Pub Date : 2023-12-22DOI: 10.1177/14661381231222602
Harleen Kaur
In this autoethnography of ethnographic training and methodologies, I reflect upon unaddressed tensions in a Los Angeles County gurdwara ethnography, pursued as an intellectualized response to the 2012 Oak Creek gurdwara shooting. I theorize the gurdwara (and other similarly sociopolitically located spaces) as “already-surveilled,” where intimacy in a US white supremacist context must also be seen as a forced relation with the state surveillance apparatus. Analyzing field notes from the classroom and gurdwara, I offer three possible approaches to ethnographic inquiry: participant observation, bearing witness, and embodied conviction. I argue that, without an embodied approach, ethnographic approaches fail to incorporate analyses of power and precarity (the material), particularly for communities of belief (the immaterial). Finally, I offer a model for generating theoretical and methodological frameworks from embodied practices of belief or conviction—in this case, Sikh praxes of relation, knowing, and belief that are witnessed across various gurdwaras.
{"title":"Im/material and intimate relations: Considering ethnographic methodologies for already-surveilled communities","authors":"Harleen Kaur","doi":"10.1177/14661381231222602","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231222602","url":null,"abstract":"In this autoethnography of ethnographic training and methodologies, I reflect upon unaddressed tensions in a Los Angeles County gurdwara ethnography, pursued as an intellectualized response to the 2012 Oak Creek gurdwara shooting. I theorize the gurdwara (and other similarly sociopolitically located spaces) as “already-surveilled,” where intimacy in a US white supremacist context must also be seen as a forced relation with the state surveillance apparatus. Analyzing field notes from the classroom and gurdwara, I offer three possible approaches to ethnographic inquiry: participant observation, bearing witness, and embodied conviction. I argue that, without an embodied approach, ethnographic approaches fail to incorporate analyses of power and precarity (the material), particularly for communities of belief (the immaterial). Finally, I offer a model for generating theoretical and methodological frameworks from embodied practices of belief or conviction—in this case, Sikh praxes of relation, knowing, and belief that are witnessed across various gurdwaras.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":"3 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138944880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-15DOI: 10.1177/14661381231220212
Fatma Dogan Akkaya
Intergenerational ethnographic research poses several practical, epistemological, and ethical challenges. This study seeks to address these complexities by encouraging researchers to construct personalised ethnographic toolkits that provide insights into uncovering the complex subjectivities of research populations through intergenerational narratives. Based on over two years of research among the Turkish community in London, the study reveals compelling examples of symbolic communication used by individuals of different generations, genders, and social roles. Using various data collection methods, including interviews, observation, drawing, and television viewing, the research illustrates how this ethnic community uses language, fashion, and religion to integrate into multicultural environments and manifest their belonging in transnational contexts. By incorporating methodological tools such as unplanned moments, reflexivity, and positionality, the study aims to understand the underpinnings of cultural identity by examining how different generations respond to social conditions shaped by migration.
{"title":"The power of ethnographic toolkit in understanding transnational culture","authors":"Fatma Dogan Akkaya","doi":"10.1177/14661381231220212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231220212","url":null,"abstract":"Intergenerational ethnographic research poses several practical, epistemological, and ethical challenges. This study seeks to address these complexities by encouraging researchers to construct personalised ethnographic toolkits that provide insights into uncovering the complex subjectivities of research populations through intergenerational narratives. Based on over two years of research among the Turkish community in London, the study reveals compelling examples of symbolic communication used by individuals of different generations, genders, and social roles. Using various data collection methods, including interviews, observation, drawing, and television viewing, the research illustrates how this ethnic community uses language, fashion, and religion to integrate into multicultural environments and manifest their belonging in transnational contexts. By incorporating methodological tools such as unplanned moments, reflexivity, and positionality, the study aims to understand the underpinnings of cultural identity by examining how different generations respond to social conditions shaped by migration.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":"224 18","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138996920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-06DOI: 10.1177/14661381231220273
Anna Szolucha, Peter Timko, Chakad Ojani, Karlijn Korpershoek
The scales and categories of human activity are always evolving. The analytical and practical challenges that they pose for ethnographic theory and practice have the potential to consolidate as well as transform research methods and approaches. Drawing on our preliminary fieldwork, we explore how ethnographic practice can bring novel insights to the study of outer space, and map potential areas for future methodological innovation. We identify four challenges for ethnographic research in this context which coalesce around the themes of difference and controversy; connections and contingencies; absence and remoteness; as well as the local and the extraterrestrial. Our aim is to demonstrate that ethnographic practice is not only well-suited for engaging with outer space, but also useful for a critical analysis of some of the most fundamental paradigms of human understanding.
