Book chapter
Searching for 'My' Mexico: An autoethnographic account of unlearning and relearning about the limits of knowing the Other
Questions of Culture in Autoethnography, pp.43-56
Routledge, 1
2018
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Abstract
This chapter explores the complications and tensions of researching a field which is not completely ‘strange’ to the researcher and in which they are not a complete Other. Rather what Bhabha (1994) terms a ‘third space’ is occupied, the position between the insider and outsider researcher. There has been extensive discussion regarding a researcher’s positionality and the possibility of mediating the effects of positioning in research. The focus of this discussion is a PhD journey which began with the expectation of understanding and representing the participants’ research to an acknowledgment of the limitations of what a researcher can know. The analysis of two autoethnographic narratives in this chapter aims to demonstrate the ways in which autoethnography can assist a researcher in their exploration and problematisation of their own construction of cultures when conducting research about cultures to which they are neither insiders nor outsiders.
This chapter explores the complications and tensions of researching a field which is not completely ‘strange’ to the researcher and in which they are not a complete Other. Rather what Bhabha (1994) terms a ‘third space’ is occupied, the position between the insider and outsider researcher. There has been extensive discussion regarding a researcher’s positionality and the possibility of mediating the effects of positioning in research. The focus of this discussion is a PhD journey which began with the expectation of understanding and representing the participants’ research to an acknowledgment of the limitations of what a researcher can know. The analysis of two autoethnographic narratives in this chapter aims to demonstrate the ways in which autoethnography can assist a researcher in their exploration and problematisation of their own construction of cultures when conducting research about cultures to which they are neither insiders nor outsiders.
In this chapter, the author discusses two conclusions she drew from her PhD experience, by analysing two pivotal moments in her thesis journey. First, she explores the impact of her positionality as, as a past exchange student and a researcher, she occupied what Bhabha terms a 'third space', the position between the insider and outsider researcher. Second, having initially set out to discover the way in which the Other is constructed and then altered when a person is immersed in Other cultural worlds for an extended period of time, the author learns about herself, her construction of the Other and the limitations of what she can know as a researcher. The author focuses on two autoethnographic vignettes; the first describes an interview she conducted with an undergraduate exchange student in Mexico as part of her PhD fieldwork. The second narrative reflects on her PhD thesis completion celebration.
Details
- Title
- Searching for 'My' Mexico
- Creators
- Alice Cranney - University of New South Wales
- Publication Details
- Questions of Culture in Autoethnography, pp.43-56
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Edition
- 1
- Number of pages
- 14
- Identifiers
- 991013247961302368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter