The Trouble with Autoethnography. Between Method, Technique, and Self-Writing

Abstract

The article looks at autoethnography as the resultant of several processes that have been observable in the social sciences for some time. The first of these is the turn towards emotions, and the second is the self-reflexive nature of the research process, together with the acknowledgement that it is impossible to separate the researcher from their research experiences. This is linked to the postmodern disbelief in the explanatory potential of grand narratives or the generalization of scientific assertions. Postmodernism has not only brought with it new ways of interpreting reality, but has also introduced a creative ferment in the field of methodology and empirical research. It has been responsible for the emergence of methodological pluralism and an opening up to diverse types of knowledge production, such as ethnography, autoethnography, case studies, and discourse analysis, while remaining fully aware of their limitations, local character, and contextuality. Performative ethnography based on art (art-based research), using such forms of expression as poetry, images, art installations, ethnodramas, and autoethnography, represents just a few examples of research practices that continue to arouse resistance among researchers with a scientistic orientation.