Reflexive ethnography : a guide to researching selves and others

Includes bibliographical references (pages 230-252) and indexes.

Ethnographic research is fundamental to the discipline of anthropology. However, contemporary debate on themes such as modernism/postmodernism, subjectivity/objectivity and self/other put the value of fieldwork into question. Reflexive Ethnography provides a practical and comprehensive guide to ethnographic research methods which fully engages with these significant issues. It tackles relevant research questions, including chapters on selection of topics and methods, data collection, analysis, and ethics and politics. Charlotte Aull Davies stresses that the researcher's own subjectivity need not have a negative effect on their methodology. Reflexive ethnography can create a unique form of material which is not accessible through native texts, but which is neither simply the product of the individual anthropologist's psyche. Instead it generates knowledge which in essence reflects social reality.