Autoethnography in human-computer interaction: Theory and practice

A Rapp - New directions in third wave human-computer …, 2018 - Springer
New directions in third wave human-computer interaction: Volume 2-Methodologies, 2018Springer
Autoethnography is an ethnographic method in which a fieldworker's experience is
investigated together with the experience of other observed social actors. Over the years,
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research almost exclusively produced “objective
ethnographies”, attempting to generate accurate descriptions of the “world” and the
individuals inhabiting it. However, recently HCI community started exploring different forms
of observing and describing reality, making the ethnographer regain visibility, and produce …
Abstract
Autoethnography is an ethnographic method in which a fieldworker’s experience is investigated together with the experience of other observed social actors. Over the years, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research almost exclusively produced “objective ethnographies”, attempting to generate accurate descriptions of the “world” and the individuals inhabiting it. However, recently HCI community started exploring different forms of observing and describing reality, making the ethnographer regain visibility, and produce reflexive first-person recounts of her work. Autoethnography might be precisely inscribed in this movement, whereby it explicitly attempts to recount the fieldwork from the fieldworker’s point of view, situating the ethnographer as the protagonist of the ethnographic narration. In this chapter, I will outline the anthropological roots of the autoethnographic method, and describe its potential implications for HCI research.
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