Ethnography.\u00a0 What a word \u2013 or is it more than mere words?<\/p>\n
In all honesty, this was a tough read for me, not because of the subject matter (I love cultural anthropology), but because of the highly academic style Pink uses in her text.\u00a0 It was like walking through quicksand for me at times, but I never gave up.\u00a0 That is not an option.\u00a0 The reason I am sharing this is that I am wondering if I am the only one who struggled through this text.\u00a0 Can anyone else relate to these feelings?<\/p>\n
In Visual Ethnography (2007), Sarah Pink argues for a reflexive research model to study culture, one that includes not only written data but visual data as well.\u00a0 Throughout her text, Pink argues that researchers of culture move away from the \u201cscientific-realist\u201d style of cultural interpretation and move toward a more collaborative, participatory, and subjective style of ethnographic methodology.\u00a0 Rather than stick to conventional processes that place the ethnographer as the authority, the author suggests that equal importance be given to local informants who can better interpret the meaning of photographic and video data being used in her research projects.\u00a0 Pink\u2019s emphasis on honoring her informants brought to mind the words of Scripture: \u201cDo not think of yourself more highly than you ought\u2026\u201d (Romans 12:3).\u00a0 It is not about us.\u00a0 It is never merely about us.<\/p>\n
Every culture has its own battles with ethnocentricity, not just Americans.\u00a0 And if we are not careful, the \u201cprivileged culture of the highly educated\u201d will also think of ourselves more highly than we ought.\u00a0 Pink boldly confronts this self-centered thinking by embracing her informants and trusting their interpretations of her photos and other visual artifacts created in her research.\u00a0 This attitude made me excited about doing ethnographic projects myself.\u00a0 The learners then are not just the local people but the researcher herself becomes a learner.\u00a0 It is this epistemological truth that shines through Sarah Pink\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
Pink also argues that \u201creality is subjective\u201d; it is not always easy nor is it always black and white.\u00a0 She repeatedly affirms that the most important part of her work is found in the relationships she forms.\u00a0 Pink seems to be urging her readers to pay attention and to be aware of what is going on around them relationally.\u00a0 Honor those who are giving of their time and of their lives to your projects.\u00a0 Don\u2019t take them for granted.\u00a0 And don\u2019t think you are better than them because of all you know.\u00a0 This message spoke powerfully to me, even when I was in deep quicksand.<\/p>\n
As we approach London and our ethnographic projects, what can we learn from Pink?\u00a0 In our overt and covert work of observing, photographing, interviewing, and interpreting our work, let\u2019s not forget that it is not about us.\u00a0 We will be unable to interpret clearly what we see on our own.\u00a0 In fact, we will probably makes fools of ourselves in assigning categories and meaning to our photos and films.\u00a0 Without guidance from the locals, we just might be filling SD cards.\u00a0 I for one am going to focus on building relationships in London and not merely on taking photos.\u00a0 It is only then that I will learn what I am supposed to learn.\u00a0 In the end, I trust that the ground of understanding will be solid and I won\u2019t find myself sinking again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ethnography.\u00a0 What a word \u2013 or is it more than mere words? In all honesty, this was a tough read for me, not because of the subject matter (I love cultural anthropology), but because of the highly academic style Pink uses in her text.\u00a0 It was like walking through quicksand for me at times, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,273],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-pink-ve","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2906,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}