Field notes: ethnographic writing reconsidered

Abstract

Even after the so-called ‘crisis of representation’ in ethnographic research the representation of cultural practices constitutes the focal point of ethnographic research practices. Although ethnographic representations are now conceived of as realizations of (other) cultural practices, from a methodological point of view little has been said about the devices with which ethnographic representation is performed. This paper discusses two of the aspects constituting ethnographic research: firstly, the switch between the perspectives of documentarism of the ethnographic data, and a reflexive understanding of this data, and, secondly, the implications of representation devices used in ethnographic research.