From ethnographic ‘self’-discovery to processes of identification

Abstract

Descriptions of the research experience are vital to ethnography and have often been mediated through the writings about the researcher ‘self’. Consequently, the concept of self has taken up a central position in literature on ethnographic work. In order to renew the discussion on the ethnographic researcher position, I intend to explore further what status is given to such descriptions and notions of self. In this article I analyse how researcher identity claims were made through the practice of ethnographic description drawn from field notes produced during a study of a Swedish workplace. Building on the results of the analysis, I suggest that the ethnographic researcher will not be able to discover her self in the process of research. Rather, I argue, researcher identity is constructed in ethnographic research practice where the researcher goes into processes of identification.