The Value of Autoethnography for Field Research in Transcultural Settings

Abstract

Mary Louise Pratt uses the term autoethnography to refer to those instances in which members of colonized groups strive to represent themselves to their colonizers in ways that engage with colonizers' terms while also remaining faithful to their own self-understandings. This paper extends Pratt's conceptualization of autoethnography and describes how it may be used to inform field research in transcultural settings in the formerly colonized world. Drawing from research in a village in northern Pakistan, we argue that approaching fieldwork with an “autoethnographic sensibility” can yield important epistemological, methodological, and political insights into our research practices. The paper concludes by suggesting that these insights extend beyond a postcolonial, or even cross-cultural, research context, to inform more general debates in human geography about how to achieve a critical and reflexive research practice.

Key Words:

• autoethnography
• methodology
• field research
• Pakistan

Notes

*The research described in this paper was supported by SSHRC (410-95-0289), the National Science Foundation (SBR-9712017), and the Social Sciences Research Council (Pre-dissertation Fellowship). The authors wish to thank the residents of Shimshal and Askole for what they have helped us learn, as well as Paul Berkowitz, Nancy Cook, and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of the paper.