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...
moreAutoethnography 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 After briefly introducing some historical references to the link between symbolic interactionism and ethnography, and offering a basic definition of autoethnography, we analyze the link between interactionism and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.