{"title":"Ethnographic research of outer space: Challenges and opportunities","authors":"Anna Szolucha, Peter Timko, Chakad Ojani, Karlijn Korpershoek","doi":"10.1177/14661381231220273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231220273","url":null,"abstract":"The scales and categories of human activity are always evolving. The analytical and practical challenges that they pose for ethnographic theory and practice have the potential to consolidate as well as transform research methods and approaches. Drawing on our preliminary fieldwork, we explore how ethnographic practice can bring novel insights to the study of outer space, and map potential areas for future methodological innovation. We identify four challenges for ethnographic research in this context which coalesce around the themes of difference and controversy; connections and contingencies; absence and remoteness; as well as the local and the extraterrestrial. Our aim is to demonstrate that ethnographic practice is not only well-suited for engaging with outer space, but also useful for a critical analysis of some of the most fundamental paradigms of human understanding.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138596805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/14661381221134417
Catherine Larouche
In Uttar Pradesh, many middle-class Muslims increasingly view local and transnational religious giving as a pragmatic way to create tangible socioeconomic improvements in the lives of underprivileged Muslims and mitigate their growing marginalization in India. How does their turn toward transnational religious giving influence their perception of the state’s responsibilities regarding social welfare provision? Based on ethnographic fieldwork research with registered non-profit organizations collecting and distributing Islamic alms (zakat and sadaqa) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, this article examines how local and transnational religious giving affects the ways in which members of these Muslim philanthropic organizations imagine citizenship and welfare responsibilities in India. Distributive practices within these organizations show a dual focus on fostering Muslims’ economic independence and self-sufficiency by mobilizing local and transnational charitable networks on the one hand and improving access to state welfare on the other. The co-existence of these somewhat divergent strategies suggests that while the state is considered partial and uncaring, it also remains viewed as an indispensable welfare provider. More generally, these observations bring forth a discussion on the extent and effects of the transnationalisation and privatisation of welfare in globally connected South-Asia.
{"title":"Autonomous care? Muslim transnational giving networks and perceptions of welfare responsibilities in India","authors":"Catherine Larouche","doi":"10.1177/14661381221134417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381221134417","url":null,"abstract":"In Uttar Pradesh, many middle-class Muslims increasingly view local and transnational religious giving as a pragmatic way to create tangible socioeconomic improvements in the lives of underprivileged Muslims and mitigate their growing marginalization in India. How does their turn toward transnational religious giving influence their perception of the state’s responsibilities regarding social welfare provision? Based on ethnographic fieldwork research with registered non-profit organizations collecting and distributing Islamic alms (zakat and sadaqa) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, this article examines how local and transnational religious giving affects the ways in which members of these Muslim philanthropic organizations imagine citizenship and welfare responsibilities in India. Distributive practices within these organizations show a dual focus on fostering Muslims’ economic independence and self-sufficiency by mobilizing local and transnational charitable networks on the one hand and improving access to state welfare on the other. The co-existence of these somewhat divergent strategies suggests that while the state is considered partial and uncaring, it also remains viewed as an indispensable welfare provider. More generally, these observations bring forth a discussion on the extent and effects of the transnationalisation and privatisation of welfare in globally connected South-Asia.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":"24 1","pages":"389 - 406"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43280235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-11DOI: 10.1177/14661381231181625
Patricia Tevington, W. J. Davis, Jennifer Brown Urban, M. Linver
This paper reflects on the possibilities and limits of a team-based, multi-site, evaluative ethnography. In this study, a team of qualitative researchers deployed participant observation methods to assess the level of standardization and local adaptation in the training curriculum for adult leaders in the Boy Scouts of America. While the umbrella organization remained consistent over the course of the 12-months project, researchers completed intense intervals of observation in 13 different settings across the United States over the course of a year. We reflect on the benefits and challenges that fast-paced, evaluative ethnographic approaches offer for applied settings as well as insight into the complexities of team-based field work with regards to positionality, legitimacy, and relationships between researchers.
