Trouble in Paradise

Abstract

Over the last 25 years or so, the academic world has experienced an explosion of new qualitative approaches to social inquiry in many fields. As scholars began to push the boundaries of what counts as knowledge, the “old guard” began to attack, apparently attempting to maintain a hold on the territory that was shifting underneath their feet. These attacks on qualitative inquiry—particularly toward the new/alternative modalities such as autoethnography and performance—have persisted, especially within the so-called social sciences. These attacks often seem to take the form of questioning the legitimacy of the methodology or methods employed in these works. In this autoethnographic essay, I take on the attacks and offer fitting responses from my personal journey.