Public ethnography

Autoethnography and symbolic interactionism: a way of being and seeing the world

The subject of this paper is the link between the conceptual tools of symbolic interactionism and ethnography, with particular reference to autoethnography. Ethnography and symbolic interactionism are closely intertwined, both from a historical point of view and in terms of their theoretical points of reference. This deep bond formed in the context of the Chicago School at the beginning of the last century, in the early days of urban sociology and applied sociology. After briefly introducing some historical references to the link between symbolic interactionism and ethnography, and offering a basic definition of autoethnography, we analyze the link between interactionism and ethnography using the metaautoethnographic method. The main general propositions that emerge from our work are: a) Social life, identities, social relationships are fluid, not static, and autoethnographic research is a consciously situated form of ethnography; b) Autoethnographic research is open but grounded in the transformations of «obdurate reality» (Blumer), with which the researcher negotiates the process of ethnographic interpretation and understanding; c) «Epiphanies» (Denzin) and «sensitizing concepts» (Blumer) are crucial tools for autoethnographic interpretation; d) Autoethnography is a way of seeing the world. The autoethnographic process is a time-consuming, open, flexible, and often very demanding way of understanding reality. The autoethnographer is himself both observed and observer. His way of viewing the world around him also becomes the prism through which he filters all the information that allows him to understand the situation he is studying, in a continuous, ongoing process of interpretation.

Este artigo explora algumas tensões presentes na obra do antropólogo e médico Didier Fassin, a partir de uma análise de
argumentos desenvolvidos em pesquisas na França, com desempregados e imigrantes, e na África do Sul do pós-apartheid, com base na epidemia de AIDS. Ao longo da análise, aponta-se para algumas das implicações do trabalho nos limites da crítica e
da intervenção, bem como seus efeitos para repensar o papel da antropologia no mundo contemporâneo. Por fim, encerra-se com
uma discussão de sua investigação mais recente – a proposição de uma antropologia moral – e como ela permite articular diferentes
pontos de sua obra.

This article discusses the multiple difficulties an anthropologist encounters when taking the risk of engaging in ethnography with contemporary neo-fascist activists. Based on my ethnographic experience with self-declared third millennium fascist activists in Rome in 2010 and the afterlife of that ethnographic encounter (2015-2018), this article seeks to give an ethnographically driven contribution to debates about the consequences of collaborating, the dangers of encountering fascist violence, and the epistemological reflections social sciences face when agreeing to taking the risk of fieldwork encounters. https://revues.mshparisnord.fr/chcp/index.php?id=474