{"title":"“Been there, done that but also not quite:” Discoveries and limitations in an evaluative, short-term, and multi-sited ethnography of the boy scouts of America","authors":"Patricia Tevington, W. J. Davis, Jennifer Brown Urban, M. Linver","doi":"10.1177/14661381231181625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231181625","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reflects on the possibilities and limits of a team-based, multi-site, evaluative ethnography. In this study, a team of qualitative researchers deployed participant observation methods to assess the level of standardization and local adaptation in the training curriculum for adult leaders in the Boy Scouts of America. While the umbrella organization remained consistent over the course of the 12-months project, researchers completed intense intervals of observation in 13 different settings across the United States over the course of a year. We reflect on the benefits and challenges that fast-paced, evaluative ethnographic approaches offer for applied settings as well as insight into the complexities of team-based field work with regards to positionality, legitimacy, and relationships between researchers.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45087373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-30DOI: 10.1177/14661381231185943
M. Hertoghs
This paper offers a glimpse into the affective work inherent in the practices, objects, and institutional design of the Dutch procedure for seeking and granting asylum. In doing so, I develop the concept of suspicious compassion to make sense of the productive tensions and affects generated in the process of subjecting applicants to a meticulously designed procedural itinerary. Along this itinerary, applicants must ‘open up’ to different immigration officers, who gather and interrogate distressing and intimate information, and inscribe such information in the reports that travel to the next stop on the itinerary. While applicants wait, their accounts are scrutinized by officers in the quiet of ‘objective’ decision-making. By following the procedural itinerary and analyzing the affective complex of suspicious compassion, I contribute to scholarship on asylum and suspicion, and to the study of intimacy and affect in state bureaucracies, moving beyond a focus on single emotions and individual feelings.
{"title":"Suspicious compassion: On affect and state power in the Dutch asylum procedure","authors":"M. Hertoghs","doi":"10.1177/14661381231185943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231185943","url":null,"abstract":"This paper offers a glimpse into the affective work inherent in the practices, objects, and institutional design of the Dutch procedure for seeking and granting asylum. In doing so, I develop the concept of suspicious compassion to make sense of the productive tensions and affects generated in the process of subjecting applicants to a meticulously designed procedural itinerary. Along this itinerary, applicants must ‘open up’ to different immigration officers, who gather and interrogate distressing and intimate information, and inscribe such information in the reports that travel to the next stop on the itinerary. While applicants wait, their accounts are scrutinized by officers in the quiet of ‘objective’ decision-making. By following the procedural itinerary and analyzing the affective complex of suspicious compassion, I contribute to scholarship on asylum and suspicion, and to the study of intimacy and affect in state bureaucracies, moving beyond a focus on single emotions and individual feelings.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46682720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-28DOI: 10.1177/14661381231186003
Sam Kniknie
Since the ‘performative turn’ in social sciences, ethnographers have extensively studied how performances both constitute the subject and method of social theory but rarely understood the political potential that lies in it for research participants. This article looks at how young urban activists in the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (hereafter Congo) politically appropriated performances that were initially meant as a research tool. Using audiovisual methods, this article analyzes three musical performances that were part of collaborative ethnographic research with a political youth group in Goma’s urban periphery. The members of this group used songs produced during the research process to create new identities and subvert political labels applied to them by outsiders. While this political storytelling of the self is an imperfect process, it signifies how ethnographic knowledge is not simply representational but always (co-)produced and performative.
