Chapter 9. Drug User Researchers as Autoethnographers: “Doing Reflexivity” With Women Drug Users

Abstract

This article explores autoethnography, based upon transcribed, narratives, conversations, and research notes, as a useful method of creating social and cultural insights into the lives of women drug users and their particular kinds of problems and to related issues of reflexivity, reliability, and validity. A critical issue is raised by asking the question “where do we go from here?” contending that we must challenge outdated methodological traditions and canons that deny autoethnographers their voice and close the door to their claims of authenticity.