Writing in Ethnographic and Auto/biographical Approaches: Old and New Challenges

Abstract

In this paper I consider the importance of writing in qualitative approaches, particularly in Ethnography, as well as the implications of the crisis of ethnographic representation in relation to auto/biographical approaches. My paper has above all an exploratory dimension. I intend to review some relevant and recent publications in social sciences (with a specific focus on ethnographic approaches, both in Sociology and Anthropology) in order (1) to reflect on discourse, rhetoric, voice, audience and writing; (2) to promote a more critical reading (and writing) of qualitative research, including ethnographies and life histories; and (3) to examine the complex intersection between writing and reading in qualitative research. It is evident that “ethnographers, like many contemporary scholars, have become increasingly preoccupied with the nature and consequences of their textual practices” (Atkinson, 1992, 51). 

This paper has three sections. Firtsly, I comment briefly the writing question in objectivist paradigms and I present some arguments on the crisis of representation and the linguistic and literary turn in social sciences, and more specifically in ethnography. Secondly, I discuss on self, voice, and audience within the context of academic and research writing. Finally, I discuss the implications of the paper for promoting a more dialogic, problematic, complex research (and teaching) based on auto/biographical approaches.