6 Fieldwork, Ethnography, and Knowledge Construction
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6
Fieldwork, Ethnography, and
Knowledge Construction
Thomas J. Stodulka
The notion of ethnographic insight is crucial: it is second part gravitates towards the complexi-
both a grounded style of investigation demanded ties of fieldwork practice before they are
in proliferating places and for multiple checks
discussed jointly again in the final part on
upon theoretical claims, models built by aggregat-
ing analysis, and hegemonic assertion; and also a currently emerging methods.
kind of yoga, a recognition of the shape-shifting Most innovations and contributions to
illusions of fixed categories, comparisons, opin- ethnography and fieldwork originate from
ions, and perceptions. (Fischer, 2018: 36) social and cultural anthropology, sociol-
ogy, and to some extent also area studies,
cultural psychology, human geography, his-
tory, economics, literature, and travel writ-
INTRODUCTION ing. As scientific method, ethnography is
becoming increasingly popular in a diverse
In their excellent encyclopedic entry on number of fields including science studies,
Ethnography (2015), Antonius Robben and artificial intelligence, environmental stud-
Jeffrey Sluka write, ‘Ethnography is as much ies, education, big data research or global
the practice of investigation as the reporting health. Colleagues from related disciplines
of empirical findings […] The history of eth- value ethnography for its potentials in ‘thick
nography reflects its dual meaning as descriptions’ (Geertz, 1973) of otherwise
research and representation’ (2015: 178). more abstract scientific data on persons and
This chapter focuses on both aspects of eth- their (everyday) lives. Others position field-
nographic knowledge construction. The first work and ethnography alongside the socio-
section on historical legacies revolves around logical ‘grounded theory’ paradigm (Glaser
matters of ethnographic representation, and Strauss, 1967), which has become a
whereas the case study illustration of the widespread methodological practice of social
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scientific knowledge construction. Grounded data dimensions through an illustration of
theory is defined as a structured, yet flexible long-term fieldwork with street-related com-
methodology that aims to generate theory munities in Indonesia. It discusses the crucial
that is grounded in empirical data (Bryant and matters of ethical responsibility, reciproc-
Charmaz, 2019). Michael Fischer rephrased ity, participatory-observation mode, holistic
the sociological concept in its ‘twenty-first- attentiveness, and the epistemologically pro-
century extension’ (2018: 2) and understands ductive ‘dilemma’ of simultaneously seeking
ethnography as research practice that goes immersion with and detachment from inter-
beyond qualitative social science’s ideals of locutors’ lives as they emerge in fieldwork
producing valid and reliable data. I follow his encounters. The case study illustration aims
perspective in highlighting ethnography as to show that ethnography avoids epistemic
a publicly committed intellectual project of shortcuts or suspiciously neat generaliza-
‘ground-truthing, of showing when aggregate tions, sanitizing and essentializing narratives;
statistics, models, and maps produce errors ethnographers are ‘staying with the trouble’
that do not match with what is happening “on (Haraway, 2016) – and the joy (one might
the ground,” in reality, among actual people’ add) – of contemporary lives. The chapter
(ibid.: 4). To convey these knowledge gaps proceeds by highlighting the challenges to
and blind spots of quantitative research mod- ethnography vis-à-vis complex interlinkages
els, many ethnographers pursue thick descrip- between virtual, online, and offline worlds
tions of the realities they have witnessed and and communication practices. It reflects on
studied during fieldwork. Thick descriptions the difficulties in analyzing the interplay
are posited to uncover what research subjects between humans, more-than-humans or any
or respondents make of abstract ideas, infra- emergent forms in-between, including envi-
structures, systems, orders, and norms; how ronments, big data and algorithms. This third
they use, experience and narrate them, and section will sketch how emerging trends in
how all of this transforms them into persons multimodal ethnography, critical data stud-
who lead real lives. ies, affective or sensuous scholarships, and
Many anthropologists have defined eth- collaborations between the arts and sciences,
nography in negative terms – it is not quali- promise exciting new ethnographic method-
tative social science, not travel writing, not ologies that aspire diversified and decolo-
fiction, not science, and not art (Lehmann nized forms of representation. It highlights
and Stodulka, 2018). One might be tempted anthropology’s persistent quest for methodo-
to postulate that it is all of it combined. But logical innovation in seeking to grasp what
that does not do justice to the longstanding is going on, what it means, and how it feels
intellectual project. Ethnography combines, in the worlds of those who let ethnographers
juxtaposes and overcomes dichotomies, bina- participate in their lives. The brief conclusion
ries, and clear-cut categorizations of people’s and the postscript reflect on anthropological
experience, behavior or speech. The scientific futures and modes of teaching ethnography
strength of ethnography lies in the systematic and fieldwork within and beyond classrooms.
