Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:29:58.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Autoethnography

from Part III - Methodological Approaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2021

By
Keith Berry
Edited by
Michael Bamberg ,
Carolin Demuth  and
Meike Watzlawik
Michael Bamberg
Affiliation:
Clark University, Massachusetts
Carolin Demuth
Affiliation:
Aalborg University, Denmark
Meike Watzlawik
Affiliation:
Sigmund Freud University, Berlin
Get access

Summary

When examining video ethnographic data, as well as interviews, and fieldnotes, the researcher examines the situated nature of participants’ production of identity elements in action and interaction through the analysis of the various kinds of mediated action on the micro level. In addition, the researcher can utilize the analytical tool, layers of discourse, in order to analyze the immediate identity element production (produced in the moment), link it to the continuous identity element production (produced within and with the networks of the participant), and link it to the general identity element production (produced within and with institutions and/or society that the performer belongs to). Thereby situated identity elements can clearly be shown to link to the concrete socio-historically and socioculturally embeddedness on the meso and the macro levels. In this chapter, we shall exemplify these analytical tools through two transcripts depicting one participant from a larger ethnographically informed study.

Keywords

Autoethnographycultureidentitystories
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Identity , pp. 324 - 344
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, T. E. (2011). Narrating the Closet: An Autoethnography of Same-Sex Attraction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Adams, T. E. & Herrmann, F. A. (2020). Expanding our autoethnographic future. Journal of Autoethnography, 1, 1–8, doi:10.1525/joae.2020.1.1.1.Google Scholar
Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (2015). Autoethnography. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alcoff, L. (1991). The problem of speaking for others. Cultural Critique, 20, 5–32, doi:10.2307/1354221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, B. J. (2011). Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity, 2nd Ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Bardhan, N. & Orbe, M. (Eds.). (2012). Identity Research in Intercultural Communication: Reflections and Future Directions. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Behar, R. (1996). The Vulnerable Observer. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Berry, K. (2006). Implicated audience member seeks understanding: Reexamining the “gift” of autoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 15, 1–12, doi:10.1177/160940690600500309.Google Scholar
Berry, K. (2007). Embracing the catastrophe: Gay body seeks acceptance. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 259–281, doi:10.1177/1077800406294934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, K. (2013). Spinning autoethnographic reflexivity, cultural critique, and negotiating selves. In Holman Jones, S., Adams, T. E., & Ellis, C. (Eds.), The Handbook of Autoethnography (pp. 209–227). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berry, K. (2016). Bullied: Tales of Torment, Identity, and Youth. New York, NY: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, K. (2022). Meditations on the story I cannot write: Autoethnography, reflexivity, and the possibilities of maybe. In Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (Eds.), The Handbook of Autoethnography, 2nd Ed. (pp. 29–40). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berry, K. & Clair, R. P. (Eds.). (2011). Special Issue: The call of ethnographic reflexivity: Narrating the self’s presence in ethnography. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 95–209, doi:10.1177/1532708611401339.Google Scholar
Berry, K., Gillotti, C. M., & Adams, T. E. (2020). Living Sexuality: Stories of LGBTQ Relationships, Identities, and Desires. Rotterdam:Brill/Sense.Google Scholar
Berry, K. & Patti, C. J. (2015). Lost in narration: Applying autoethnography. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 43, 263–268, doi:10.1080/00909882.2015.1019548.Google Scholar
Berry, K. & Warren, J. T. (2009). Cultural studies and the politics of representation: Experience/subjectivity/research. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 9, 597–607, doi:10.1177/1532708609337894.Google Scholar
Blumer, H. (1986). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bochner, A. P. (2000). Criteria against ourselves. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 266–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bochner, A. P. (2014). Coming to Narrative: A Personal History of Paradigm Change in the Human Sciences. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Bochner, A. P. & Adams, T. (2020). Autoethnography as applied communication research method. In O’Hair, H. D. & O’Hair, M. J. (Eds.), The Handbook of Applied Communication Research, Vol. 2 (pp. 709–729). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Bochner, A. P. & Ellis, C. (2016). Evocative Autoethnography: Writing Lives and Telling Stories. New York, NY: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boylorn, R. M. (2013). Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resistance. New York, NY: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Boylorn, R. M. & Orbe, M. P. (Eds.). (2014). Critical Autoethnography: Intersecting Cultural Identities in Everyday Life. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Brockmeier, J. & Harré, R. (1997). Narrative: Problems and promises of an alternative paradigm. In Carbaugh, D. A. & Brockmeier, J. (Eds.), Narrative and Identity: Studies in Autobiography, Self, and Culture (pp. 39–58). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.Google Scholar
