I\u2019m reflecting on the arrival of my first batch of books for this semester.\u00a0 That happy little brown box with the smiley symbol emblazoned across the front always brings me joy when it arrives and in this case, the joy was a little more pronounced than usual.\u00a0 It was also accompanied by another sensation I hadn\u2019t felt in quite a while.\u00a0 I was giddy.\u00a0 Yes, giddy<\/i>.\u00a0 I have three daughters so believe me when I say that I know giddiness when I see it and I had it!\u00a0 This little brown box contained not only printed words bound together on pages, it represented something much larger and more significant for me.<\/p>\n
The contents of that box symbolized my significance, worth exponentially more than the actual cost of the volumes.\u00a0 These books meant that I had been accepted into an elite community of scholars, world-changers, intellectual giants, and I was ready to walk tall among them.\u00a0 This was doctoral<\/i> work after all.\u00a0 And only a very small percentage of the population will ever engage in this pursuit.\u00a0 I was giddy.\u00a0 My wife was standing nearby when the package arrived so, of course, I casually mentioned, \u201coh look, my first books are here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tina (in customary, supportive Tina style) exclaimed: \u201cYay!\u00a0 Open it up, let\u2019s see!\u201d\u00a0 So I, ever so calmly, opened the package, ready to revel in the high-minded volumes contained therein.\u00a0 It was a glorious moment!\u00a0 I, standing in all my academic splendor, with my adoring wife of 23 years by my side, ready to take on whatever challenges may come\u2026 Glorious. \u00a0Upon seeing the first two titles, Tina said something like, \u201cwhat\u2019s ethnography?\u00a0 You have two books on the subject, it must be important.\u201d\u00a0 In that moment, my giddiness turned to stone cold anxiety over the possibility of being found out, exposed for the fraud I was when I had to answer honestly\u2026 \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0 In that moment, \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d the hardest three words for an aspiring intellectual giant to utter, became a readily available catch phrase for me.\u00a0 I Don\u2019t Know.\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>Sigh\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know what ethnography was prior to entrance into this program.\u00a0 Sure, I could piece together a working definition that would approximate the meaning simply based on what little I know about etymology, but I had never engaged in any meaningful discourse relative to ethnography let alone its sub-disciplines of visual-ethnography and sensory-ethnography.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe I don\u2019t know as much about stuff as I think I do\u201d was the revelation I arrived at pretty quickly.\u00a0 Then I opened the book Doing Visual Ethnography<\/i> and my brain began to implode.\u00a0 After reading it (AUTHOR\u2019S NOTE.\u00a0 I, like an idiot, began reading my books before I saw the order prescribed by our program leader.\u00a0 So by the time we got to the Bayard text, I had already completed Pink!\u00a0 Man, now that\u2019s some great timing, right?)<\/i> I can say that I do now know what ethnography is (sort of) and I\u2019m actually looking forward to engaging in some of my own as we move through this term.<\/p>\n
Ethnography, as best I can understand it, is the close study of a culture by the ethnographer who is imbedded in that culture to the greatest degree possible.\u00a0 By living wth, moving among, interacting with, the people and space of the culture, she comes to know it in ways that cannot be effectively known by clinical, third-party observation.\u00a0 I get it.\u00a0 Where I get a little fuzzy on the whole thing is how can the ethnographer truly study a culture in its most natural state if he is principally impacting said culture by virtue of his presence in it? Especially if the ethnographer is running around everywhere, aiming a camera at the actual members of the culture, the people that actually belong there.\u00a0 Can we expect them to act normal under those circumstances?<\/p>\n
It seems that the goal of ethnography is not merely to report an understanding of a culture based on observation but rather, to engage in \u201cthe production and representation of ethnographic knowledge.\u201d1 \u00a0It seems, in fact, to be expected practice for the ethnographer to manipulate and dictate circumstances which could lead to a preferred outcome upon which he can then report.\u00a0 The reporter ceases to report the news and begins creating it.\u00a0 This is an important consideration for me to reflect upon when the time comes for my own ethnographic research to be undertaken.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping that I won\u2019t fall prey to the ever-present, human tendency toward manipulation and insert my own spin on otherwise legitimate research.\u00a0 I\u2019m keenly aware that, much like data and statistics, images can be easily interpreted to prove the points of two, diametrically opposed combatants in any argument.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m not careful, I can be as manipulative as the next guy!\u00a0 Among my many inadequacies, self-awareness is not one!<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m still a little giddy too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
_________________________________<\/p>\n
1. Sarah Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography <\/i>(London: Sage, 2007), 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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