Symbiotic Autoethnography

Description

Autoethnography is generating increasing levels of interest in research circles, gaining popularity as an innovative and inciting qualitative approach. Drawing on the vast diversity of researchers’ opinions on autoethnographic praxes, this book presents a cogent analysis of the ongoing debates in the field before moving on to the discussion of a new approach to both theorizing about and ‘doing’ autoethnography: a ‘symbiotic autoethnography’.
This approach synthesizes central aspects from the diversity of existing arguments into one adaptable ‘framework’ that combines key characteristic features of autoethnographic research. The author uses the concept of ‘symbiosis’ in its broader sense to denote close interdependence and interrelation between its suggested seven attributes, including temporality, researcher’s omnipresence, evocative storytelling, interpretative analysis, political (transformative) focus, reflexivity and polyvocality. The book offers both experienced and novice researchers a theoretically informed multi-functional and multi-disciplinary methodological tool that can accommodate the dynamics of diverse personal experiences within a topography of specific professional, cultural and socio-political contexts.

Liana Beattie is Associate Head of Department in the Faculty of Education at Edge Hill University, UK.

Introduction
Part I: ‘De-Mystifying’ Autoethnography 1. What is Autoethnography?
2. Contemporary Debates about Autoethnography
Part II: Theorizing about Symbiotic Autoethnography3. What is Symbiotic Autoethnography?
4. Key Features of Symbiotic Autoethnography
Part III: ‘Doing’ Symbiotic Autoethnography5. Working Symbiotically with Autoethnographic Data
6. Moving Beyond the Boundaries of Validity
7. Autoethnographic Ethics in Symbiosis
References
Index

“This innovative text presents an interesting holistic framework, addressing seminal AE debates, and offers practical guidance for both philosophically positioning and practically ‘doing’ AE from a symbiotic perspective. It provides sufficient detail to understand the genesis of AE and ample guidance to ‘do’ and ‘write’ AE symbiotically, enabling researchers to critically situate their own personal study.” —Sally Sambrook, Emerita Professor, Bangor Business School, Bangor University, UK

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