Moving Beyond “Insider or Outsider”: The Ethnographic Challenges of Researching Elite Sport Facilities in New Zealand

Abstract

Recently, several researchers have highlighted the difficulty with the binary terms “insider–outsider” within qualitative research. We similarly critique the insider/outsider binary in this article, but offer an alternative by utilizing Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts of capital, habitus, and field to compare two researcher’s ethnographic accounts of researching sports facilities in New Zealand. One of the ethnographers, D.S., describes himself as closer to an outsider than an insider in the context of the velodrome he was examining, while R.K. describes herself as an insider in the field of gymnastics. Through comparing their accounts, we show how the language of insider/outsider can be limiting. Instead, we argue that Bourdieu’s framework provides a more nuanced account of researcher positionality that moves beyond the insider/outsider binary, while affording insights into the reflexive and fluid researcher performances that shape the ethnographically researched field.