assemblage of research participants’ perspec-
tives and the creative montage of different data
dimensions, which rest on ethnographers’
long-term involvement and open-ended com- THE SHOULDERS WE STAND ON:
mitment. Setting the scene, the chapter will HISTORICAL LEGACIES
first give an overview of the central forma-
tions of ethnography as fieldwork practice The representation of historical legacies and
and mode of representation before it zeros scientific canons is far from being an objec-
in on the practice of juxtaposing diversified tive endeavor. It is a positioned act and
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reflects on the scholarly trajectories and polit- modern anthropology from the 1920s through
ical landscapes of those who summarize to the 1940s. Fieldwork – defined in terms of
them. In my case, I studied at campuses that long-term cohabitation (a minimum of 12
mostly referred to the methodological contri- months so as to observe a full year’s ecologi-
butions written by scholars that worked at cal cycle), participant observation, learning
Northern American, British, French, and local languages, immersing oneself in the
German universities. The following represen- host communities’ everyday lives and docu-
tation of significant methodological contribu- menting lived experience by means of field-
tions and turns refers to the literature that I notes, photography, mapping, sketching and
have read throughout the years. With regards making audio recordings – became the disci-
to a language bias, it does not include the pline’s central methodology. After years of
many contributions from colleagues that have fieldwork, modern anthropologists published
published in languages other than English. their results in several monographs, which
And although I have been trained by feminist became classics: Malinowski’s Argonauts of
anthropologists that have always underscored the Western Pacific (1922), Radcliffe-Brown’s
anthropology’s global dimension and advised The Andaman Islanders (1922), Mead’s
us to abstain from national anthropologies, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), Firth’s We,
the subsequent canon is colored by an Anglo- the Tikopia (1936), Evans-Pritchard’s The
centric and English-speaking bias that mar- Nuer (1940), or DuBois’ The People of Alor
ginalizes other European, Asian, African, (1944). Several years later, the sociologists
American, or Australian perspectives. This who later formed the Chicago School also
bias relates to current debates on decoloniz- engaged in fieldwork. Whereas some anthro-
ing and provincializing science (Allen and pologists aimed at proving racism, eugenics
Jobson, 2016; Chakrabarty, 2000; Mignolo and evolutionism to be wrong through field-
and Walsh, 2018) and will be addressed selec- work in faraway places by contrasting differ-
tively throughout the chapter. ent cultures, Chicago sociologists engaged in
civil society movements and urban planning
agendas within their own city.
Modern Anthropology and the
Chicago School
A New School: Scientist Turn
George Stocking (1996) dates the first use of
the term ‘fieldwork’ back to A.C. Haddon Anthropologists and historians of science
during the Torres Strait Expedition of 1898, (Barth et al., 2005; Bierschenk et al., 2016)
when anthropology started to shake off evolu- ascribe a ‘scientism turn’ to the anthropolo-
tionary theory and armchair methodologies, gies of the 1960s–1980s, where replication,
entering the era of ethnography. His expedi- validity and comparison were cherished.
tions within the realm of zoology and anthro- Anthropologists borrowed from linguistics
pology were celebrated for their methodo- and the cognitive sciences, pursuing the con-
logical innovation by pioneering the usage of struction of cognitive models and schemas,
sound and video recordings, photographs and cultural classifications, or taxonomies by
genealogies to document the social relation- means of surveys, card sorting and free list-
ships of ‘other’ cultures. The German- ing tasks, alongside semantic and social net-
American anthropologist Franz Boas work analyses. Referenced ethnographies
promoted the idea of cultural relativism based on in-depth and long-term fieldwork
instead of evolutionary stages, and his suc- include Leach’s (1954) analysis of social and
cessors embraced this new paradigm and political organization in Burma, Lévi-
became the founding mothers and fathers of Strauss’ (1962) structuralist anthropology on
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mind and cognition, Douglas’ (1966) analy- of reflexive fieldworkers that cannot but pro-
sis of pollution and taboo, Barth’s (1969) duce ‘partial truths’ instead of generalizing
edited volume on ethnic groups and bounda- cultural analyses (Pool, 1991). To this day,
ries, Dumont’s (1966) treatise on the Indian the discipline’s epistemology has been domi-
caste system, Heider’s (1970) work on war- nated by subsequent calls for (and not neces-
fare in Papua New Guinea, Beatrice and John sarily practices of) ethnographic writing that
Whiting’s (1975) study of six childhood cul- are experimental, dialogic, multi-vocal and
tures, or LeVine’s (1982) comparative study polyphonic (Behar and Gordon, 1995; Ellis,
on culture, behavior and personality. From 2004; Lassiter, 2001). In retrospect, James
today’s perspective, it is not surprising that Clifford and George Marcus’ edited volume
implicitly critical writings (Bowen, 1964; Writing Culture – The Poetics and Politics
Crapanzano, 1980; Rabinow, 1977), which of Ethnography (1986) has set the trail for
developed into the discipline’s ‘literary turn’ anthropology’s postmodern, postcolonial and
in the 1980s – later spearheaded by the poststructural epoch, and provoked debates
American anthropologists and literature that led to initial splits between followers
scholars James Clifford, George Marcus, and opponents, which could be framed as
Michael Fischer, Barbara and Dennis ‘intellectual deliberation of colonialism’ vs.