{"title":"Performing political stories of the self: Subverting identities in the city of Goma, DR Congo","authors":"Sam Kniknie","doi":"10.1177/14661381231186003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231186003","url":null,"abstract":"Since the ‘performative turn’ in social sciences, ethnographers have extensively studied how performances both constitute the subject and method of social theory but rarely understood the political potential that lies in it for research participants. This article looks at how young urban activists in the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (hereafter Congo) politically appropriated performances that were initially meant as a research tool. Using audiovisual methods, this article analyzes three musical performances that were part of collaborative ethnographic research with a political youth group in Goma’s urban periphery. The members of this group used songs produced during the research process to create new identities and subvert political labels applied to them by outsiders. While this political storytelling of the self is an imperfect process, it signifies how ethnographic knowledge is not simply representational but always (co-)produced and performative.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46404091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-25DOI: 10.1177/14661381231185937
Muhammad Bilal
In this article, I explore the reflexive tensions of a Muslim Anthropologist who conducted an ethnography of blasphemy in his own backyard exploring the predicament of fellow Christian Pakistanis in the face of growing blasphemy allegations. My authorial voice influenced by fluid emotional and religious frontiers raised certain critical questions such as how to reconcile my faith, personal judgment, and representation and how to keep a distinction between my positionality as a researcher and an advocate for my faith at a significant juncture when Islam and Pakistan became a focus of the world’s anxiety endangering religious freedom and safety of minorities. The article employs case study and narrative inquiry as a merged method to develop a critical narrative perspective on the blasphemy politics in Pakistan. I suggest that although my faith as an epistemological tool allowed me to investigate the intricacies and nuances surrounding the blasphemy accusations and victims’ plight, my ethnographic revelations could be subject to the severe criticism that I think is an inherent feature of postmodern ethnography.
{"title":"The field site as a religious frontier: Negotiating blasphemy accusations and reflexive tensions in Pakistan","authors":"Muhammad Bilal","doi":"10.1177/14661381231185937","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231185937","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I explore the reflexive tensions of a Muslim Anthropologist who conducted an ethnography of blasphemy in his own backyard exploring the predicament of fellow Christian Pakistanis in the face of growing blasphemy allegations. My authorial voice influenced by fluid emotional and religious frontiers raised certain critical questions such as how to reconcile my faith, personal judgment, and representation and how to keep a distinction between my positionality as a researcher and an advocate for my faith at a significant juncture when Islam and Pakistan became a focus of the world’s anxiety endangering religious freedom and safety of minorities. The article employs case study and narrative inquiry as a merged method to develop a critical narrative perspective on the blasphemy politics in Pakistan. I suggest that although my faith as an epistemological tool allowed me to investigate the intricacies and nuances surrounding the blasphemy accusations and victims’ plight, my ethnographic revelations could be subject to the severe criticism that I think is an inherent feature of postmodern ethnography.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45604491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1177/14661381231180069
Daromir Rudnyckyj
For nearly a century, anthropologists have been preoccupied with the gift. So much so, that one of the signature contributions of the subfield of economic anthropology has been to remind the human sciences at large of its importance, not only in nonindustrial societies but in contemporary settings as well. By illuminating the importance of gift-giving in Kwakwakaʼwakw potlach ceremonies to understand social and political relationships, the discipline was able to cast a reflection by which it could better grasp the role that reciprocity plays in the contemporary world. Thus, the role of Christmas or birthday presents in forging social relations or the ostentatious white tiger and cheetah furs (later determined to be fakes) presented to former US president Donald Trump on his first diplomatic visit with the Saudi royal family could be understood through the optics afforded by attention to the gift. The central insight that the foregrounding of gift exchanges generated was that not every transaction, even in liberal market societies, could be reduced to rational economic calculations. Rather, social or political systems were produced through material-semiotic relationships mediated through gift exchange. The essays collected here, however, move beyondmerely rehashing the long-established anthropological truism that reciproicity is indispensable to the formation of social and political ties. Indeed, in highlighting transnational giving the essays make three critical interventions that illustrate the enduring importance of the gift in economic anthropology. First, they illustrate the importance of thinking about the gift on a transnational scale. Second, they deepen our understanding of the role of gifts and charity in coalescing collective identities, not only in in terms of local communities but in broader national, diasporic and global terms as well. And, third, the essays draw attention to the fact that not all transnational or global economic exchanges can be understood through the same logics that we comprehend market relationships. In making these interventions, the essays reveal
