The aim of the article is to present how autoethnography, understood as a technique of obtaining data in the process of ethnographic research, contributes to the development of theoretical and methodological reflection in anthropology. The author argues that this practice provides rich material that makes it possible to reflect on the relationship between the situation of the researcher and the type of knowledge created. Autoethnography also makes it possible to grasp events, and thus those moments thanks to which scraps of ideas, thoughts, or theoretical concepts begin to combine with each other to create a compact and organized narrative, and ethnographic research acquires cohesiveness. The author simultaneously emphasizes the important role of emotion. She indicates that the existence of particularly intense experiences on the part of both the researcher and the persons studied should be seen not only in the psychological perspective but as a reaction to the breaking or undermining of the prevailing principle—a response to non-standard behavior, which does not fit into the established order. The reflections presented in the article are illustrated with examples from field work which was conducted in a production facility located in one of the Special Economic Zones in the voivodeship of Lower Silesia.