Tedlock, Vincent Crapanzano, or Mary- ‘navel-gazing.’ Whatever one’s retrospec-
Louise Pratt among many others – started tive and perspective on this epistemologi-
receiving attention and praise for their push- cal landslide, ethnographic fieldwork and
back against this ‘New School’ of scientism. writing significantly changed in the after-
A new genre emerged, which prioritized the math. ‘Doorstep anthropology,’ ‘anthropol-
narration of fieldwork experience over the ogy at home’ (two labels that had better be
ethnography it produced as the main goal of crossed out from our disciplinary jargon, for
a monograph. alas, anthropology’s legitimization as a sci-
entific project no longer depends on local,
ethno-local, or digital divides), multisited
Narrative Ethnography, Reflexive research, urban anthropology, science and
technology studies, to name just a few, have
Ethnography and Cultural Critique
flourished over the past few decades when
Explicit critique of fieldwork and ethnogra- reflexivity has transformed into a new form
phy as politically and socially embedded of empiricism (Rutherford, 2015). This is
endeavor was formulated by Talal Asad (1973) obviously not just a consequence of the lit-
on the discipline’s colonialist pathways, and erary turn, rather the discipline’s epistemol-
by Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere ogy has changed fundamentally since the
(1974), who highlighted the discipline’s 1980s, due to significant shifts in globalized
gender bias and ‘white male supremacy-ism’. transnational communication, mobility, and
During the 1980s, anthropology went labor regimes, all with their consequences
through a ‘catharsis’ where fieldworkers’ (Appadurai, 1996; Hannerz, 1996). Another
(post-) colonial complicity, ethnographic result tied to epistemological debates ever
authority, and the raison d’être of ethno- since then is that (not only) anthropologists
graphic research were radically decon- almost unanimously agree that ethnographic
structed. The objectivity paradigm was knowledge is always situated, positioned
rejected along with the ethnographer’s and constructed (Haraway, 1988; Hermann
authority over the production of data about & Röttger-Rössler, 2003). Renato Rosaldo’s
society, culture and experience. Influenced definition of the ethnographer as ‘a posi-
by Northern American anthropologies, this tioned subject’ (1989 [1993]: 15) may be
‘literary turn’ created an academic regime one of the most-cited terms pertaining to
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anthropological method, whereby anthropol- Engaged Ethnography
ogists describe their subjectivities and emo-
tional biographies vis-à-vis the persons and In addition to substantial debates on the poet-
phenomena they study. ics and politics of ethnographic knowledge
Reflections on researcher positionality production, anthropologists started increas-
highlight ethnographers’ different subject ingly calling for a ‘primacy of the ethical’
positions (Wolf, 1996). Age, gender, the (Scheper-Hughes, 1995) that called upon
social marginality of being an ‘outsider’ to ethnographers as activists that acted along-
the researched community, and for some the side the communities they studied with. In
hegemony of being affiliated with postcolo- this ‘compassionate turn’ (Sluka and Robben,
nial regimes, have a major impact on fieldwork 2012), burgeoning fieldwork trajectories
encounters and the ways in which informants included action and engaged research com-
and interlocutors reveal their experiences and ponents on the grassroots level, expanding on
narratives. The literary turn has taught anthro- the ethos of applied anthropology, advocacy
pologists that narratives, stories, and observa- anthropology and solidarity (Bourgois, 2002;
tions emerging from fieldwork are always Tsing, 2005). Such engaged projects are
‘particular’ and ‘partial’. As such, they must encouraged by some, yet denigrated by other
constantly be juxtaposed with data con- research departments and national academic
structed from other fieldwork encounters, by landscapes (Antweiler, 1998; Klocke-Daffa,
including various interlocutors’ perspectives 2019). I remember my own attempt at plac-
on a particular phenomenon, or by drawing ing an article in a German-speaking anthro-
on other dimensions to the data – an approach pology journal in the early 2000s, which
that grounded theorists call ‘methodological argued for a combination of what was then
triangulation’ (Rothbauer, 2008). Only after still a division between ‘academic’ and
such long-term involvement can a retrospec- ‘applied anthropology,’ only to get smashed
tive detachment and critical deconstruction by one editor for ‘telling nonsense.’ Realizing
of biases be achieved, so that scientifically that German anthropology at that time was
grounded statements can be formulated and the global exception and not the convention,
translated into a text. ‘Positionality’ has been I felt relieved when I encountered the work
extended to the discussion of fieldwork eth- of Indonesian anthropologists Bambang
ics, yet little attention has been paid to the Ertanto, Maya Pravitta, Pande Made
question how ethnographers deal with their Kutanegara, Kusen Alipah Hadi, Yustinus
ascribed positionalities in methodological Trisubagya, Ani Himawati, Baskara T.
and emotional terms (Caduff, 2011; Castillo, Wardaya or Pujo Semedi in the early 2000s.
2015; Sakti and Reynaud, 2017). The psy- Although they had other issues to resolve
choanalytical concepts of transference and (such as underpayment, a lack of positions at
countertransference remain persistent theo- departments, overburdening teaching assign-
retical references in this field of discussion ments, overly rigid bureaucracy, or feudalis-
(Devereux, 1967; Nadig, 2004). So too do tic campus hierarchies), all anthropologists –
sociological discourses of research as ‘emo- both those employed in academic positions
tional labour’ (McQueeney and Lavelle, and those working in activist collectives –
2017; Pollard, 2009). I refer to the relation- participated in community building projects
ship between positionality, ethics, fieldwork aside from writing their theses, essays and
reciprocity and subjectivity in the context of books. Philippine anthropology is a similar
fieldwork with street-related communities in intellectual activist project, honoring engaged
the next section and shall now focus on the and action-oriented anthropology based on
political dimensions of ethnographic immer- ethnographic fieldwork, as are the many
sion into the field. examples from South Asia, Africa, Australia,
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and the Americas (Das, 2016; Galam, 2019; of informed consent forms, ethical boards,
García Palacios & Castorina, 2014; Lenhart, inflated publish-or-perish policies have cre-
2012; Reynaud, 2017; Robinson, 2005). The ated different, more collaborative researcher
flip side of engaged, compassionate and personae. Today, interlocutors and research
activist anthropology is so-called ‘milita- partners are manifestly aware of what anthro-
rized’ or ‘spy ethnography,’ where ethnogra- pology is, what harm it can do in terms of
phy is abused for the development of military epistemic violence or how it can open up job
strategies, and/or for reproducing or reinstat- opportunities within collaborative fieldwork
ing dictatorships. As in any other scientific practice. Far from being represented as pas-
discipline, anthropological examples reach- sive respondents, those we live and study with
ing back to the 1920s, and earlier to the writ- today know how ethnographers are supposed
ings of evolutionary anthropologists, were to behave and compensate them for their time
also used to legitimize racism and fascism and hospitality in the field from experiences
throughout the 20th and 21st century up until with other anthropologists or media reports.