{"title":"Reconsidering recipocity and capitalism","authors":"Daromir Rudnyckyj","doi":"10.1177/14661381231180069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231180069","url":null,"abstract":"For nearly a century, anthropologists have been preoccupied with the gift. So much so, that one of the signature contributions of the subfield of economic anthropology has been to remind the human sciences at large of its importance, not only in nonindustrial societies but in contemporary settings as well. By illuminating the importance of gift-giving in Kwakwakaʼwakw potlach ceremonies to understand social and political relationships, the discipline was able to cast a reflection by which it could better grasp the role that reciprocity plays in the contemporary world. Thus, the role of Christmas or birthday presents in forging social relations or the ostentatious white tiger and cheetah furs (later determined to be fakes) presented to former US president Donald Trump on his first diplomatic visit with the Saudi royal family could be understood through the optics afforded by attention to the gift. The central insight that the foregrounding of gift exchanges generated was that not every transaction, even in liberal market societies, could be reduced to rational economic calculations. Rather, social or political systems were produced through material-semiotic relationships mediated through gift exchange. The essays collected here, however, move beyondmerely rehashing the long-established anthropological truism that reciproicity is indispensable to the formation of social and political ties. Indeed, in highlighting transnational giving the essays make three critical interventions that illustrate the enduring importance of the gift in economic anthropology. First, they illustrate the importance of thinking about the gift on a transnational scale. Second, they deepen our understanding of the role of gifts and charity in coalescing collective identities, not only in in terms of local communities but in broader national, diasporic and global terms as well. And, third, the essays draw attention to the fact that not all transnational or global economic exchanges can be understood through the same logics that we comprehend market relationships. In making these interventions, the essays reveal","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":"24 1","pages":"450 - 453"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48572338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-08DOI: 10.1177/14661381231178866
Anselma Gallinat
This article was prompted by a question: how can one be anthropologist when access to the field is denied? Drawing on the experiences of the author, who experienced a number of losses including access to the field during the COVID-19 pandemic, it shines a light on how, in a context of anthropology at home, intimate knowledge and memory fragments can be used to draw the field nearer when physical access is denied. In doing so, it reflects on how senses of home often go deeper than usually acknowledged. It suggests that knowledges produced at the hearths of homes become embodied aspects of ourselves that come into play especially in anthropology at home but that are always part and parcel of our engagement with the worlds around us. This in turn prompts the question of whether the old argument that fieldwork at home may preclude necessary analytical distance, still holds value.
{"title":"I am anthropologist – But where is the field? On fieldwork, intimacy, and home","authors":"Anselma Gallinat","doi":"10.1177/14661381231178866","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381231178866","url":null,"abstract":"This article was prompted by a question: how can one be anthropologist when access to the field is denied? Drawing on the experiences of the author, who experienced a number of losses including access to the field during the COVID-19 pandemic, it shines a light on how, in a context of anthropology at home, intimate knowledge and memory fragments can be used to draw the field nearer when physical access is denied. In doing so, it reflects on how senses of home often go deeper than usually acknowledged. It suggests that knowledges produced at the hearths of homes become embodied aspects of ourselves that come into play especially in anthropology at home but that are always part and parcel of our engagement with the worlds around us. This in turn prompts the question of whether the old argument that fieldwork at home may preclude necessary analytical distance, still holds value.","PeriodicalId":47573,"journal":{"name":"Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43246048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}