Assemblage Thinking in Lockdown: An Autoethnographic Approach

Abstract

Over the past year, COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed in its wake have meant that a range of research methodologies involving social contact could no longer be pursued. Whilst this time has been challenging, this article aims to showcase how it nonetheless presents opportunities for methodological innovation that can be carried forward into the future. Drawing upon an autoethnographic dissertation that sought to conceptualize the researcher’s lived experience in Scotland’s lockdown as an assemblage that was situated within, and intersected with, the wider “lockdown cultural assemblage,” it proceeds chronologically from how the research began to inductively drawn findings on shifts to lived experience produced by the lockdown across five interrelated dimensions to lived experience: embodiment, spatiality, temporality, a changing vocabulary of sociality, and narratological environment and broader context. In recounting this journey, it demonstrates how assemblage theory can both benefit from, as well as transform, autoethnography as its primary methodological strategy.

Stakeholder engagement during the COVID-19 crisis: perspectives from South Africa

“…While inherently subjective, the autoethnographic approach allows for analytical reflexivity and the incorporation of the researchers’ judgement, experience and professional expertise as an integral part of evaluating how corporate governance (Kosonen and Ikonen, 2022) and, specifically, stakeholder engagement are operationalized in the context of COVID-19 (Anderson, 2006). This should not be seen as a threat to validity and reliability but as an inherent feature of the subjective sense-making and analysis process that characterizes exploratory research executed in the interpretive tradition (see, for example, Laine, 2010; Ahrens and Chapman, 2006; Llewelyn, 2003; Khan, 2022).…”

Collegiality, emotional labour and compassion in the academy: an autoethnographic study of Covid-19

“…It is our belief that Covid-19 and its implications are still very raw and an account like ours helps map how the disruption in our professional and personal lives has shaped our teaching and professional experiences and can contribute to future research of what themes and questions might need to be explored further. We are not alone in this: Khan (2022) used an ethnographic methodology to map the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on the cultural knowledges and practices that guide the rhythms of everyday life while Zheng (2021) reflects on the friendliness and support experienced through Covid-19 lockdowns. Other autoethnographic accounts try to make sense of time during Covid-19 (Bolander and Smith, 2021) or of the use of technology and online platforms in teaching during the pandemic (Thorndahl and Frandsen, 2021).…”

De Gramáticas y Emergencias. Algunas cuestiones sobre etnografías situadas bajo condiciones de seguridad sanitaria

“…Por último, otros estudios asumieron el carácter de auto-etnografías en los mundos virtuales, focalizando tanto en el registro como los análisis tecno-biográficos respecto de diversos dominios de la vida cotidiana propia y de los contextos de proximidad presenciales y virtuales (balcones, viviendas, barrios, blogs, redes sociales, etc.) (Góralska 2020, Kahn 2022) En este trabajo se focaliza en aquel grupo de estudios, en los que la tecnología es entendida como mediación, es decir, en aquellos casos que, debido a ciertas condiciones extraordinarias, y/o diseños particulares de investigación, las formas excluyentes de comunicación y registro de los modos de vida, sus contextos y perspectivas se realiza a través de recursos tecnológicos (comunicaciones telefónicas, mensajes de textos y audios, video llamadas, etc.). Para esclarecer los procesos particulares de enunciación y comunicación, las lógicas de lo decible, audible e inteligible en estos estudios (Rancière 1996), se hace necesario analizar: a) las mediaciones tecnológicas en antropología, b) los fundamentos teóricos de las transformaciones y poderes de resolución que incluyen, c) las modificaciones en los registros de los vínculos, las diversidades y las éticas relacionales que despliegan en contextos segregados (Crivero y Favara 2021, Newman et.al.…”