today. From my own Central European per- Today, former interlocutors are anthropolo-
spective, it is not a far stretch to agree with gists or experts themselves, work for NGOs
Robben and Sluka, that ‘Militarized ethnog- or are hired by international corporate social
raphy is a deceptive and unacceptable form responsibility projects as experts. In addition,
of covert ethnographic research because in our own non-tenured working and often
legitimate consent cannot be given at the end precarious labor conditions, the terrified tip-
of the barrel of a gun’ (2015: 181). toeing around the abyss of academic admin-
Anthropology has overcome the modern istrative tasks at present is far from instilling
epoch of its protagonists’ single-authored ethnographers with heroic feelings. Taking
heroic narratives that highlighted the dar- these contemporary societal conditions of
ing and dangerous adventures of the lone doing ethnography into consideration, the
ethnographer who disembarked with pen, following case study exemplification expands
paper, typewriter and quinine in faraway on the chapter’s intention to complexify mis-
places unable to be reached for weeks, conceptions of ethnography as ‘story-telling’
months, or sometimes years (Malinowski, or serendipitous ‘hanging-out’. Fieldwork
1967). Paired with a mindset of Eurocentric does not only imply the flexible shifting of
superiority typical of that time and no one to research questions or theoretical perspectives,
really check on the information written about but first and foremost a careful attunement
‘natives,’ (Narayan, 1993) with the next of methods used to ethically, responsibly,
anthropologist ‘a few hundred islands away’ respectfully, and scientifically relate to the
(see Barley, 2012; King, 2014 for humor- lives of others with whom we intend to study
ous fictional accounts), it is no surprise that (Mattes and Dinkelaker, 2019). Most impor-
modern anthropology had generated heroic tantly, it highlights the crucial importance of
tales of the ethnographer’s suffering and allowing oneself to constantly learn from oth-
endurance only to rise like Phoenix from the ers, while probing different methods.
ashes with a monograph in their hands. The
World Wide Web and comparable digitized
networks, blogs written by those we study
with, commenting, liking, loving, disliking or ETHNOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION:
rejecting the ethnographer’s work on social ACTOR-CENTERED ACTION
media, Google Maps’ tracking of the field- ANTHROPOLOGY
worker’s movements, online clouds to check
data and stories collectively, obligatory data Among other lines of theorization on stigma-
management plans, data repositories, pages tization, coping, or illness, my engagement
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with street-related communities in Yogyakarta, those persons and communities I lived
Indonesia over fifteen years (Stodulka, 2017) alongside.
tried to understand so-called ‘street children’s’ My collaborators and I set up a support and
experiences and practices while coming of age care network for street-related communities
at the urban margins. Fieldwork with street- after we had experienced shared feelings of
related children, adolescents and young adults frustration over the rise in prevalence of HIV
has to take their spatial mobilities and exten- on the streets and lost many friends to the
sive fields of social interaction and encounters disease. The group consisted of volunteers
into account, while at the same time providing from various social and professional back-
the researched, collaborators and researcher grounds and our primary concerns were that
with enough reasons for such time-intensive, our network functioned on a voluntary basis
psychologically and physically challenging and closely collaborated with street-related
endeavors. In trying to understand how the communities. Within this loosely structured
protagonists dealt with marginality, stigma framework, we jointly organized workshops
and illness, a systematic focus on affect and in various formats, either on the streets, in
emotions offered gateways to mutual under- open spaces offered by NGOs, or in squat-
standing. Long-term involvement with street- ter communities on the city’s margins. In the
related communities is a process that requires face of AIDS-related deaths and severe social
empathy, the communication of respect, and a suffering, this informal network gained a cer-
flexibility that allows the ethnographer to par- tain stability without the support of interna-
ticipate in their sophisticated lives. As a unique tional funding agencies, and finally took the
way of observing, witnessing and trying to form of a shelter and community-based coun-
understand and explain what matters most to seling center for chronically ill street-related
the persons and communities ethnographers persons. Operating on private donations, the
study with, ethnography might be best network focused on the care of and support
described as a ‘theoretically informed prac- for HIV-positive friends, facilitated HIV/
tice’ (Comaroff and Comaroff, 1992: 27), that AIDS prevention workshops, and served as
is personal, intimate, affective on the one a link between communities, hospitals and
hand, and analytical, detached and scientific the bureaucracies of the local government’s
on the other. health care apparatus.
From an ethnographic perspective, the col-
laboration provided insights into the affectiv-
Collaborative Action Research ity of key interlocutors, not least because we
shared frustration and despair when another
After being addressed and getting involved friend had died, but also small-scale victories
in the lives of street-related communities in once we had managed to provide ill friends
particularly emotive and emotional ways, with cost-free medication and medical treat-
the field almost coerced me to engage in ment. From a methodological perspective,
what I then defined as ‘collaborative action the collaboration facilitated access to various
research.’ The term can be traced back to the research sites and fostered an experience-
social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1946) and near understanding of their connections from
can be briefly defined as an open-ended the various protagonists’ perspectives. When
spiral of posing questions, gathering data, the shelter team became the primary care-
reflection and collectively deciding on a taker of hospitalized friends, the scope of our
course of appropriate and ethical action on tasks was beyond that of a hospital room (e.g.
behalf of and with the protagonists. the provision of food, clothes, medication,
The primary target was the enhanced acces- supportive care). In those cases where our
sibility of the constructed knowledge for friends had died, the shelter team arranged
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burial permits, organized funerals, persuaded community ethos and identities, and revealed
local clerics to perform last rites, built and protagonists’ perspectives on their notions
maintained graves, and scheduled rituals of of the ideal life course, how ‘things should
remembering the deceased according to local be,’ and what hindered them to achieve better
traditions. I had learned from these experi- lives (Boal, 1985). Similarly, collective view-
ences that stigmatization and marginaliza- ing of the video material that the young pro-
tion did not necessarily end with the young tagonists and I had produced during the early
persons’ deaths. They lingered on through years of our research, became a welcome
authorities’ refusal of receiving them in break from everyday life in the backyard of
graveyards aside from those empty land slots an open house, a break that transformed into
at the urban margins defined as ‘social wel- quick-witted get-togethers full of collective
fare cemeteries’ that could also be mistaken evaluations and the humorous mocking of
for urban gardens or neglected grassland for on-screen actions, conversations and appear-
grazing sheep. ances. Other ethnographers have worked
To fight further suffering and death of with similar visual techniques, such as for
more people with in-depth knowledge on example photovoice, or the collective analy-
the protagonists’ health risk behaviors, we sis of children’s drawings and stories (Nolas
conducted focus group discussions with et al., 2019; Röttger-Rössler et al., 2019).
