooned on an island with a village full of vegetarians, and I'm the cabbage! I want the cabbage to grow; they want to eat the cabbage.
'Researcher in Exile' is where I will keep some sort of open field journal relating to my research and my life. (In fact, I have lately found myself wondering if the two are actually different. The jury's still out on that one.) My exile is a strange and multi-faceted thing: self-imposed; a reward; a burden; physical; mental; conceptual; theoretical; practical; hypothetical; emotional; material.
I knew that I would face homesickness and that I would miss my family (and sometimes, being so far away causes me physical pain). What I did not expect to miss the people in my research network so much! At home, I would often go several weeks without physically seeing one of them, but we would be in regular contact by phone, skype or IM. I've still got that regular electronic contact with them. But now, I find myself surrounded by people who understand the world from a very different perspective to mine.
On the surface, there are only superficial differences between here and home. In fact, I quite like it here. On a conceptual level, however, I feel like I am marooned on an island with a village full of vegetarians, and I'm the cabbage! I want the cabbage to grow; they want to eat the cabbage.
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