An Ethnographer Lured into Darkness

Abstract

No matter the combination of methods ethnographers bring to their research design and to participant observation, our pursuit to log, interpret, analyse and present the lives of those we meet is never an entirely intellectual or objective one. Ethnographic fieldwork is intimately sensory (Pink, 2015), invokes our imagination (Sparkes, 2009) and requires us to actively navigate social landscapes (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). There is a tendency for these elements to fade in terms of visibility and immediacy within the research process. For those in accord with Davies (2008), continuous reflexive labour becomes a core praxis to monitor the ways we observe and participate in this textured environment. Without this, we are left in the dark and are less able to see how we can (or should) respond to the nitty-gritty qualitative nature of ethnography. In this Chapter, two of methodological vignettes will act as entry points to unpack a set of tensions that commanded my attention during an eighteen month ethnography in Higher Education. 'You Look Like an Ivory Tower Student', for example, begins to troubleshoot ethnographic participation within educational environments. 'Going Dark', on the other hand, problematises the prioritisation of visual observations that are implicit in ethnographic tradition. Throughout these discussions a metaphor of being lured into darkness is offered as a productive orientation for ethnography.

Moving Sensory Ethnography Online

“…This question raises a complex range of methodological (and theoretical) challengesmany of which are explored in Sarah Pink's (2015) seminal text. As shown through the research experiences shared in this chapter, and as I have discussed elsewhere (see Barker, 2020), the appropriateness and value of exploring the senses through technology are relative to the specific contexts, aims, and emerging themes of the ethnography. There are few, if any, generalizable truths in response to this vexing question.…”

“…There were two key differences that framed the online sensory ethnography phase of the research that posed challenges for becoming a tactile apprentice. The first and most immediate was the physical distance between my body, that I view as the instrument of ethnographic data collection and knowledge generation (see Barker, 2020), and the sensory environments where the participants are located. This distance meant that I could no longer directly touch and be touched.…”