Puttings things into words. Ethnographic description and the silence of the social

Abstract

The article defines a new referential problem of ethnographic description: the verbalization of the ''silent'' dimension of the social. As a documentary procedure, description has been devalued by more advanced recording techniques that set a naturalistic standard concerning the reification of qualitative ''data.'' I discuss this standard from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge and replace it by a challenge unknown to all empirical procedures relying on primary verbalizations of informants. Descriptions have to solve the problems of the voiceless, the silent, the unspeakable, the pre-linguistic, and the indescribable. Ethnography puts something into words, which did not exist in language before. To respond to this task, descriptions have to turn away from the logic of recording and develop into a theory-oriented research practice

Counting bodies? On future engagements with science studies in medical anthropology

“…I have stayed close to the concerns for health of the people with whom I worked and lived -concerns I came to care about by, indeed, moving with them in and outside of clinics. Yet I have still selectively translated: from Spanish to English, from what went unspoken to written words, from the practices of weighing and shopping into the practice of theory (see Hirschauer 2007). These are not neutral stories; they have been written to advance an argument: because people we care about are working to cultivate non-bodily forms of health, we, as analysts, should as well.…”

Speaking with things: encoded researchers, social data, and other posthuman concoctions

“…As our agency as researchers is increasing shared, distributed and supported by digital materialities, new ethical-political considerations come into play. As Hirschauer (2006) argues, technologies like recording devices have served to depreciate 'homemade' ethnographic description in favour of 'accurate' transcriptions, endangering sociology's claim to 'make a difference'. The retreat of this complex 'cultural technique' from ethnographic research practice, an observational writing activity honed only in the face of forgetfulness, is symptomatic of the rise of digital 'mnemotechnologies' currently destabilizing institutions (Stiegler 2011).…”

Experiencing Creativity in Organisations: A Practice Approach

“…Methodologically, the aim is to uncover the silent, latent and invisible relational space that ''lights up'' the meaningful activities that are visible. 23 Practices are a type of silence; they are things within a culture that are normatively kept just beneath the surface of language. It takes the form of an ''open secret'', but one that no one verbalises.…”