Self‐doubt and soft data: social and technical trajectories in ethnographic fieldwork

Abstract

The role of the researcher's self and social relations in the construction of the ethnographic fieldwork experience is considered. The social trajectory through fieldwork, the researcher's distribution of time and energy, in different places, with different people, and at different times, needs to be carefully and skilfully produced by deliberate choices and reflexive decision‐making. Reflexivity provides the mechanism for relating social relations to the technicalities of data collection, and thus it is the basis of rigour in ethnography. The social skills and creative intelligence of the fieldworker are emphasized in contrast to technical competence.