One aspect of my research I aim to examine more in-depth is the role of the body as a site of both learning and resistance. While few studies within adult education explore this, Elana Michelson’s (2015) work Gender, Experience, and Knowledge in Adult Learning sets a standard for looking at how bodily experiences can serve as the basis for knowledge creation. Using Michelson’s work as a benchmark, this discussion focuses on how qualitative methodologies position the body within research, or what Ribeiro (2017) and Monaghan (2006) refer to as embodied ethnography. The following discussion will look primarily at the use of embodied ethnography within fieldwork and its benefits to my current dissertation research.
Embodied ethnography moves beyond the traditional role of the researcher as an active participant-observer. Ribeiro (2017) states that “embodied ethnography involves the use of the body as an actual research tool, that is, one’s own body becomes the/one of the medium(s) through which experiences are lived, catalogued, and analyzed” (p.142). This is useful in not only thinking through my positionality within my research but also how a collaborator’s physical participation within the context can also serve as a source of data. As my research looks at Latinx Punk culture, it is important to recognize that culture rests not only in people’s minds as a concept but exists in a perspective in which culture is “the embodied and enacted result of continually coming to terms with the world in which one lives” (Turner, 200, p. 53). Culture in this regard is not entirely an abstraction but is something that is lived. Embodied ethnography as a methodology provides insights into answering the question: “how are Latinx Punks developing and sustaining counter-hegemony through performativity?”. As the body is the site where culture is experience and produced, it is essential to recognize as it a site of knowledge, or data, production.
The body, as Monaghan (2006) states, “is intensely personal and private, yet it is also intertwined with the very fabric, structure, and organization of society” (p. 226). Understanding this within fieldwork allows me better to understand learning and resistance as a lived experience. As Punk is performative, an embodied ethnography will enable me to better frame what is observable in the field and further examine areas of knowledge production that may be commonly overlooked. Additionally, fieldwork within an embodied context warrants examining my role as a researcher in this process. As with my research collaborators, my body also has an active role in the research process. Monaghan, speaking in the context of working as a nightclub doorman and its potential harm, this article does provide insight into using the body as an active part of the research. As my line of inquiry will look primarily at musicians, part of the fieldwork will be conducted at live performances. As an active participant in the research process, it is important to remember that my lived experience concerning fieldwork is also a crucial part of understanding how and where learning occurs.
References
Monaghan, L. (2006). Fieldwork and the body: reflections on an embodied ethnography. In D. Hobbs, & R. Wright The SAGE Handbook of Fieldwork (pp. 226–241). SAGE Publications Ltd, https://www-doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.4135/9781848608085.n14
Ribeiro, N.F. (2017). Boxing culture and serious leisure among North-American youth: An embodied ethnography. The Qualitative Report, 22(6), 1622–1636. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2017.2715
Turner, A. (2000), Embodied ethnography. Doing culture. Social Anthropology, 8: 51–60. https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2000.tb00207.x