street-related communities that were jointly Such fieldwork methods might be mistaken
administered after the workshops. Alongside as mere ‘hanging out’ by less informed col-
the sometimes-more, sometimes-less par- leagues or bystanders, yet they relate to eth-
ticipatory activities, which helped to create a nography’s art of situated oscillation between
relaxed atmosphere, the late night conversa- fieldwork immersion and systematic docu-
tions after the workshops were not only very mentation in careful and ethically responsi-
pleasant, but also turned out to be illuminating ble ways at the same time (see Chapter 12 on
in better understanding reproductive health, ethics this volume).
sex and drug practices on the streets. In addi- In addition to the above-mentioned meth-
tion to providing stories, these workshops ods, which aimed at playful integration into
and conversations were very helpful in creat- the everyday activities and lives of the pro-
ing an atmosphere of mutual trust by taking tagonists, the team also engaged in more
collective action against the spread of HIV/ disruptive methodologies, such as audio-
AIDS and other immediate threats to life. visually recorded semi-structured interviews
Whereas the focus group discussions elic- in order to better understand local concepts
ited insights into health issues, help-seeking of chronic illness and intervention strategies
behavior, and perceptions of HIV/AIDS and from the perspectives of professional NGO
STDs among street-related communities, workers, doctors, nurses and bureaucratic
facilitating and participating in voluntary elites. A long-term critical discourse-based
counseling and testing fostered my awareness analysis of local newspaper article clippings
of stigma-related emotions and triggered col- proved effective in understanding social, cul-
lective actions seeking to challenge discrimi- tural and political elites’ public articulations
nating local discourses by organizing public on ‘street children’ and the stigma related to
discussions and outreach events. HIV/AIDS. In addition, I documented and
The participation in and observation of interpreted public signs, street banners and
theater workshops and public performances statements by religious, political and cultural
that staged the life histories of so-called authorities in relation to stigmatizing public
“street children” offered insights into the rhetoric.
dynamics of the street-related communi- The collaborative approach proved benefi-
ties’ hierarchical ways of constructing a cial in various ways: it helped me gain access
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to many different research sites; negotiate classify life story epistemologies as either
my positionalities as social activist, anthro- ‘life-focused approaches,’ which define
pologist and friend; obtain deeper knowledge self-narratives as mirrors of reality or ‘story-
concerning the social dynamics within and focused approaches,’ which are more inter-
between street communities; and acquire data ested in the structure of the story. The first
on expert discourses of the city’s stakeholders perceive the person as the source and object
involved in public health care, governmental of narration, the latter argue that it is the nar-
and non-governmental support strategies. ration that defines and constructs the person.
But in order to learn about the protagonists’ Stories of hardship and suffering can be told
emotional experiences beyond collective and for various reasons: as reflection and per-
participatory encounters, I felt that I had to sonal meaning-making; as emotional relief;
spend not only the days, but also the nights at as a way to impress the interlocutor; gain
the street junctions, and that I could no longer respect; evoke appreciation; enhance social
reject the protagonists’ queries of engaging esteem; or as a strategy and tactic to emote
in ‘emotion talk’ with me that I had initially others and motivate them to identify with
avoided for the fear of getting emotionally and take action on their behalf. Moreover,
too closely involved. getting involved in persons’ emotional life
stories during fieldwork is based on mutual
trust, exhaustive language proficiency and
Actor-centered Ethnography and long-term commitment by the ethnographer.
It is important to highlight that with estab-
Emotion Talk
lished trust comes ethical responsibility: not
The actor-centered conversations with key every story is to be shared publicly. Hence,
protagonists, which they described as either the decision which stories were to be kept
‘psikologi’ (psychology) or ‘curhat sessions’ and which to be told for scientific and politi-
(a common expression curahan hati – pour- cal reasons was always taken together with
ing one’s heart out), provided personal sto- the protagonists of the research in feedback
ries on past and present turning points in the rounds before publishing the monograph and
protagonists’ coming of age on the streets. related articles.
Protagonists would recount past events and
social dramas through their curhat narratives.
When compared to the refined, psychoana- Stepping Back – Affective
lytically influenced method of person-cen- Scholarship and Field-Desk
tered interviewing (Hollan, 1997; Spradley,
Enmeshments
1979), my conversations were less sched-
uled, more situational and contingent. The Michael Fischer (2018) reminds us that eth-
technique of open narrative interviewing had nographic knowledge construction does not
to be adjusted to the research setting, where end at the moment when anthropologists
the use of audio-recorders and the setting up decide to step outside of whatever they have
of interview situations were difficult due to defined as their field. Raymond Madden’s
the lack of an interview as concept and dis- definition of the field seems helpful here in
cursive space. order to understand its liquid and dynamic
When considering the emotionality and quality: ‘Ethnography turns someone’s eve-
the intimacy of life story and curhat nar- ryday place into a thing called a “field”’
ratives, it is important to take both ethical (Madden, 2010: 54). Ethnographers then
and epistemological issues seriously. They themselves become place-makers and field-
require positional scrutiny and reflection. work transpires as a form of place-making.