Calafell, B. M. (2016). Monstrosity, Race, and Performance in Contemporary Culture. New York, NY: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Carbaugh, D. (1996). Situating Selves: The Communication of Social Identities in American Scenes. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive Biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, T. R. (2018). Talking White Trash: Mediated Representations and Lived Experiences of White Working-Class People. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Durham, A. (2014). Hip Hop Feminism: Performances in Communication and Culture. New York, NY: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. (1991). Sociological introspection and emotional experience. Symbolic Interaction, 14, 23–50, doi:10.1525/si.1991.14.1.23.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. (2000). Creating criteria: An ethnographic short story. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 273–277, doi:10.1177/107780040000600210.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. (2007). Telling secrets, revealing lives: Relational ethics in research with intimate others. Qualitative inquiry, 13, 3–29, doi:10.1177/1077800406294947.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. (2009). Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections on Life and Work. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. (2018). Final Negotiations: A Story of Love, Loss, and Chronic Illness. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. & Adams, T. E. (2014). The purposes, practices, and principles of autoethnographic research. In Leavy, P. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 254–276). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101108.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. & Bochner, A. P. (2000). Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.), The Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd Ed. (pp. 733–768). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Faulkner, S. (2012). That baby will cost you. An intended ambivalent pregnancy. Qualitative Inquiry, 18, 333–340, doi:10.1177/1077800411431564.Google Scholar
Faulkner, S. (2014). Bad mom (my) litany: Spanking cultural myths of middle-class motherhood. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 14, 138–146, doi:10.1177/1532708613512270.Google Scholar
Faulkner, S. (2016). TEN (The promise of arts-based, ethnographic, and narrative research in critical family communication research and praxis). Journal of Family Communication, 16, 9–15, doi:10.1080/15267431.2015.1111218.Google Scholar
Gergen, K. (1991). The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gergen, K. (2009). Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community. New York, NY: Oxford.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. L. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, W. (1977). Anthropology and the coming crisis: An autoethnographic appraisal. American Anthropologist, 79, 293–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodall, H. L. Jr. (2000). Writing the New Ethnography. Lanham, MA: AltaMira.Google Scholar
Hayano, D. M. (1979). Auto-ethnography: Paradigms, problems, and prospects. Human Organization, 38, 99–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heider, K. (1975). What do people do? Dani-autoethnography. Journal of Anthropological Research, 31, 3–17, doi:10.1086/jar.31.1.3629504.Google Scholar
Holman Jones, S., Adams, T. E., & Ellis, C. (Eds.). (2013). The Handbook of Autoethnography. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Husserl, E. (1970/1954). The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, translated by Carr, D.. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, R. L. II (2002). Introduction: Theorizing and analyzing the nexus between cultural and gendered identities and the body. Communication Quarterly, 50, 242–250, doi:10.1080/01463370209385662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langsdorf, L. (1994). Why phenomenology in communication research? Human Studies, 17, 1–8, doi:10.1007/BF01322763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeMaster, B. (2014). Telling multiracial tales: An autoethnography of coming out home. Qualitative Inquiry, 20, 51–60, doi:10.1177/1077800413508532.Google Scholar
Nordmarken, S. (2014). Becoming ever more monstrous: Feeling transgender in- betweenness. Qualitative Inquiry, 20, 37–50, doi:10.1177/1077800413508531.Google Scholar
Paxton, B. (2018). At Home with Grief: Continued Bonds with the Deceased. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pelias, R. J. (2013). Writing autoethnography: The personal, poetic, and performative as compositional strategies. In Holman Jones, S., Adams, T. E., & Ellis, C. (Eds.), The Handbook of Autoethnography (pp. 384–405). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pelias, R. J. (2019). The Creative Qualitative Researcher: Writing That Makes Readers Want to Read. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Philipsen, G. (1992). Speaking Culturally. Explorations in Social Communication. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, L. (1994). Writing: A method of inquiry. In Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 516–529). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Richardson, L. (2000). Evaluating ethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 253–255, doi:10.1177/107780040000600207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrag, C. O. (1997). The Self after Postmodernity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Schrag, C. O. (2003). Communicative Praxis and the Space of Subjectivity. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, J. A. (2018). Embodied Performance as Applied Research Art and Pedagogy. London: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Scott, J. W. (1991). The evidence of experience. Critical Inquiry, 17, 773–797, doi:10.1086/448612.Google Scholar
Turner, L., Short, N. P., Grant, A., & Adams, T. E. (Eds.). (2018). International Perspectives on Autoethnographic Research and Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
VanMaanen, J. (1988). Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Yoshino, K. (2007). Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights. New York, NY: Random House.Google Scholar
Wilmot, W. W. (1995). Relational Communication. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Wood, J. T. (2000). Relational Communication: Continuity and Change in Personal Relationships, 2nd Ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×