The question of positioning between the research Self and the research Othe
r is a much discussed issue within qualitative research, especially within
ethnographic approaches. Yet what is distinctive about many of these accoun
ts is that they begin their respective analyses from a concrete level. In o
ther words, many who champion placing their Self in the research process do
so by focusing upon face-to-face encounters between their Self and the Oth
er. This often entails a rejection of a positivist and objectivist informed
accounts of social research in favour of a more humanist approach. This la
tter standpoint, humanism, is certainly interested in themes such as bias,
power, regulation and domination constructed during the research process. B
ut the structured, layered and ideological nature of the research context i
tself, namely its non-humanist properties, is often neglected in humanist e
xplanations in favour of the more concrete interpretive moment. What this a
mounts to is a lack of sensitivity towards the positioning of Self and Othe
r by the unobservable and ideological structures of a specific research con
text. As a result, discussion about the necessity of dialogue between all p
articipants involved is one-sided. This closes down considerably the impact
we, as researchers, have on a research context. In addition such a standpo
int closes down the positioning effects of a research context upon our own
research Self. By drawing upon the work of radical ethnographers and the di
scourse theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, this paper seeks to outline some of the p
roblems that arise in humanist ethnographic accounts as regards positionali
ty and dialogue. This opens the way for some observations about how ethnogr
aphy might take into account 'non-humanist' structures such as the state, l
aw and governance in capitalist societies in respect to the issues of posit
ionality and dialogue. I flesh out these theoretical observations through a
brief discussion of my own ethnographic experience researching Speakers' C
orner in London.