2001/07/01 by Luke Eric Lassiter · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Health Professions · Psychology · #Multilingual Education and Policy #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Community Health and Development #Ethnography #Reading (process) #Metaphor #Sociology #Interpretation (philosophy) #Dialogical self #Gender studies #Anthropology #Linguistics #Psychology #Social psychology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1086/jar.57.2.3631564
openalex publication_date 2001/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In the last several decades, the metaphor of dialogue has influenced the work of a growing number of ethnographers. Many have taken to heart the critiques of those such as Clifford, Rosaldo, or Crapanzano and accordingly replaced "reading over the shoulders of natives" with "reading alongside natives." They have thus sought to develop ethnography along dialogical lines and have in their individual accounts shifted the dominant style of writing from authoritative monologue to involved dialogue between ethnographer and interlocutor. Fewer ethnographers, however, have sought to literally extend the metaphor of dialogue to its next logical step--the collaborative reading and interpretation (between the ethnographer and his or her "informants") of the very ethnographic text itself. In this article I explore the political and ethical implications of a collaborative and reciprocal ethnography, especially how a collaborative practice can further narrow the gap between the academy and the communities in which ethnographers work.