Interactionist research : extending methods, extending fields

Whitaker, EM; Atkinson, P

Abstract

Symbolic interactionist research has long been associated with qualitative methods, and with ethnographic fieldwork in particular. This chapter outlines the basic principles that underpin such affinity, while acknowledging that there is no one-to-one correspondence between interactionism and any one research strategy. It is suggested that too much qualitative research and methodology has lost its fundamental sociological commitments. The relevance of interactionism therefore needs to be reasserted, It then goes on top discuss some of the ways in which ethnographic fieldwork has been ‘extended’. Those extensions include: extending ‘fields’ beyond face-to-face encounters, to incorporate virtual environments; extending the ethnographer’s gaze, by means of digital cameras and camcorders; extending the senses, through the development of sensory ethnography; extending the ethnographer through critical self-reflection; extending analysis and representation through multiple forms of non-traditional styles of writing and representation.

• Publication Date: May 27, 2021
• Deposit Date: Feb 2, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 27, 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 425-434
• Series Title: Routledge International Handbooks
• Book Title: The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism
• ISBN: 9780367227708-(hardback);-9780429276767-(ebook)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276767-43
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276767-43
• Related Public URLs: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-International-Handbook-of-Interactionism/Lehn-Ruiz-Junco-Gibson/p/book/9780367227708; https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276767
• Additional Information: Access Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism on 27th May 2021, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9780367227708