James Peacock and Dorothy Holland (1993) The ethnographic field can be seen as ‘the
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synthesis of concrete space and investigative I understood the rhetoric of this eloquent
space,’ and as an ‘interrogative boundary’ advice which distinguishes between (forma-
(ibid.: 38f) where certain questions about tive) scientific theory that can be communi-
geographic, social or emotional landscapes cated in scientific papers and books on the
can be asked. Hence, involvement in and one hand, and (tacit) background information
communication with host or epistemic com- on how that theory was empirically ‘gath-
munities sometimes continues for years after ered’ that was better kept secret in one’s own
the initial fieldwork despite long geographic field diary on the other. But I wondered how
distances or other divides. With regards to one could translate this into methodological
diversified publication formats in blogs and practice in constructing adequate representa-
online forums that provide opportunities to tions of the lives and experiences that the
comment on, respond to, or reorganize writ- protagonists had so generously shared with
ten, visual or other multimodal forms of me over the years. I felt uneasy vis-à-vis the
representation, ethnographic knowledge con- demand to limit and control my subjectivity
struction can expand into almost unbounded for the sake of an acknowledged ‘traditional
spaces and temporalities. Coming up with a empiricism’ that ultimately targeted ‘objecti-
convincing and readable story that is ethi- fied data’ on the ‘other.’ Ethnography works
cally and scientifically sound, resonates with differently. Instead of separating tacit from
contemporary fieldwork standards, and lends formative theory, or isolating ‘bias’ from
an ear to shifting and increasingly short- ‘truth’, anthropologists work through – not
termed academic and political trends, styles against – their subjectivities and emotions
and turns, is a tough and emotionally chal- (Davies and Spencer, 2010; Jackson, 1998)
lenging job. At the time of my last transition- until they puzzle out through long-term
ing back to academia from five periods of engagement what matters to those they
altogether five years of fieldwork, I won- research and live alongside. Ethnographic
dered whether the fieldworker’s ethics and knowledge construction follows particular
methods, biography and personality, profes- context- and training-related paths of system-
sional and personal experience, as well as atic reasoning that combines the intellectual
training and motivation, senses, positionali- with the emotional (Gottlieb, 2012), the epis-
ties and subjectivities could all be included temic with the ethical (Rappaport, 2008), and
when constructing and representing field- the political with the personal (Okely, 2012).
work experiences and aspiring their thick My own particular path worked along meth-
descriptions. Le Compte, who contributed to odological, epistemological and theoretical
a widely circulated practice-oriented series discussions of the ethnographer’s affects,
of fieldwork manuals, illustrates the ethnog- feelings and emotions, by taking them seri-
rapher’s dilemma: ously as ethnographic data. The documenta-
tion of ethnographers’ affects, i.e. taking
People tend to record as data what makes sense to them seriously as relational scientific data
and intrigues them. Selectivity cannot be elimi- and juxtaposing them to more detached ‘tra-
nated, but it is important to be aware of how it
ditional’ data sets, is a way of not only
affects data collection, and hence, the usefulness
and credibility of research results. To develop such acknowledging tacit knowledge, but of work-
awareness, people collecting data should be aware ing through it in ethnographic terms.
of the effects of both tacit and formative theory. Anthropologists have addressed the
These are the sources of selectivity (and bias) methodological significance of emotions
because they create something analogous to a
as embodied social communicators acting
filter that admits relevant data and screens out
what does not seem interesting – even if, with between ethnographers and their interlocutors
hindsight, it could have been useful. (Le Compte (Davies, 2010; Spencer, 2010; Svašek, 2010).
2000: 146) It feels important to underline that emotional
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reflexivity does not begin at the desk, but they publicly articulated a community pride
starts during ethnographers’ encounters in of their ‘deviant’ cultural practices, particu-
the field and their documentation. Indeed, larly when expat activists, travelers, journal-
anthropology’s disciplinary rationale calls ists, artists, students and young women were
for researchers to immerse themselves in the present, only to reveal flawless Javanese
lives of others and to affectively relate to those displays of the culturally appropriate respect
lifeworlds as empathetic and compassionate and deferent propriety according to the cul-
fieldworkers. Only in so doing can anthro- tural etiquette in encounters with policemen,
pologists ‘blend in’ enough to grasp the pro- food stall and shop owners, or doctors and
tagonists’ ways of feeling-thinking, narrating nurses in community care centers and hospi-
and navigating through their local worlds. It tals, sometimes only a few moments later. I
therefore seems only logical to pay careful became skeptical of ‘the truth’ behind their
attention to affective and emotional practices stories, whenever I was drawn into emotion
during fieldwork. Since fieldwork produces talk that concluded with a subtle yet coer-
positionalities that can be particularly affec- cively concerted rhetoric to take action on
tive, a methodologically informed docu- their behalf, especially once I found out a
mentation of and reflection on researchers’ few days later that some emotive speeches
affective and emotional positionalities prom- were twisted again in conversations with oth-
ises to open up complementary and candid ers. At times, it was painful feeling used or to
pathways to ethnographic data construction. find out that stories of extreme hardships and
Enhanced emotional literacy (Davies and suffering might have been fabricated. Not
Stodulka, 2019) and a methodology taking knowing where to put recurring emotions of
ethnographers’ affects and emotions episte- disappointment and deception, I jotted them
mologically into account, helps in translating down in my emotion diary that I kept separate
field experiences based on observations, par- from my analytical, descriptive and meth-
ticipations, conversations, and imaginations odological field notes. Years later, when –
into a language that speaks to those who have again – trying to make sense of the protago-
not ‘been there,’ and who have not directly nists’ behavior at my desk, a qualitative con-
‘witnessed,’ or did not ‘immerse’ themselves. tent analysis of my emotion diary triggered
As one reviewer of this article has pointed surprising insights.
