When first designing a research project and particularly when drawing the linkages between the theoretical, philosophical and empirical approaches on which the research will be grounded (Ward 2014), methodological questions often constitute the most compelling challenges for early-stage researchers and Ph.D. candidates. Qualitative methods and specially ethnographic investigations are gaining momentum and indeed recent situated inquiries in geography studies have distanced themselves from straightforward ethnographic narratives based on prefixed social categories. Instead, they adopt processual and in-becoming conceptualizations of the everyday agencies occurring in urban spaces, possibly to contest given social classifications. Nonetheless, the long-standing debates on the effectiveness and scientific legitimacy of ethnographic approaches are still animate. Concerns of power, ethics and positionality are particularly vivid for a researcher; issues of consistency, accuracy and accountability of narrative-making methods along with questions about the scientific rigor of the production of this type of knowledge often emerge and need to be confronted and worked out. Furthermore, there is usually a latent eagerness for producing transformative actions and generative alternatives that go beyond a purely descriptive sphere and instead demands to engage politically with the situated accounts that the researched contexts could open. This contribution aims to further explore the mentioned dilemmas. The objective is to address these basilar research and ethical questions in the light of approaches that could unravel them, such as the concepts of phronetic approach to social science (Flyvbjerg 2001, 2004) and of positive generative critique (Latour 2004, McFarlane 2011b).

Beginners' queries: researchers' design and ethical questions when first approaching ethnography as methodology / Basile, Chiara. - (2016). (Intervento presentato al convegno City Lights. Cities and citizens within/beyond/notwithstanding the crisis tenutosi a Turin nel 16-18 june 2016).

Beginners' queries: researchers' design and ethical questions when first approaching ethnography as methodology

BASILE, CHIARA
2016

Abstract

When first designing a research project and particularly when drawing the linkages between the theoretical, philosophical and empirical approaches on which the research will be grounded (Ward 2014), methodological questions often constitute the most compelling challenges for early-stage researchers and Ph.D. candidates. Qualitative methods and specially ethnographic investigations are gaining momentum and indeed recent situated inquiries in geography studies have distanced themselves from straightforward ethnographic narratives based on prefixed social categories. Instead, they adopt processual and in-becoming conceptualizations of the everyday agencies occurring in urban spaces, possibly to contest given social classifications. Nonetheless, the long-standing debates on the effectiveness and scientific legitimacy of ethnographic approaches are still animate. Concerns of power, ethics and positionality are particularly vivid for a researcher; issues of consistency, accuracy and accountability of narrative-making methods along with questions about the scientific rigor of the production of this type of knowledge often emerge and need to be confronted and worked out. Furthermore, there is usually a latent eagerness for producing transformative actions and generative alternatives that go beyond a purely descriptive sphere and instead demands to engage politically with the situated accounts that the researched contexts could open. This contribution aims to further explore the mentioned dilemmas. The objective is to address these basilar research and ethical questions in the light of approaches that could unravel them, such as the concepts of phronetic approach to social science (Flyvbjerg 2001, 2004) and of positive generative critique (Latour 2004, McFarlane 2011b).
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2674890
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