Ambiguities of “Insider-ness” in the Study of Religion: Reflecting on Experiences from Ethiopia
Issue: Vol 11 No. 2 (2016)
Journal: Fieldwork in Religion
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Linguistics
DOI: 10.1558/firn.29682
Abstract:
Based on the author’s experience in conducting fieldwork on religion in Ethiopia, in this article she analyses the complexities of being an insider in a certain socio-political and economic context. Instead of ascribing an essence to insider-ness as a straightforward and definite category, it is argued that insider-ness is a product of dynamic and complex intersubjective interactions and processes. It is an ambiguous position marked by a continuous shift resulting from the researcher’s navigations between multiple identities at different times and environments in relation to research participants. As pointed out by Bourke (2014), the perpetual flux of one’s identity as an insider or an outsider stems from the researcher’s position: gender, class, ethnic background and religious as well as political persuasion. Furthermore, in as much as one enjoys the associated benefits thereof, the insider is faced with myriad challenges due to her or his variegated identities that in turn inform interlocutors’ perceptions, expectations and responses.
Author: Serawit Bekele Debele
References :
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1985. “The genesis of the concepts of habitus and of field” Sociocriticism, 2, 11-24.
Bourke, Brian. 2014. “Positionality: Reflecting on the Research Process” The Qualitative Report, 19, 1-9.
Briggs, Charles L. 1986. Learning How to Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cloudry, Nick. 2000. Inside Culture: Reimagining the method of cultural studies. Sage Publications.
Joanne Mackellar. 2013. “Participant observation at events: theory, practice and potential”, International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 4.1, 56-65.
Kawulich, Barbara B. 2005. “Participant Observation as a Data Collection Method”, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6.2, 43, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0502430.
MacDonald, Saharaa. 2013. Expressing post-secular citizenship: A sociological Exposition of Islamic education in South Africa, Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Johannesburg.
Marcus, George E. and Fischer, Michael M.G. 1999. Anthropology as a Cultural Critique 2nd ed,. The University of Chicago Press.
Okley, Judith and Callaway, Hellen (eds). 2005. Anthropology and Autobiography. Routledge.
Robben, Antonius C. G. M. 1995. “Ethnographic seduction, Transference and resistance in dialogues about terror and violence in Argentina”, in Antonius C.G.M and Jeffery A Sluka ed. Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological reader. Wiley-Blackwell.
Sepp, Tiina. 2012. “Interview as an act of seduction: Analysing problems I have met during my fieldwork on the Camino De Santiago and in Glastonbury,” Estonian Literary Museum, Estonian National Museum, University of Tartu, 6.2, 29-48.