Practices of Writing in Ethnographic Work

Abstract

Although the practice of writing is key to the production of ethnographic knowledge, the topic remains understudied. Using material from our own ethnographic research in the fields of air travel and cultural heritage as data, we develop a reflexive account of ethnographic writing. We examine in detail the practices of jotting down observations, writing field notes, analytic annotating, ordering and rearranging, and drafting and revising papers. The article takes a praxeological stance, conceptualizing writing as a practice that is simultaneously cognitive, embodied, and material. Our analysis finds that writing influences and shapes all stages of ethnographic work, from orienting perception by setting an appropriate mode of attention to organizing the work itself, e.g., by keeping to-do lists. Writing does not simply communicate ethnographic insights, but—as a result of the activity of texts—it also generates them.

Practices of Ethnographic Research: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…The Special Issue includes six contributions: Larissa Schindler and Hilmar Schäfer (2020) show that practices of writing play a key role in producing ethnographic knowledge. The authors reconstruct the cognitive, embodied, and material dimensions of jotting down and writing field notes, transcribing and annotating, and drafting and authoring papers, and they show how these practices connect theoretical and empirical work and bridge the different stages of the ethnographic research process.…”

Material Practices of Ethnographic Presence

“…In contrast, scholars influenced by STS have started more recently to turn to practices of writing in all its different material forms and usages in ethnographic work. For instance, Schindler and Schäfer (2020) show that practices of writing such as jotting, annotating, drafting, or revising influence and shape all stages of ethnographic work. However, even STS-inspired work has not yet linked the production of fieldnotes to the making of ethnographic presence, which is of particular relevance with regard to condensed notes.…”

“…Instead, epistemic practices also rely on technical instruments, spatial architectures, and material arrangements that are taken for granted and therefore are ignored in research reports and publications (e. g., Knorr Cetina 1981; Latour 1987; Latour and Woolgar 1986). While the focus of STS was initially limited to the natural sciences, more recent research has begun to investigate the social sciences (Law 2004; Law and Urry 2004) including qualitative and ethnographic methods (Engert and Krey 2013; Kalthoff 2013; Liegl and Wagner 2013; Schindler and Schäfer 2020; Tutt and Hindmarsh 2011). In applying insights from STS, these studies have offered analyses of the materiality of ethnographic knowledge production, focusing particularly on fieldnotes and on writing practices.…”

“…In applying insights from STS, these studies have offered analyses of the materiality of ethnographic knowledge production, focusing particularly on fieldnotes and on writing practices. Schindler and Schäfer (2020), for instance, show how writing practices in ethnographic research are simultaneously cognitive, embodied, and material. In reconsidering field notes, Kalthoff (2013) investigates how the material organization of field notes actively contributes to the perception of what has been written down.…”

“… 2 By using empirical data from my own ethnographic research in different fields, I follow the suggestion to reflect on research practices rather than on the person of the researcher (Schindler and Schäfer 2020). …”