out, all this requires decent writing skills in The analysis produced an emotional land-
order to create fair and thick descriptions of scape that was almost identical to those that
contemporary lifeworlds. I had mapped out in the interviews and nar-
Paying attention to affect and emo- ratives of the protagonists’ most prominent
tions and documenting them systematically interaction partners. The recognition, reflec-
enriched my ethical awareness in establish- tion, and analysis of my own emotions as
ing and maintaining field rapport vis-à-vis related to the encounters with the protago-
power asymmetries between researcher and nists, and their comparison with the narratives
collaborators and contributed to the forma- of NGO activists, expatriate social workers,
tion of anthropological theory. I was aware artists, doctors, nurses, and others, helped
that identities, subjectivities, behavior and me to develop a theoretical framework that
speech were relational, contextual and con- attended to the social, emotive and affective
tested phenomena, and yet it took me years practices in these encounters. A more affec-
to make sense of the protagonists’ dramatic tively aware attention to what was at stake
switching of language, attuning body perfor- in the street encounters could only emerge
mance and postures, dress, style and speech after I had compared my own emotions as
when encountering others. In places that they they emerged in encounters with the young
had carved out of the city scape as their own men, to those of local NGO activists’, street
BK-SAGE-PEDERSEN_CLIGGETT-200588-Chp06.indd 95 30/12/20 10:14 PM96 The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Anthropology
workers’ and others’ narratives about their refined their social skills, empathic and
involvements with the young men. I realized transcultural competences of assessing and
that my emotions were not an exclusively framing encounters with various interaction
subjective experience, but a social fact that partners according to their own needs and
related me to both the protagonists and their desires. The social, cognitive, and emotional
interaction partners. Documenting and ana- knowledge immanent to their art of perspec-
lyzing emotions as they emerged in encoun- tive-taking significantly distinguished them
ters with the young men, and juxtaposing from their peers who were not living on the
them with those articulated by other interac- streets. Their capability to relate and interact
tion partners in interviews and conversations, in highly diverse social fields was amplified
triggered new questions to the ethnographic by their permanent exposure to others, where
material and helped me formulating a theory the refinement of social encounters, adequate
that I later defined as ‘emotional economies’ display of emotions, and placement of emo-
in at least two ways. tives was important for survival.
First, it helped me comprehend the young Second, the analysis of my emotion diary
men’s ways of coping with scarce material, triggered an understanding of the activists’,
economic, and kinship resources. I realized artists’, researchers’, or students’ imagina-
that emoting particular persons rhetorically tions and motivations to remain involved
and gluing them to their lives and concerns with the young men and women over years,
affectively by attuning their emotional display sometimes decades, despite the complaints
to the context of particular social encounters about them that they had ceaselessly articu-
according to their motivations and urgen- lated in interviews and conversations. Similar
cies, contributed to expanding their social to myself, they did not empathize, listen, care
networks, social and economic capital. For and engage without reason. They were not
example, whereas activists, researchers, back- only ‘exploited’. NGO activists, journalists,
packers, artists, or journalists could be useful travelers, anthropologists, young women, or
for their economic potentials, students could shop owners pursued their own motivations
be emoted to support them with shelter, doc- in their encounters with the young men. They
tors and nurses with care and medical support equally engaged in emotional economies but
free of charge, food stall owners and artists benefited on different terms. Whereas the
for snacks, drinks and goods, street-related young men translated emerging affective
women, tourists, or expatriates for comfort bonds into economic and other capital on the
or sex. Systematically putting my emotions spot, others profited in the long run. Travelers
into the ethnographic picturing of others’ and expatriate residents became involved in
encounters, helped explain the young men’s exciting, romantic, and adventurous affairs,
empathy and their unrivalled emotive and or long-term and fulfilling relationships,
social skills of transforming scarce material, sometimes marriages. Activists, volunteers,
economic, and kinship resources, marginality, and researchers could profit from the ‘voca-
and stigmatization into affective bonds and tional expertise’ acquired during their intern-
vital socioeconomic cooperation. By relating ships and research, enabling them to secure
to, affectively bonding with, and emotively further funding for their respective projects,
addressing particular persons, who could or to produce documentaries, dossiers, jour-
provide them with resources they needed to nal articles, and ethnographies. In my case,
not only survive, but also lead a ‘good life,’ for example, the affective bonds and related
the young men managed to transform social subsequent artifacts like this chapter, docu-
ties into material goods, money, and well- mentaries or books transformed as social
being. While coming of age on the streets, capital from ‘the field’ into cultural capi-
most young men learned and continuously tal materializing in the form of educational
BK-SAGE-PEDERSEN_CLIGGETT-200588-Chp06.indd 96 30/12/20 10:14 PMFieldwork, Ethnography, and Knowledge Construction 97
qualification, and subsequently, into eco- from connected spaces to mixed and virtual
nomic capital by means of my employment realities calling for the combination of both
at the university. In the context of knowledge on- and offline methods and modes of knowl-
construction, empathy and affectively relat- edge construction. Digital media and com-
ing to others is not only an ethnographic skill munication technologies have substantially
to generate scientific knowledge, but – not shaped the ways ethnographers communi-
unlike the street-related protagonists – it is cate and stay in touch with their interlocutors
also a practice in the pursuit of other more and research protagonists. These technologi-
personal and human goals of leading a ‘good cal advances have created new possibilities
enough life.’ for multi-temporal fieldwork over extended
The sustained interest in systematically periods of time with both large numbers of
engaging with ethnographer subjectivities, online participants or a small set of persons
affects and emotions during and after fieldwork in terms of collaborative, multivocal, and
resonates with the burgeoning new literature on multimedia ethnographies. With regards to
multimodal ethnography. The latter connects shifted styles of ethnographic representation,
different modes of knowledge construction the last ten years have witnessed a mush-
based on phenomenology, constructivism, and rooming of open access formats, blog writ-
fieldwork collaboration (Holmes and Marcus, ing, and living online documents. In times of
2008; Varvantakis and Nolas, 2019). limited funding and restricted mobilities
paired with increasing ecological awareness
that limit fieldwork travel, new formats of
knowledge construction are necessary.
