Reflexive Practice as Ethics and Political Position

Abstract

The following article deals with the ethical implications of reflexive practice in an ethnographic study of heroin use in a neighbourhood of the city of Barcelona (Spain). The fieldwork was carried out during a period of historically high prevalence of heroin use (1994—5) and the analysis was extended to the year 2000. Various situations experienced during the fieldwork were analysed, and the `positions' of the ethnographer or author of the text were explored in two ways: (1) based on intersubjective components of the informant-ethnographer relationship (social categories, emotions, decision making, authority, etc.); and (2) based on the tension of `enunciative positions' (of the discourse) within the text. Among the results I can highlight are: (1) building awareness of the `enunciative positions' shown in the text; (2) the possible transformations of the subjects involved that is, of the informants, the ethnographer and the readers, and the multiple subjectivities that emerge and stand out in the specific contexts of interaction, and (3) the ethical implications of these positions.