Volume 16, Issue 3

Abstract

Beyond navel-gazing and narcissism.Ferrell’s auto-ethnography as part of ethnography

Beyond navel-gazing and narcissism.Ferrell’s auto-ethnography as part of ethnography

The labeling of auto-ethnography as navel-gazing does not do justice to the variety with which auto-ethnography is applied. A distinction should be made between emotional and analytical auto-ethnography. In the first form the central person of the researcher plays the central role, in the second auto-ethnography is applied to get a better understanding of the social world which is being studied. In this article the author discusses the second approach by using the work of Jeff Ferrell. Ferrell is a well-known cultural criminologist, who focuses critically on the cultural understanding of social life. By looking at how Ferrell applies auto-ethnography, insight is gained into the added value of this method for qualitative studies: (1) the integration of the personal experiences of researchers in texts in order to achieve a richer description of the social worlds they explore, (2) making explicit the role of the researcher in publications, and (3) developing new (more appealing) forms of representation.

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/content/journals/10.5117/2011.016.003.025
2011-09-01
2024-03-28
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http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.5117/2011.016.003.025
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Keyword(s): auto-ethnography,cultural criminology,thick description,ethnic diversity,social cohesion

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