The politics of identity and methodology in African development ethnography

article

2014

Qualitative Research

14

1

131

146

Since the reflexive turn in sociology and social anthropology, ‘identity negotiation’ and the ‘insider/outsider’ dilemma have been central topics of ethnographic literature. Much of the writings have exposed how the sociocultural biography and the identity of Western researchers interact, contradict and collaborate with the constructed ‘self’ of the participants of research. However, African development researchers have largely focused on describing the substantive component, with only scant analysis of the research process. In this article, illustration of the author’s experiences in the process of undertaking fieldwork on Amhara Credit and Savings Institution, a microfinance institution located in Ethiopia, and its clients, demonstrates that African development ethnographers’ interaction with participants of research is affected by their methodological preference and by their political and cultural identity. The article exemplifies that African development ethnographers are partially inhibited in research process and interpretation by boundaries imposed by their own research orientation and by their political and cultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468794112468469#

10.1177/1468794112468469

14687941

final article published

Africa
outsider
negotiation
methodological orientation
insider
identity
ethnography
development

Sage Publications Inc.

Peer reviewed

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©2014. Qualitative Research. Sage Publications Inc.