EMERGENT COLLABORATIONS: Limits to actual face-to-face and in-situ
MULTIMODALITY, DIGITALITY AND fieldwork, which have long been the back-
THE ARTS bone of ethnographic research, also create
new collaborations between the arts and the
Multimodal, digital, and artistic scholarships sciences online and in the public spaces of
have flourished over the last decade for a museums, galleries, libraries and community
variety of reasons. These range from signifi- centers.
cant technological developments in commu- Besides attuning to these everyday prag-
nication possibilities to increased awareness matics, multimodal ethnographies aim to
that ethnography is a collaborative endeavor create and combine methods that can be pur-
between researchers and participants in their posefully integrated into the daily routines of
aspiration to influence scientific and public research participants. Instead of setting up
discourses (Dicks et al., 2006; O’Neill, 2009; artificial interview situations, asking interloc-
Pink, 2011). In an extension to the ‘compas- utors to tick boxes of questionnaires, or sum-
sionate turn’ of the 1990s, where anthropolo- moning them into laboratory experiments,
gists have sided with marginalized ethnographers focus on developing method-
communities, multimodal ethnographies ologies from which participants can benefit
predominantly ‘study up’ (Nader, 1972) and instead of disrupting their everyday flows of
collaborate with urban designers, architects, life. Multimodal ethnographies engage in the
political stakeholders, media gatekeepers, usage of different media and artifacts (e.g.
and data scientists. If we consider how the producing photographs, drawings, animated
ever-growing flood of digital media affects models and simulations of future societal or
our understanding of the world, methods in political scenarios) and embed them in par-
digital ethnography become steadily more ticipant observation as ‘natural experiments’.
important. The ‘digital turn’ has changed As an extension to ethnographic methodolo-
ethnographers’ perceptions of their field gies that strictly adhere to grounded theory,
BK-SAGE-PEDERSEN_CLIGGETT-200588-Chp06.indd 97 30/12/20 10:14 PM98 The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Anthropology
proponents of this emerging trend aim at itself, since ethnographers start to directly
bringing different modes and media of learn- feel the impact of fundamental revisions
ing through the field together in creative ways of national and transnational jurisdictions
(Kohrs, 2017; Stodulka et al., 2018; Stoller, and laws on digital data protection, copy-
1997). In reference to sensuous and affective right and personal rights. Doing research
scholarship, Varvantakis and Nolas remind alongside vulnerable or politically contro-
us that ‘sense-making in the field and after versial communities both on- and offline
is a multisensory practice that is at once an creates new ethical responsibilities towards
intellectual and visceral process. Such sense- our interlocutors, their online personae and
making implies various forms of entangle- e-communication.
ment: of body and mind, field and desk, past Whereas some ethnographers have
and present, to name a few of these enmesh- always maintained close ties to the arts, arts-
ments’ (2019: 368). Although grounded in based methods of knowledge construction
face-to-face research, multimodal ethnogra- (Schneider, 2016) are increasingly thriv-
phy shares challenges of combining existing ing in anthropology classrooms. In addi-
with yet to be explored methods with digital tion to collaborative visual anthropologies
ethnography (Coleman, 2010; Pink et al., (Lemelson and Tucker, 2017; MacDougall,
2018). The latter is a bustling endeavor that 1998; Walter, 2018) and experimental col-
continues in its resourceful attempts to com- laborations between artists and anthro-
bine classic close-reading with novel tech- pologists (Kusumaryati and Karel, 2020),
nologically assisted statistical methods (e.g. contemporary forms of artistically inspired
natural language processing, data mining, or ethnography also utilize the arts as theoreti-
programming algorithms) for the analysis cally informed fieldwork practice. Similar to
of language and image-based (big) online Ingold’s ethnographic walking and drawing
data alongside the continuous technological (2011), Causey (2016) and Taussig (2011)
advancements in both our everyday lives and remind anthropologists of the epistemo-
fieldwork documentation methods. logical power of sketching and drawing, in
Another burgeoning area of fieldwork and contrast to snapshot photography and smart-
ethnography is the critical study of (big) data phone video, when attending to the field.
and datafication (Boellstorff and Maurer, Lowe, for example, teaches a combination
2015). Within this interdisciplinary research of different methods (Schnegg and Lowe,
field, a growing number of anthropologists 2020) and makes use of theory and practice
are engaging in studying humans’ ways of from still painting to attune the ethnogra-
living with data, data power, and the prag- pher’s perception and senses to the field in
matic impact of data management plans, data graduate courses. In a collaboration between
protection laws, and data ethics. Ruckenstein graphic illustrators, anthropologists, and ref-
and Schüll, two authors who combine FGDs ugees, Martínez (2019) and colleagues cre-
and interviews with technologically assisted ated (ethno-)graphic short stories of forced
programming and algorithms, highlight that migration trajectories that were exhibited in
a ‘related strain of scholarship that might be public libraries. Kong and Sinha (2016) have
characterized as “data activism” explores illustrated how to historically track food-
how the capacities of data technology ways, railroad tracks and related infrastruc-
might be harnessed to promote social jus- tures in their attempt to create a kaleidoscope
tice, equality, new forms of agency, politi- of historical and contemporary migration
cal participation, and collective action – and trajectories, while Low (2015) has engaged
to challenge accepted norms and ideologi- in sensory walk-alongs in order to construct
cal projects’ (2017: 272). Ultimately, data experiential knowledge on social stratifica-
activism extends to anthropological practice tion and cultural stereotyping in Singapore’s
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