Dialogue, positionality and the legal framing of ethnographic research

Authors
Citation
J. Roberts, Dialogue, positionality and the legal framing of ethnographic research, SOC RES ONL, 5(4), 2001, pp. NIL_143-NIL_161
Citations number
48
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Sociology & Antropology
Journal title
SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE
ISSN journal
1360-7804 → ACNP
Volume
5
Issue
4
Year of publication
2001
Pages
NIL_143 - NIL_161
Database
ISI
SICI code
1360-7804(20010228)5:4<NIL_143:DPATLF>2.0.ZU;2-A
Abstract
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.