Agency and Agendas: Revisiting the Roles of the Researcher and the Researched in Ethnographic Fieldwork
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3138/anth.591.A03Keywords:
agency, ethnographic method, observer effect, positionality, reflexivity, slow ethnographyAbstract
Drawing on the authors' research experiences, and using Anna Tsing's (2005) concept of “friction,” this article considers how ethnographic research is an essentially collaborative project. Ethnographic knowledge is generated by researchers and their (intended) participants – our agencies and agendas – come together to co-create a field of research. We argue that how these contextually embedded agendas align, differ, and/or diverge deeply shapes ethnographic knowledge. We also consider the effects of ethnographic legacies: of past ethnographers on their contemporaries; of the ideal, “slow” ethnographic approach for researchers working outside of academia; and of the future afterlives of our own work.
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