Merel Visse and Alistair Niemeijer
– The purpose of this paper is to focus on the possibilities of autoethnography as a commitment to care and a social justice agenda (Denzin, 2014:p. x).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the possibilities of autoethnography as a commitment to care and a social justice agenda (Denzin, 2014:p. x).
Design/methodology/approach
Autoethnography can be seen as a “methodology that allows us to examine how the private troubles of individuals are connected to public issues and to public responses to these troubles” (Mills, 1959, cited in Denzin, 2014). This resonates strongly with the field of study: political care ethics, as the main focus is on how to promote a caring society. “Care” might be conceived broadly as everything the authors do to maintain and repair the world; i.e., as a social praxis.
Findings
Care ethics can benefit from autoethnography, as there is a strong(er) emphasis on “what matters,” what people care for, about and why, rather than on what is “right.” In this paper, the authors will thus explore the promises and pitfalls of autoethnography for a caring society, by connecting insights from theories on political care ethics and qualitative inquiry with the own autoethnographic performance at the International Conference on Qualitative Inquiry in May 2015.
Originality/value
Care ethics can benefit from autoethnography, as there is a strong(er) emphasis on “what matters,” what people care for, about and why, rather than on what is “right.”
Details
Keywords
Robert E. Rinehart and Kerry Earl
– The purpose of this paper is to make a case for the strength of qualitative work, but more specifically for various kinds of ethnographies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make a case for the strength of qualitative work, but more specifically for various kinds of ethnographies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors argue that global neoliberal and audit culture policies have crept into academic research, tertiary education practice, and research culture.
Findings
The authors then discuss major tenets of and make the case for the use of auto-, duo-, and collaborative-ethnographies as caring practices and research method(ologies) that may in fact push back against such hegemonic neoliberal practices in the academy. Finally, the authors link these caring types of ethnographies to the papers within this special issue.
Originality/value
This is an original look at the concepts of auto-, duo-, and collaborative-ethnographies with relation to caring practices.