Rapport Is Overrated: Southwestern Ethnic Art Dealers and Ethnographers in the “Field”

Abstract

Approaches to issues of how, why, and with whom ethnographers establish and maintain "rapport" have often assumed that gaining entry, establishing trust, and maintaining relations with informants would reveal other worlds through the "truth" of their words. But what of contested social worlds where the contradictions and contestations between others' words reveal other worlds? If ethnography reveals contested and competing constructions of social and cultural realities in process and contradictory multiple truths in creation, then what of rapport? This article explores the nonimportance of establishing and maintaining "traditional" versions of rapport with wholesale and retail ethnic art dealers who navigate a "field" of transnational cultural and social spaces, informing the production, marketing, and consumption of Zapotec textiles. Alternatively, rapport is understood as an expression of a pattern of connections that reveals other worlds through the nuanced, contradictory, and competing nature of assertions about the truth.

Upward turning points and positive rapport-development across time in researcher—participant relationships

“…Establishing a relationship built on trust is thus not only desirable but also may be a necessary condition to ensure validity or trustworthiness in naturalistic research (noteworthy exceptions can be found in Springwood and King's [2001] special issue on building rapport in critical ethnography). Despite prevailing discourses on the importance of building rapport, some researchers have critiqued the traditional practices of rapport building (Wood, 2001) while others have questioned its necessity (Venkateswar, 2001).…”

Negotiating the farmland dilemmas: ‘barefoot planners’ in China’s urban periphery

“…A case-study method is best applied to find exceptions rather than to make generalisations (Flyvbjerg, 2001;Popper, 2002Popper, [1959) and seems to best fit the intention of this study, in that it seeks to target a limited number of cases rather than a sizable sample of observations. Moreover, gaining an in-depth understanding of the cases requires the researcher to interact closely and establish rapports with the local actors (Springwood and King, 2001;Wood, 2001). Because connections and trust take considerable time and resources to build up, only a small number of cases could be included.…”

Language Use and Participatory Research

“…Hence, anthropologists and collaborators do not interact as just researcher‐subjects but as individuals sharing biographies and experiences in which they rely on each other and work toward common goals. As Wood (2001, 485) argues, building rapport is overrated that “in a single conversation, an ‘ethnic art dealer’ created levels of distrust that I might never overcome.” Whether working to gain rapport with informants or building trust and confidence with collaborators, all is fundamentally in the service of obtaining reliable ethnographic data. In the end, however, we still may run the risk of wrecking it all by misspeaking or never presenting ourselves and our projects in understandable ways that actually build rapport and foster trust.…”